DeepL is looking to scale its API Platform pillar from a single team of 7+ engineers to a multi-team organization of 30-40+ people over the next 2-3 years to enable access to all DeepL services with world-class performance and reliability, empowering developers globally and supporting enterprise customers with LLM-powered translation and communication.
Requirements
- Deep API-First Experience: You have significant experience building and scaling developer-facing products and platforms, ideally within a high-growth, API-first startup or scale-up.
- Proven Scaling & Multi-Team Leadership: A strong track record (3-4+ years) of managing and scaling multiple engineering teams. You have a clear history of developing other leaders (both managers and senior individual contributors).
- An Entrepreneurial, "Owner" Mindset: You think like a founder. You are "scrappy," thrive in ambiguity, and have a bias for action. You are comfortable navigating a fast-moving, global organization and are obsessed with driving business outcomes.
- Hiring Champion: You are a proven bar-raiser with experience hiring and building teams in a high-growth environment. You know how to attract, develop, and retain top-tier, entrepreneurial talent.
- Developer & Customer Obsession: A deep obsession with the developer experience and customer journey, from API design and documentation to post-launch reliability and iteration.
Responsibilities
- Own & Scale the API Platform: You are accountable for the end-to-end success and technical strategy of the API Platform (Core, DevEx, Infrastructure). You will own the roadmap, define the blueprint for organizational growth, and scale the pillar from a single team to a 30-4L+ person multi-team organization.
- Build High-Performing, Empowered Teams: Your primary mandate is to foster a culture of ownership, speed, and customer-centricity. You will mentor senior engineers, develop new engineering managers, and act as a hiring champion to attract and onboard world-class, entrepreneurial talent in a highly competitive market.
- Drive Business & Product Outcomes: This is not a "back-office" role. You will partner directly with Product, Design, and Go-to-Market teams to drive business impact. You will relentlessly focus on the developer journey, ensuring your teams deliver scalable, reliable, and intuitive APIs that solve real-world customer problems.
- Execute in a High-Growth Environment: You will be a foundational leader in our NYC hub, thriving in ambiguity and navigating a fast-moving, global organization. You will bring a "bolder, stronger, faster" mindset to the team, establishing processes that enable us to scale without sacrificing speed or quality.
- contributing to our backend services and client libraries for enterprise customers
- enable access to all DeepL services with the same performance across all regions.
- Encourage the development of new applications and services using our APIs.
Other
- You will be the foundational leader for the API Platform pillar.
- Your domain will include the teams responsible for our Core API, Developer Experience (DevEx), and API Infrastructure.
- You will take ownership of this critical area, scaling it from its current team of 7+ engineers into a multi-team organization of 30-40+ people over the next 2-3 years.
- Your leadership will be pivotal in enabling access to all DeepL services with world-class performance and reliability, empowering developers globally.
- You will partner directly with Product, Design, and Go-to-Market teams to drive business impact.
