Senior API Engineer (Python / AWS)

The Senior API Engineer (Python / AWS) is a critical member of the Data Modernization & Integration organization. This role is responsible for designing, building, securing, and operating high‑quality, cloud‑native REST APIs that power LPL’s core business platforms and integrations.

This engineer will focus primarily on Python‑based API development on AWS, leveraging services such as API Gateway, Lambda, and related AWS components, with all infrastructure managed through Terraform. The role plays an important part in modernizing legacy integrations and defining engineering standards for reliable, secure, and scalable API services.

The ideal candidate combines deep hands‑on Python API engineering expertise with strong cloud architecture skills, a passion for automation, and the ability to collaborate across platform, data, security, and application teams.

Responsibilities

API Engineering & Application Development

• Design, develop, and maintain Python‑based REST APIs that support business‑critical workflows.

• Build APIs using AWS Lambda and Amazon API Gateway, following API‑first and REST best practices.

• Implement clean, testable, and well‑documented Python code suitable for enterprise production environments.

• Optimize API performance, reliability, scalability, and error handling.

• Ensure proper API versioning, contract stability, and backward compatibility.

Security & Access Management

• Implement secure authentication and authorization mechanisms such as OAuth2, JWT, and IAM‑based access.

• Enforce API security controls including request validation, throttling, rate limiting, and auditing.

• Partner with security teams to ensure APIs meet enterprise security and compliance standards.

Automation & Infrastructure Engineering

• Provision and manage AWS infrastructure using Terraform.

• Create and maintain reusable Terraform modules for: 

  • API Gateway

  • Lambda

  • IAM roles and policies

  • CloudWatch logging and monitoring

• Ensure environment consistency across DEV, QA, UAT, and PROD.

CI/CD & Operational Excellence

• Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines for build, test, and deployment of Python APIs.

• Support automated testing, packaging, versioning, and release management.

• Implement observability through logging, metrics, alerts, and tracing.

• Participate in troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and production support activities.

Cross‑Team Collaboration

• Collaborate closely with application teams, platform engineering, cloud, and security teams.

• Align API design and implementation with enterprise architectural standards.

• Actively contribute to code reviews, design discussions, and technical documentation.

• Promote best practices and a culture of engineering excellence.

Strategic Influence

• Influence API engineering standards, patterns, and best practices across the organization.

• Contribute to architectural reviews and modernization efforts.

• Help drive consistent, scalable, and maintainable cloud‑native API solutions.

Requirements:

• Minimum of 7 years of experience in software engineering, API engineering, or cloud application development.

• Demonstrated hands‑on experience with: 

  • Python for backend and API development

  • REST API design and implementation

  • AWS Lambda and Amazon API Gateway

  • Terraform for Infrastructure as Code

• Experience building and operating APIs in large‑scale, production environments.

• Understanding of authentication, authorization, and secure API design.

• Experience with CI/CD, Git‑based workflows, and automated testing.

Core Competencies:

• Experience to troubleshoot production issues and support on‑call rotations when required.

• Experience designing and delivering clean, consistent, and consumer‑friendly APIs.

• Experience driving automation, reuse, and simplicity in engineering solutions.

• Experience applying systems‑thinking principles to integrate APIs within distributed systems.

• Experience collaborating effectively across engineering, security, platform, and cross‑functional teams.

• Experience taking full ownership for the design, delivery, reliability, and support of production API services.

Preferences:

• Experience with OAuth providers and identity platforms.

• Familiarity with AWS SAM or Serverless Framework (tooling experience).

• Exposure to event‑driven architectures (EventBridge, SNS/SQS).

• Experience operating APIs in regulated or enterprise environments (financial services preferred).

• Knowledge of observability tools such as CloudWatch, Dynatrace, Datadog, OpenTelemetry.

• Experience designing reusable API frameworks or shared libraries.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (Master’s preferred).