API Engineer

Job Title: API Engineer

Employment type: Contract

Contract length: 6 months

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT

As an API Engineer you will designs, builds, and maintains secure, scalable APIs that power global payment solutions across web and mobile platforms. The role focuses on developing high performance services that enable seamless integration with partners, merchants, and financial institutions, supporting real-time transaction processing and digital payment experiences.

You will work closely with product managers, architects, and the engineering teams to define API specifications, ensure reliability and security, and optimise performance for high volume systems. The role also involves implementing best practices in RESTful design, authentication, and data protection, while ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements. Strong technical expertise, attention to detail, and the ability to solve complex integration challenges are key to success in this role.

Core Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• Design and build scalable, well-documented RESTful APIs that support high-volume, real-time payment processing and partner integrations.
• Ensure APIs are highly available, low-latency, and resilient under heavy transaction loads, with proper monitoring and tuning in place.
• Work closely with internal teams and external partners to enable seamless system integrations, troubleshoot issues, and support onboarding.
• Own the end-to-end quality through automated testing, logging, and observability, and continuously improve APIs based on performance metrics and user feedback.

Knowledge and Experience:

• Strong experience building RESTful APIs, understanding request/response models, versioning, and documentation (for e.g., OpenAPI/Swagger).
• Proficiency in languages like Java, Python, or Node.js, with a solid grasp of distributed systems, microservices, and cloud platforms.
• Experience with automated testing, logging, monitoring, and debugging tools to ensure reliability in production.
• Clear communication with technical and nontechnical stakeholders, including partners and cross-functional teams.
• Stay adept with evolving technologies, standards, and regulatory requirement.

Mandatory Skills:

• Bachelor's degree in Technology, or a related field (Master's preferred).
• Previous experience within Banking, Digital Payment & Card solutions or the FinTech industry.
• Regional experience across Kenya, including working in a faced-paced matrix organisation.
• Excellent communication skills in English (written, verbal, and presentation).

Preferred Skills:

• Good understanding of payment systems, digital platforms, system workflows, security basics, and industry technologies.
• An understanding of regional regulations across financial services or payment networks.