Senior Software Engineer – GraphQL Federation Platform (Apollo Router & Backend Services)

Title: Senior Software Engineer – GraphQL Federation Platform (Apollo Router & Backend Services)

Location: Sunnyvale, CA (Hybrid role)

Position: Contract

JD:

Job Title: Senior Software Engineer — Federated GraphQL Platform (Router & Services)

Role Description:

• About the role we run a federated GraphQL data layer — a middleware tier that composes many back-end services into a single, typed API that powers large-scale, consumer-facing web experiences.
• At the center of that layer is a federation router that plans and executes queries across dozens of subgraphs; around it sits the services (subgraphs) that own and expose each domain of data.
• We’re looking for a senior engineer to own the hardest, highest-leverage parts of that platform: the router strategy (adopt, extend, or build) and the core services our team operates, while helping the broader org build on the graph.
• You’ll work close to the metal on performance and correctness, and close to the roadmap on where the platform goes next.
• What you’ll do own the router strategy — adopt, extend, or build. Evaluate whether the open-source Apollo Router meets our needs for performance, extensibility, and operability, and build the delta features we require on top of it (custom plugins/coprocessors, auth, caching, observability, query governance).
• Where the open-source path falls short, lead the decision to either build a purpose-built router in Rust or adopt and extend an alternative open-source router (e.g. Hive Router / Hive Gateway, Cosmo, or similar).
• Prototype, benchmark, and make the call with data. Define the router’s non-functional bar: latency, throughput, resilience, safe schema composition, and zero-downtime rollout.
• Own and operate core services (subgraphs). Own the subgraphs our team is responsible for — including the Site Config service and related domain services — end to end: schema design, resolvers, performance, reliability, and on-call.
• Keep these services exemplary: clean federated schemas, strong contracts, good tests, and sensible SLOs.
• Enable other service teams. Support partner teams building their own subgraphs — across stacks (Node/TypeScript, Scala, Java/Spring) — review federated schema designs, share patterns and tooling, debug cross-service query issues, and raise the overall quality and consistency of the graph.
• Reduce the cost of joining the graph: paved paths, templates, docs, and guardrails. Advance the platform roadmap.

Help shape and deliver the multi-quarter roadmap for the data layer — turning architectural direction into shipped, measurable improvements. Bring a point of view on where federation tooling is heading and how we should invest.