Backend Software Engineer (API-focused)

Onsite in Katy, Texas, Off Duty Management is seeking a mid-level Backend Software Engineer focused on API development to power the OfficerTRAK platform. The role offers a competitive annual salary of USD 110,000 to 120,000 and the chance to work with a modern FastAPI microservices stack in a production environment.

You will collaborate with cross-functional teams and contribute to a cloud-native architecture hosted on Azure Kubernetes Service, delivering secure, well-documented APIs and robust data models.

Responsibilities

• Design and build production-grade FastAPI services, establishing clear, versioned REST API contracts and Pydantic-based request and response schemas within a microservice landscape.
• Own data modeling and query design, crafting normalized PostgreSQL schemas, optimizing SQL queries, and managing migrations with Alembic as services evolve.
• Develop reliable asynchronous workflows by implementing and maintaining Celery tasks and queues for background processing, retries, and scheduled jobs.
• Package and deploy services on the Azure Kubernetes Service, containerize components, and troubleshoot live production issues.
• Implement authentication and authorization from the start using OAuth2 and JWT, apply role-based access control, and follow API security best practices including input validation and secrets management.
• Write meaningful test coverage across unit, integration, and end-to-end levels using pytest to enable rapid, reliable shipping.
• Participate in code reviews and design discussions to influence API design and data model decisions across the team.
• Instrument services for observability by adding logging, metrics, and tracing to support quick diagnosis in production.
• Collaborate with frontend, mobile, and DevOps engineers to define API contracts and keep services aligned with product needs.
• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines by helping maintain automated build, test, and deployment workflows for your services.

Requirements

• Minimum of three years of professional backend development experience, including production use of Python.
• Strong hands-on experience building production APIs with FastAPI.
• Solid understanding of relational database design, normalization, and SQL optimization, with PostgreSQL preferred.
• Experience with Celery or a comparable distributed task queue for asynchronous processing (e.g., Redis, RabbitMQ).
• Experience deploying and operating services in Kubernetes, ideally on Azure AKS.
• Practical experience writing unit, integration, and functional tests (pytest or similar) as part of the development workflow.
• Working knowledge of authentication and authorization standards such as OAuth2, JWT, API keys, and RBAC.
• Understanding of API security best practices (OWASP API Top 10, input sanitization, secrets management, rate limiting).
• Comfort with Git-based collaboration, including pull requests, code reviews, and branching strategies.
• Familiarity with Docker containerization and CI/CD pipelines.
• Clear communication and a collaborative, ownership-driven approach to working with engineers.

Technologies

• Python
• FastAPI
• PostgreSQL
• Pydantic
• Alembic
• Celery
• Redis
• RabbitMQ
• Kafka
• Kubernetes
• AKS
• Azure
• Pytest
• OAuth2
• JWT
• API keys
• RBAC
• OpenAPI/Swagger
• Docker
• OpenTelemetry
• Prometheus
• Grafana
• Terraform
• Helm
• Azure Key Vault
• Azure Container Registry
• Azure Monitor / App Insights

Preferred skills and qualifications

• Experience with Azure-specific services such as Azure Key Vault, Azure Container Registry, and Azure Monitor / App Insights.
• Familiarity with API documentation tooling like OpenAPI/Swagger.
• Experience with message brokers suitable for Celery including Redis or RabbitMQ.
• Experience with database migrations tooling such as Alembic.
• Exposure to observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry) and distributed tracing.
• Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code tooling such as Terraform or Helm.
• Understanding of domain-driven design or broader microservice architecture patterns.
• Experience scaling APIs for a growing SaaS platform.