Senior Staff Software Engineer | API in London

Meet DeepL. DeepL is a global AI product and research company focused on building secure, intelligent solutions to complex business problems. Over 200,000 business customers and millions of individuals across 228 global markets today trust DeepL's Language AI platform for human-like translation, improved writing and real-time voice translation.

Founded in 2017 by CEO Jaroslaw “Jarek” Kutylowski, DeepL now has around 1,000 passionate employees and is supported by world-renowned investors including Benchmark, IVP, and Index Ventures. Our goal is to become the global leader in trusted, intelligent AI technology, building products that drive better communication, foster connections, and create a meaningful impact. To achieve this, we need talented people like you to join our journey.

What sets us apart is our blend of cutting-edge AI technology, meaningful work, and a culture where people truly thrive. We’re a team of innovators, researchers, and creators driven by a shared purpose to unlock human potential by making work simpler, smarter, and more connected.

The API & Partnership track acts as the gateway to DeepL, enabling the world to integrate our Language and AI capabilities into their own digital ecosystems. We do not just build APIs; we architect the "Golden Path" that allows internal teams to ship faster while ensuring our external interfaces are enterprise-ready. We are the stewards of scale, trust, and integration, empowering millions of users to access DeepL reliably and securely.

Your responsibilities:

• Drive API Strategy & Scale: Architect a hyper-scalable infrastructure designed to support exponential growth in traffic and data volume. You will set the technical vision for our microservices, ensuring our systems remain resilient, secure, and performant as we scale to the next tier of usage.
• Enable the Partner Ecosystem: Lead the technical side of strategic partnerships, building integrations with AWS Marketplace and enterprise SaaS providers. You will own the delivery of "Trust" features—such as granular billing, residency controls, and auditability—that are essential for closing enterprise deals.
• Force-Multiply Engineering Velocity: Establish rigorous platform standards (contracts, versioning, security) that raise the bar for the entire organization. By building self-service tooling and automated quality gates, you will empower product teams to deploy independently without breaking production.

Qualities we look for:

• Distinguished Technical Experience: 10+ years in software engineering with a focus on high-scale distributed systems and API platform architecture. You have "been there, done that" with modern cloud stacks and backend technologies, and you drive engineering cultures centered on automated testing and operational discipline.
• Enterprise Integration Mastery: You understand the nuance of the enterprise landscape. You have deep experience navigating compliance, security, and data residency challenges while building integration patterns that allow third-party ecosystems to thrive on top of your platform.
• Strategic Communication: You can translate complex technical challenges into clear strategic proposals. You are adept at writing RFCs and influencing stakeholders across the business—from product managers to other Staff engineers—driving consensus and execution in ambiguous environments.
• AI-Native Developer: You embrace the potential of AI to transform software development. You actively use and advocate for AI tools to streamline workflows and are eager to guide the organization in adopting AI-assisted engineering practices.

What we offer:

• Diverse and internationally distributed team: joining our team means becoming part of a large, global community with people of more than 90 nationalities.
• Open communication, regular feedback: as a language-focused company, we value the importance of clear, honest communication.
• Hybrid work, flexible hours: we offer a hybrid work schedule, with team members coming into the office twice a week.
• Virtual Shares - An ownership mindset in every role.
• Regular in-person team events: we bond over vibrant events that are as unique as our team.
• Monthly full-day hacking sessions: every month, we have Hack Fridays.
• 30 days of annual leave: we value your peace of mind.
• Competitive benefits: we've crafted it to reflect the diversity of our team.

If this role and our mission resonate with you, but you're hesitant because you don't check all the boxes, don't let that hold you back. At DeepL, it's all about the value you bring and the growth we can foster together.

We are an equal opportunity employer. You are welcome at DeepL for who you are - we appreciate authenticity here.