API Engineering Manager

Job Title: API Engineering Manager
Department: Software Engineering
Job Level: L6
FLSA: Exempt

Job Summary:

The API Engineering Manager leads the team responsible for building and maintaining our internal and customer-facing APIs, integration layers, and backend systems that power our robotics platform. You will manage engineer bandwidth, coordinate cross-team work, and ensure the API layer is reliable, scalable, and well-designed. This role requires strong people leadership combined with deep experience in API architecture and backend systems.

People & Execution

• Own team capacity and prioritization across all incoming projects and requests.
• Work with Directors and TPMs to plan quarterly/yearly API roadmaps and commitments.
• Provide clear decisions on scope tradeoffs, sequencing, and resourcing.
• Establish and maintain predictable execution and clean escalation paths.
• Lead hiring, performance evaluations, career growth, and mentoring.
  

Technical Oversight

• Drive the design and evolution of the company’s API and backend services.
• Partner with TLs on API interface standards, versioning, compatibility, and documentation.
• Review major architectural decisions and ensure long-term maintainability.
• Promote best practices in testing, observability, reliability, and operational readiness.
  

Cross-Functional

• Work closely with robotics, product, cloud/backend, and application teams to shape API requirements.
• Coordinate cross-team dependencies and identify integration risks early.
• Communicate API constraints, sequencing, and technical tradeoffs clearly to product and leadership.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• None

Required Skills/Abilities/Qualifications: 

• 8+ years of professional experience in software engineering, with a record of delivering complex projects.
• 5+ years building backend systems or service APIs.
• 2+ years leading engineering teams or projects.
• Strong experience with API design, distributed systems, scalability, data integrity, and reliability.
• Proficiency in Go and Python.
• Ideally past work in building cloud APIs for dispersed, customer-deployed hardware
• Strong communication and ability to drive clarity in cross-team technical interfaces.

Preferred Skills/Abilities/Qualifications: 

• Experience in robotics, real-time systems, computer vision, or AI/ML.
• Familiarity with startup environments and the ability to thrive in rapid iteration cycles.
• Knowledge of ROS, robotics middleware, or simulation tools is a plus.

Education/Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree or Master’s Degree in computer science, software engineering, electrical engineering, or robotics engineering.
• Equivalent experience in lieu of formal education may be considered.

Physical Requirements: 

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Prolonged periods of sitting/standing at a desk and working on a computer. The employee routinely is required to sit; stand, walk; talk and hear; use hands to keyboard
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
• Ability to lift 30 lbs. 

Bear Robotics, Inc. is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state or federal law or local ordinance.

The pay range for this position is $210K - $262K + discretionary annual performance bonus. Pay is dependent on the applicant's relevant experience.