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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # GraphQL API Software Developer - **Company:** After School Matters, Inc. - **Location:** United States - **Experience:** Expert - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Software Design Patterns, Ruby on Rails, Management of Software Versions, Technical Debt, Graphql, Api Design, Programming Languages - **Published:** August 20, 2026 - **Apply:** https://atvenu.applytojob.com/apply/6Z3XlcAWa6/Senior-GraphQL-API-Software-Developer?source=GS ## About the Role * Substantial experience as a software developer, with proven depth publishing and maintaining public GraphQL APIs. * Deep API design judgment and a willingness to be a go-to voice on GraphQL patterns and best practices, helping raise the bar across the team. * A strong security and compliance mindset, with awareness of geographic and data-protection considerations; payments or fintech experience is a plus. * Be highly adaptable, with proven ability to learn/use various programming languages; preferably with hands on Ruby on Rails experience. * Proven ability to trouble-shoot complex technical problems and participate in code/architecture reviews. * Excellent team player: able to work across teams, acting as a leader when required and managing conflict independently, with the knack of leaving everyone involved feeling heard and respected. * A genuine interest in the live event space, with curiosity, ownership, and a collaborative mindset. ## Description As a key technical contributor, you'll collaborate closely with product managers and development teams to design, build, and maintain robust APIs ranging from inventory control to payment transaction feeds for our enterprise customers as well as our scrappier startup users. You'll be a hands-on leader skilled in balancing trade-offs, solving complex problems, and driving cross-team solutions. Your expertise will help shape our technical direction while mentoring other developers and championing engineering excellence. Our Tech Stack: * Backend: Ruby, Rails, GraphQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, CouchDB * Frontend: React Native, React, JavaScript * Cloud Platform: AWS * Tools: GitHub, Sidekiq, Docker What you'll do: * Collaborate with Product Managers and cross-functional teams to understand business needs and translate them into pragmatic, performant technical solutions. * Deliver high-value projects with no direct supervision; engaging senior staff members to validate new ideas, test assumptions and provide mentorship. * Design, develop, and maintain scalable and compliant APIs that can support our platform within Canada, the United States, Europe and counting. * Implement and enforce API security best practices, including authentication, authorization, rate limiting, data validation, pagination, and protection against common vulnerabilities (e.g., injection attacks, query-cost DoS, and data leakage). * Design and evolve our public GraphQL schema, including a clear versioning and deprecation strategy. * Establish query cost/complexity analysis and depth limiting to keep the API performant and safe under load. * Improve resolver performance and eliminate N+1 queries through batching (e.g., dataloader) patterns. * Own the API consumer developer experience: documentation, predictable conventions, and clear error contracts. * Architect services and systems using accepted design patterns that allow for iterative, autonomous development and future scaling * Proactively identify technical debt before it turns into a long-term problem while balancing the effort/reward of corrective action; will encourage team to do the same. * Anticipate future use cases and make design decisions that minimize the cost of future changes. * Provide mentorship to more junior developers. ## Related Videos - [The Great API Debate: REST, GraphQL, or gRPC?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1195-the-great-api-debate-rest-graphql-or-grpc) - [API Design - Getting Started](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/33-api-design-getting-started) - [Putting the Graph In GraphQL With The Neo4j GraphQL Library](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/257-putting-the-graph-in-graphql-with-the-neo4j-graphql-library) - [Coffee with Developers: David Heinemeier Hansson](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/875-coffee-with-developers-david-heinemeier-hansson) - [GraphQL + Apollo + Next.js: A Lovely Trio](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/311-graphql-apollo-next-js-a-lovely-trio) - [Rest API Antipatterns](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100208-rest-api-antipatterns) ## Related Articles - [The 7 Most Popular Backend Frameworks for Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/403-the-7-most-popular-backend-frameworks-for-developers) - [Dev Digest 120 - Apple and peers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/455-dev-digest-120-apple-and-peers) - [Dev Digest 121 - AI goes offline](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/456-dev-digest-121-ai-goes-offline) - [The Best X (Twitter) Accounts for Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/294-the-best-x-twitter-accounts-for-developers) - [Why Upskilling And Reskilling is Important For Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/428-why-upskilling-and-reskilling-is-important-for-developers) - [Dev Digest 103 - Superb Owl Trafficking](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/388-dev-digest-103-superb-owl-trafficking)