We are currently looking for an Lead API Engineer for a 100% remote position on a large federal government project supporting the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Lighthouse Program. This role focuses on leading API platform engineering across multiple teams, with an emphasis on Kong API Gateway, API governance, and cloud-native delivery. The selected candidate will drive API standards, security, and scalable platform operations in a highly collaborative environment.
The candidate must reside within the continental US.
Responsibilities:
- Lead Kong API Gateway engineering, including administration of routes, services, consumers, certificates, and policies.
- Design and maintain custom Kong plugins and advanced policy configurations for API transformations and enforcement.
- Define API standards and manage OpenAPI (OAS) contracts, including versioning, validation, and governance.
- Implement secure authentication and authorization mechanisms, including JWT validation, token management, and key rotation.
- Build and operate cloud-native infrastructure using Kubernetes and AWS, including deployments, networking, and secure configurations.
- Establish DevOps practices including CI/CD pipelines, GitOps workflows, and automated configuration validation and promotion.
- Develop and maintain observability solutions, including logging, monitoring, SLIs/SLOs, and API usage analytics.
- Troubleshoot system, container, and network issues while supporting operational readiness through documentation and runbooks.
- Take on additional tasks and responsibilities as needed to support team objectives and ensure the success of the project.
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
- 8+ years of experience in API engineering, platform engineering, or related roles.
- Hands-on experience with Kong Gateway administration in production environments.
- Strong API design experience using OpenAPI (OAS), including governance and contract testing.
- Experience with Kubernetes for deploying and managing containerized applications.
- Proficiency in DevOps practices including CI/CD pipelines, GitOps, and automation.
- Experience implementing API security, including authentication, authorization, JWT handling, and key management.
- Strong communication skills with experience leading or mentoring technical teams.
Additional Qualifications:
- Experience with AWS cloud services for infrastructure, networking, and application hosting.
- Experience scaling API gateway platforms in multi-team or multi-tenant environments.
- Familiarity with GitOps tools such as Argo CD or Flux.
- Knowledge of service mesh and gateway technologies such as Envoy, NGINX, or Istio.
- Experience with observability tools such as Datadog, Splunk, Prometheus, or Grafana.
- Understanding of security best practices including TLS/mTLS, OWASP API security, and secrets management.
- Experience supporting VA or other federal government environments.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a government clearance.
Benefits:
- Medical/Dental/Vision.
- 401k with Employer Match.
- PTO + Federal Holidays.
- Corporate Laptop.
- Training Opportunities.
- Remote Opportunity.
Note: Selected candidates will be required to complete fingerprinting at a government facility and undergo a background check as part of the hiring process.
Equal Opportunity Disclaimer:
VetsEZ is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status.
Sorry, we are unable to offer sponsorship at this time.