Backend Software Engineer (API-focused)

Job description

Backend Software Engineer (API-focused) Katy, Texas (full-time onsite) Compensation: $110,000 - $120,000 annually Reports to: Software Engineering Manager Visa Sponsorship: Not Available Would you like to be a key member of the development team supporting hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the United States? Are you driven to produce high quality software that makes an impact to our society? Off Duty Management is the leading provider of off duty program solutions to law enforcement agencies and first responders across the United States. We provide the best possible service, protection, and administrative support to the sworn officers of our valued partner agencies. We're building OfficerTRAK, a SaaS platform that our customers depend on, and the API layer is the backbone connecting our Angular web front end, native iOS and Android apps, and internal services. We're looking for a mid-level Backend Software Engineer to help design, build, and maintain the FastAPI microservices that power our product. You’ll work across the full lifecycle of a service — from schema and endpoint design, through implementation and testing, to deployment and monitoring in production on AKS. You'll write asynchronous background jobs with Celery, design and optimize PostgreSQL schemas and queries, and build in the authentication, authorization, and security practices our platform depends on. This role suits someone who has shipped production-grade FastAPI services before, cares about test coverage and code quality, and wants real ownership over how our APIs are designed, secured, and scaled. This position is based onsite in our Katy, Texas headquarters. Responsibilities Design and build production-grade FastAPI services — define clean, versioned RESTful API contracts, request/response schemas (Pydantic), and service boundaries within our microservice architecture. Own data modeling and query design — design normalized, performant PostgreSQL schemas, write and optimize SQL queries, and manage migrations (e.g., Alembic) as services evolve. Build reliable asynchronous workflows — design and maintain Celery tasks and queues for background processing, retries, and scheduled jobs. Ship and operate services on our Azure/Kubernetes platform — containerize services, deploy to AKS, and troubleshoot issues in a live production environment. Build in authentication, authorization, and security from the start — implement OAuth2/JWT-based auth, role-based access control, and follow API security best practices (OWASP API Top 10, input validation, secrets management). Write meaningful, layered test coverage — unit, integration, and functional/end-to-end tests (pytest) that give the team confidence to ship quickly. Participate in code reviews and design discussions — give and receive thoughtful feedback and help shape API and data model decisions across the team. Instrument services for observability — add logging, metrics, and tracing so issues can be diagnosed quickly in production. Collaborate cross-functionally — partner with frontend, mobile, and DevOps engineers to define API contracts and keep services aligned with product needs. Contribute to CI/CD pipelines — help maintain automated build, test, and deployment workflows for the services you own. Required Skills and Qualifications 3+ years of professional backend software development experience, including production use of Python. Strong hands-on experience with FastAPI building production APIs. Solid understanding of relational database design, normalization, and SQL query optimization (PostgreSQL preferred). Experience with Celery or a comparable distributed task queue (e.g., RQ, Kafka consumers) for asynchronous processing. 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 regular development workflow. Working knowledge of authentication and authorization standards (OAuth2, JWT, API keys, RBAC). Understanding of API security best practices (OWASP API Top 10, input sanitization, secrets management, rate limiting). Comfort with Git-based collaborative workflows (pull requests, code review, branching strategies). Familiarity with containerization (Docker) and CI/CD pipelines. Clear communication and a collaborative, ownership-driven approach to working with engineers. Preferred Skills and Qualifications Experience with Azure-specific services (Azure Key Vault, Azure Container Registry, Azure Monitor / App Insights). Familiarity with API documentation tooling (OpenAPI/Swagger). Experience with message brokers supporting Celery (Redis, RabbitMQ). Experience with database migration tooling (e.g., Alembic). Exposure to observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry) and distributed tracing. Exposure to Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Helm). Understanding of domain-driven design or broader microservice architecture patterns. Experience scaling APIs for a growing SaaS platform. ***Immigration-related benefits (for example, visa sponsorship) are not available for this position. Off Duty Management is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or disability status. This Organization Participates in E-Verify.