Staff Engineer, API Design & Governance

At eBay, we're more than a global ecommerce leader — we’re changing the way the world shops and sells. Our platform empowers millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the world. We’re committed to pushing boundaries and leaving our mark as we reinvent the future of ecommerce for enthusiasts. Our customers are our compass, authenticity thrives, bold ideas are welcome, and everyone can bring their unique selves to work — every day. We're in this together, sustaining the future of our customers, our company, and our planet. Join a team of passionate thinkers, innovators, and dreamers — and help us connect people and build communities to create economic opportunity for all.

About The Team

eBay’s Developer Ecosystem team offers resources that help developers create solutions to make buying and selling on eBay faster and easier. The team builds and manages eBay’s Public APIs and eBay’s world‑class Developer Portal, which helps onboard new developers, gets them started with eBay APIs, and answers their questions about our products. APIs are first‑class products at eBay. APIs allow our developer community to create powerful experiences and manage their eBay business at scale. Our goal is a large ecosystem of developer applications that contribute to our buyers and sellers.

About The Role

We are seeking a highly experienced Software Design Engineer to design and build scalable, high‑performance systems & APIs that power seamless end‑to‑end customer experiences. This is an individual contributor role for a hands‑on technical leader who drives architecture, solves complex distributed systems challenges, and partners multi‑functionally to deliver customer‑first solutions at scale. A key focus of this role is designing clear, scalable, and well‑governed APIs and service contracts that enable consistent, high‑quality integration across systems. You will influence system design, internal API standards (REST, GraphQL), and long‑term technical strategy while remaining deeply engaged in implementation.

What You’ll Do

• Design and implement scalable, resilient fullstack systems supporting core platform capabilities
• Architect high‑traffic, distributed systems across multiple domains
• Lead the design of robust, intuitive, and evolvable APIs and service contracts
• Define and enforce standards for API design, documentation, versioning, observability and governance
• Drive clarity and consistency in technical specifications, ensuring they are precise, consumable, and scalable
• Write high‑quality, maintainable, and performant code
• Lead complex technical initiatives end‑to‑end, from design through production rollout
• Apply SOLID principles and advanced design patterns to ensure clean, extensible architectures
• Design multi‑threaded and highly concurrent systems with strong performance guarantees
• Contribute to enterprise architecture decisions and cross‑domain technical alignment
• Collaborate with Product, UX, Data, and Business teams to translate requirements into scalable technical solutions

What You Will Bring

• 10+ years of experience in the software industry
• Deep expertise in at least one of: Java, Python, or Kotlin
• Strong knowledge of software design principles (SOLID) and design patterns
• Deep expertise in GraphQL schema composition and evolution, including building user‑focused APIs, optimizing query performance, and maintaining backward compatibility at scale.
• Proven ability to design and operate GraphQL APIs in large‑scale systems, with strong understanding of API architecture (alongside REST/RPC), versioning strategies, and efficient data fetching patterns.
• Expert‑level understanding of:
  • Multi‑threading and concurrency
  • Distributed systems design
  • Enterprise‑scale architecture
• Demonstrated ability to create clear, consistent, and well‑documented service contracts and technical specifications
• Experience driving API design standards, consistency, and governance across teams
• Experience with agentic coding assistants like claude code, cursor or github copilot
• Proven experience building and scaling high‑traffic, transaction‑heavy systems
• Strong understanding of system performance, availability, and observability

Nice To Have

• Experience with Federated GraphQL architectures (e.g., Apollo Federation or similar)
• Experience designing and scaling modern frontend systems using TypeScript/JavaScript with frameworks such as React (or similar)
• Experience with microservices and cloud‑native architectures
• Background in large‑scale platforms or multi‑tenant architectures
• Experience with search systems, recommendation engines, pricing systems, or payment flows
• Experience driving technical strategy across multiple team

Technical Leadership Expectations

• Acts as a system‑level problem solver — designs for scale, resilience, and long‑term maintainability
• Champions high‑quality API design and treats APIs as long‑lived products
• Drives clarity, precision, and standardization in system design and specifications
• Makes sound architectural trade‑offs balancing performance, cost, and development velocity
• Customer‑obsessed outlook — understands how technical decisions impact performance, reliability, and user experience
• Drives technical clarity in ambiguous, high‑complexity problem spaces
• Sets the standard for engineering quality and operational excellence

Additional Details

This job posting relates to an existing vacancy within eBay.

eBay is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability, or other legally protected status. If you have a need that requires accommodation, please contact us at talent@ebay.com. We will make every effort to respond to your request for accommodation as soon as possible. View our accessibility statement to learn more about eBay's commitment to ensuring digital accessibility.

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