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Photon

Tech Lead (Node.js and API) | Texas

Photon, Dallas, Texas, United States, 75215

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Job Description

Key Responsibilities: Lead Node.js API Development:

Design, implement, and optimize scalable RESTful APIs using

Node.js

and

Express.js

(or similar frameworks). Architect API systems for maximum scalability, resilience, and performance. Ensure that APIs are modular, reusable, and easy to maintain. Integrate with third-party services, databases, and other internal systems.

Resilience Engineering:

Apply principles of

resilience engineering

to design APIs that gracefully handle failures and continue to perform under stress. Implement

retry logic, circuit breakers , and

rate-limiting

to ensure the APIs can withstand transient failures. Use techniques such as

load balancing, failover mechanisms , and

distributed architectures

to improve fault tolerance.

Monitoring & Observability:

Set up and maintain real-time

monitoring and alerting

using tools like

Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, Datadog, or New Relic . Ensure comprehensive

logging, tracing , and

metrics

collection (e.g., through

OpenTelemetry ,

Jaeger , or

Zipkin ) to provide visibility into system health. Proactively identify bottlenecks or performance issues and implement optimizations. Collaborate with the DevOps team to ensure system health and visibility across all environments.

API Security:

Implement security best practices for API development (e.g.,

OAuth2 ,

JWT tokens ,

rate limiting ,

IP whitelisting , and

API gateways ). Regularly perform code reviews and audits to ensure security vulnerabilities are mitigated.

Team Leadership & Collaboration:

Lead and mentor a team of Node.js developers, providing technical guidance, code reviews, and career development. Drive adoption of best practices in API development, monitoring, and resilience across the team. Collaborate with cross-functional teams including front-end developers, DevOps, and QA to deliver high-quality software. Participate in sprint planning, backlog grooming, and retrospectives to ensure the team is aligned and focused on the right goals.

Continuous Improvement:

Evaluate and recommend new technologies, tools, and frameworks that can improve development efficiency, monitoring capabilities, or resilience. Foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement within the development team. Ensure the team adopts DevOps practices and that software is fully automated for CI/CD pipelines.

Skills & Qualifications: Essential:

5+ years of experience in

Node.js

development, with at least 2+ years of experience in a leadership role. Strong expertise in designing and building

RESTful APIs

using Node.js. Experience in building

highly available, fault-tolerant systems

that can handle production-level traffic. Proficiency in

monitoring and observability

tools (e.g.,

Prometheus ,

Grafana ,

ELK stack ,

Datadog ,

New Relic ). Experience with

resilience patterns

such as

circuit breakers ,

retry logic , and

rate limiting . Deep understanding of

API security

best practices (OAuth2, JWT, API Gateways, etc.). Experience with

cloud platforms

(AWS, GCP, Azure) and

serverless architectures . Familiarity with

CI/CD

pipelines and tools (Jenkins, GitLab, CircleCI, etc.). Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to troubleshoot complex distributed systems. Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams.

Desirable:

Experience with

containerization

and

orchestration

tools like

Docker

and

Kubernetes . Familiarity with

microservices architecture

and

event-driven systems . Experience working with

NoSQL

and

relational databases

(MongoDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.). Knowledge of

automated testing

and frameworks for Node.js (Mocha, Chai, Jest). Familiarity with

Infrastructure as Code

(e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation). Knowledge of

distributed tracing

and

service meshes

(e.g.,

Istio ,

Linkerd ).

Compensation, Benefits and Duration

Minimum Compensation: USD 46,000 Maximum Compensation: USD 161,000 Compensation is based on actual experience and qualifications of the candidate. The above is a reasonable and a good faith estimate for the role. Medical, vision, and dental benefits, 401k retirement plan, variable pay/incentives, paid time off, and paid holidays are available for full time employees. This position is available for independent contractors No applications will be considered if received more than 120 days after the date of this post.