API Engineer

At DistroKid, we help artists share their music with the world. As an API Engineer at DistroKid, you will be instrumental in building and scaling the API infrastructure that powers our integrations, partnerships, and emerging AI capabilities. You will own the design, development, and evolution of APIs that connect millions of musicians to streaming platforms, third-party services, and cutting-edge AI tools. DistroKid is a fully remote company with an employee-first culture and robust benefits.

What You’ll Do

• Own the design and implementation of high-scale backend systems and APIs that power DistroKid’s core platform.
• Architect and evolve distributed systems on AWS to handle high throughput, reliability, and performance.
• Work across backend, infrastructure, and DevOps boundaries from API design to deployment and system operations.
• Design and integrate with enterprise-grade systems and external platforms to support complex, high-scale workflows.
• Guide technical design decisions for complex systems (data models, service boundaries, scaling strategies, failure handling).
• Write production code and remain actively involved in building and improving systems.
• Improve system observability, reliability, and performance at scale.
• Partner closely with product and engineering teams to translate business needs into robust technical solutions.

What We’re Looking For

• 10+ years of experience building and scaling backend systems in production environments.
• Solid, recent hands-on coding experience (this is not a pure design/management role).
• Deep experience with AWS (compute, storage, networking, scaling, etc.).
• Demonstrated experience designing and operating high-scale distributed systems.
• Extensive experience with API design and system architecture in complex environments.
• Experience working across infrastructure and application layers (DevOps, deployment, reliability, etc.).
• Experience with enterprise integration platforms (e.g., AWS API Gateway, Azure API Management, MuleSoft, Apigee, Kong, or similar) or building/operating large-scale integration layers.
• Ability to own systems end-to-end from architecture to implementation to production operation.
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and making critical technical decisions.

What This Role Is NOT

• Not a pure backend feature development role.
• Not a role for engineers who haven’t coded in recent years.
• Not a narrow specialization (e.g., only APIs or only infra).

We are specifically looking for engineers who operate at the intersection of backend systems, architecture, and infrastructure.

Why This Role

• Work on real-world scale problems: high-volume ingestion, global distribution, and complex financial flows.
• Own and shape systems that directly impact millions of creators worldwide.
• High degree of technical ownership and responsibility.
• Opportunity to shape architecture at scale, not just contribute to it.

Nice to Have

• Experience with high-throughput systems, event-driven architectures, or data pipelines.
• Background in platform or infrastructure engineering.
• Experience in high-growth or scaling product environments.

DistroKid helps millions of independent artists get their music into streaming services and keep 100% of their earnings. We move fast, stay curious, and build tools that empower creativity. If you want your work to directly impact how artists share their music with the world, we’d love to hear from you.

DistroKid is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team and we welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences. We value a wide range of perspectives and believe that our differences make us stronger.