Lead Platform Engineer
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Austin TX
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Lead
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- 1+ years
- Category
- Devops
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Bachelor’s degree in a related discipline and 6 years’ experience in a related field. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master’s degree and 4 years’ experience; a
- Experience building distributed systems and APIs at scale.
- Proficiency in TypeScript, Java, or Python (Apollo Server / Strawberry or similar frameworks preferred).
- Hands-on experience with cloud-native infrastructure (AWS, ECS/Kubernetes, DNS routing, CI/CD pipelines).
- Strong understanding of API design principles and governance.
- Applicants must currently be authorized to work in the United States for any employer without current or future sponsorship.
- No OPT, CPT, STEM/OPT or visa sponsorship now or in future.Availability for rotational on-call duties outside of standard business hours may be required.
Nice to have
- Experience with GraphQL and Apollo Federation
- Familiarity with API gateway / routing layers (e.g., Kong, routers, load balancing)
- Experience with observability, telemetry, and data pipelines (S3, Snowflake)
- Exposure to multi-region architecture and high-availability systems
- Experience working on platform teams or shared infrastructure
Full description
Company
Cox Automotive - USA
Job Family Group
Engineering / Product Development
Job Profile
Lead Software Engineer
Management Level
Manager - Non People Leader
Flexible Work Option
Hybrid - Ability to work remotely part of the week
Travel %
No
Work Shift
Day
Compensation
Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $134,900.00 - $224,900.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.
Job Description
Cox Automotive is seeking a Lead Platform Engineerto join our team. We are building a next-generation federated GraphQL platform (DriveQ supergraph) that unifies multiple enterprise data domains and powers internal and external products. This role will focus on scaling Apollo Federation infrastructure, enabling multi-tenant routing, and supporting emerging capabilities like contracts, billing, and data analytics. This role provides essential technical ownership of a rapidly evolving ecosystem that includes Snowflake-based transformations, self-service workflows, and emerging containerized execution models.
Beyond individual contribution, the Lead Software Engineer serves as the central point of design leadership, guiding complex design decisions, enforcing engineering standards, and ensuring consistency across solutions. With the current team composition, where existing engineers are strong but not yet operating at a lead level, the absence of this role would create a significant gap in direction, mentorship, and decision-making. This would likely result in fragmented ownership, slower delivery, and increased operational risk.
The role is also pivotal in enabling next-generation capabilities such as AI-driven data quality, lineage, and impact analysis, areas that require cohesive design and cross-team coordination. At the same time, data science and analytics teams are rapidly advancing their own tooling and workflows, increasing the need for strong data engineering leadership to ensure scalability, reliability, and alignment with enterprise standards.
What You'll Do:
- Design and develop federated GraphQL (Apollo) architecture, including schema design, subgraph integration, and supergraph evolution.
- Build and scale Apollo router infrastructure, supporting multi-region deployments, routing, and failover.