Senior Software Engineer

About GitHub

As the global home for all developers, GitHub is the complete AI-powered developer platform to build, scale, and deliver secure software. Over 150+ million developers, including more than 90% of the Fortune 100 companies, use GitHub to collaborate and experiment across 420+ million repositories. With all the collaborative features of GitHub, it has never been easier for individuals and teams to write faster, better code.

Locations

In this role you can work from Remote, United States

Overview

GitHub is changing the way the world builds software and we want you to help lead this effort.

The API team plays a crucial role in GitHub’s ecosystem as 74% of all incoming traffic to GitHub targets our APIs. The API team is responsible for GitHub’s public REST and GraphQL APIs that serve over 8 billion API requests per day, as well as our internal APIs. The team’s objective is to ensure that GitHub continues to provide industry-leading APIs at global scale. The team is also focused on ensuring other engineering teams at GitHub have the tools and processes necessary to build on top of our platform with as little friction as possible.

As a Senior Software Engineer working on our API Platforms, you will work closely with a distributed, diverse, and passionate team of engineers and product managers to improve and maintain our API Platform that millions of developers depend on in their software development cycle.

Our teams are highly distributed and you will thrive in an environment of remote work and asynchronous communication. You're expected to have strong written communication skills and be able to develop working relationships with coworkers in locations around the globe. As an engineer at GitHub you'll always be challenged to solve interesting and novel problems that have real impact on how the world builds software.

Responsibilities

• Implement and maintain scalable, reliable and performant solutions for complex problems like rate-limiting, etc. 

• Design, develop, and support shared tooling, scaffolding, and abstractions to standardize and accelerate API development across engineering teams

• Maintain and improve the REST & GraphQL API Platforms

• Write, review, and maintain code primarily in Go and Ruby on Rails

• Build, and maintain client SDKs (e.g., JavaScript, .NET, etc.) to simplify API integration and support developer communities

• Mentor, guide, and share knowledge with engineers, fostering a collaborative and inclusive engineering culture

• Set and advocate for high standards in design, error handling, and operational excellence

Qualifications

Required Qualifications: 

• 6+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python 

  • OR Associate’s Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python 

  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 4+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python 

  • OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 2+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python. 

  • OR Doctorate in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field. 

  • OR equivalent experience.

• 4+ years experience building and operating high-scale web applications

• 2+ years experience designing and building REST or GraphQL APIs

• 2+ years experience working with distributed systems and scalable architectures

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience building and operating planetary-scale API platforms (REST and GraphQL), with deep knowledge of monitoring, performance optimization, and error analytics

• Skilled at developing common API tooling, abstractions, and scaffolding to accelerate service development and enforce consistency

• Hands-on expertise with GraphQL Federation and schema composition approaches

• Proficiency with API specifications and standards (e.g., OpenAPI, GraphQL SDL)

• Experience developing and supporting SDKs for APIs, including community engagement and feedback loops

• Strong infrastructure knowledge, including cloud computing, Kubernetes, and containerization

Compensation Range

The base salary range for this job is USD $112,800.00 - USD $299,300.00 /Yr.

These pay ranges are intended to cover roles based across the United States. An individual's base pay depends on various factors including geographical location and review of experience, knowledge, skills, abilities of the applicant. At GitHub certain roles are eligible for benefits and additional rewards, including annual bonus and stock. These rewards are allocated based on individual impact in role. In addition, certain roles also have the opportunity to earn sales incentives based on revenue or utilization, depending on the terms of the plan and the employee's role.

GitHub values

• Customer-obsessed
• Ship to learn
• Growth mindset
• Own the outcome
• Better together
• Diverse and inclusive

Manager fundamentals

• Model
• Coach
• Care

Leadership principles

• Create clarity
• Generate energy
• Deliver success

Who We Are

GitHub is the world’s leading AI-powered developer platform with 150 million developers and counting. We’re also home to the biggest open-source community on earth (and 99% of the world’s software has open-source code in its DNA). Many of the apps and programs you use every day are built on GitHub.
Our teams are dreamers, doers, and pioneers, leading the way in AI, driving humanitarian efforts around the globe, and even sending open source to Mars (and beyond!). At GitHub, our goal is to create the space you need to do your best work. We’re remote-first and offer competitive pay, generous learning and growth opportunities, and excellent benefits to support you, wherever you are—because we know that people flourish when they can work on their own terms.
Join us, and let’s change the world, together.

EEO Statement

GitHub is made up of people from a wide variety of backgrounds and lifestyles. We embrace diversity and invite applications from people of all walks of life. We don't discriminate against employees or applicants based on gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, age, national origin, citizenship, disability, pregnancy status, veteran status, or any other differences. Also, if you have a disability, please let us know if there's any way we can make the interview process better for you; we're happy to accommodate!