Principal Backend & API Architect IRC282625

Description

About the Role:

We are looking for a highly experienced and strategic Principal Backend & API Architect to lead the design and evolution of our core platform and customer-facing APIs. You will be instrumental in defining the technical vision for our microservices, ensuring they are scalable, secure, and, crucially, fully observable. This role demands end-to-end architectural ownership, from API contract design (OpenAPI) following best practices, to the full setup and configuration of high-availability API Gateways and associated Observability stacks.

Requirements

Required Technical Qualifications:

10+ years of progressive experience in software engineering and architecture, with at least 5+ years in a Principal/Lead Architect role.
Deep, demonstrable expertise in API Design best practices, including idempotency patterns, proper use of HTTP status codes, pagination, and error standardization (e.g., RFC 7807).
Mandatory hands-on experience designing and managing API Gateways (configuration, policy engine, performance tuning) in a production cloud environment.
Extensive experience defining and implementing full-stack Observability solutions utilizing Distributed Tracing (OpenTelemetry), centralized logging, and metrics-based alerting.
Expertise with the OpenAPI Specification (OAS/Swagger) and tooling for contract validation and documentation generation.
Strong background in developing robust backend systems, preferably with Java/Kotlin and the Spring ecosystem.
Expertise in defining Cloud-Native architectures (AWS, Azure, or GCP).

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience configuring Service Mesh technologies (e.g., Istio) and integrating them with the API Gateway and Observability stack.
Experience with chaos engineering principles and tools (e.g., Gremlin, Chaos Monkey).
Certification in a major Cloud platform (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional).
Education:

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Job responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

1. Advanced API Design & Governance

Define and enforce robust API Governance standards, design guides, and maturity models for all internal and external APIs (REST, GraphQL, Event-Driven).
Drive a Contract-First approach utilizing OpenAPI Specification (OAS/Swagger), ensuring APIs adhere to best practices for discoverability, idempotency, predictability, and consistent data structures.
Lead technical discussions to resolve complex data modeling and service integration challenges, ensuring API designs are optimized for both client consumption and backend performance.
Establish clear standards for API versioning, deprecation policies, and ensuring strict backward compatibility across major versions.

2. API Gateway & Central Security Design

Design, implement, and maintain the architecture of our API Gateway solution (e.g., Kong, Apigee, AWS API Gateway) as the central control and policy enforcement point.
Architect and configure core gateway policies, including advanced rate limiting, traffic shaping, caching, and customized request/response transformations.
Define and own the API security framework, leveraging the Gateway for centralized JWT/OAuth 2.0 validation, token introspection, and input validation against the OAS contract.
Lead the architecture for implementing modern security patterns, including mTLS and Zero Trust between the Gateway and internal microservices.

3. Observability and Monitoring Strategy

Define the platform-wide Observability strategy, ensuring comprehensive coverage using the three pillars: Logs, Metrics, and Traces.
Design and implement a unified Distributed Tracing solution (e.g., OpenTelemetry, Jaeger) that seamlessly spans the API Gateway, Service Mesh, and all backend microservices, enabling rapid root cause analysis.
Establish standardized logging formats and metadata (contextual logging) across all services, ensuring logs are aggregated, searchable, and integrated with the tracing pipeline.
Architect and implement a robust metrics collection system (e.g., Prometheus/Grafana) to define service-level indicators (SLIs) and establish critical Service Level Objectives (SLOs) for API latency, error rates, and availability.

4. Backend System Architecture & Technology Leadership

Design highly available, distributed, and fault-tolerant microservices architectures using best-in-class technologies (Java/Kotlin, Spring Boot, etc.).
Lead the adoption of Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) patterns using technologies like Kafka or cloud-native message buses.
Ensure systems are designed for operational efficiency, leveraging Docker and Kubernetes for container orchestration and scaling.

What we offer

Culture of caring. At GlobalLogic, we prioritize a culture of caring. Across every region and department, at every level, we consistently put people first. From day one, you’ll experience an inclusive culture of acceptance and belonging, where you’ll have the chance to build meaningful connections with collaborative teammates, supportive managers, and compassionate leaders. 

Learning and development. We are committed to your continuous learning and development. You’ll learn and grow daily in an environment with many opportunities to try new things, sharpen your skills, and advance your career at GlobalLogic. With our Career Navigator tool as just one example, GlobalLogic offers a rich array of programs, training curricula, and hands-on opportunities to grow personally and professionally.

Interesting & meaningful work. GlobalLogic is known for engineering impact for and with clients around the world. As part of our team, you’ll have the chance to work on projects that matter. Each is a unique opportunity to engage your curiosity and creative problem-solving skills as you help clients reimagine what’s possible and bring new solutions to market. In the process, you’ll have the privilege of working on some of the most cutting-edge and impactful solutions shaping the world today.

Balance and flexibility. We believe in the importance of balance and flexibility. With many functional career areas, roles, and work arrangements, you can explore ways of achieving the perfect balance between your work and life. Your life extends beyond the office, and we always do our best to help you integrate and balance the best of work and life, having fun along the way!

High-trust organization. We are a high-trust organization where integrity is key. By joining GlobalLogic, you’re placing your trust in a safe, reliable, and ethical global company. Integrity and trust are a cornerstone of our value proposition to our employees and clients. You will find truthfulness, candor, and integrity in everything we do.

About GlobalLogic

GlobalLogic, a Hitachi Group Company, is a trusted digital engineering partner to the world’s largest and most forward-thinking companies. Since 2000, we’ve been at the forefront of the digital revolution – helping create some of the most innovative and widely used digital products and experiences. Today we continue to collaborate with clients in transforming businesses and redefining industries through intelligent products, platforms, and services.