At DistroKid , we help artists share their music with the world.
Location: Remote (United Kingdom, Europe. Canada and USA: EASTERN TIME ZONES ONLY ) Sponsorship: Not available. We cannot support visas, work permits, or extensions in any country (including OPT/CPT or similar programs). Salary: Senior to Staff level; Varies by region — see details below
As an API Engineer at DistroKid , you will be instrumental in building and scaling the API infrastructure that powers our integrations, partnerships, and emerging AI capabilities. You will own the design, development, and evolution of APIs that connect millions of musicians to streaming platforms, third-party services, and cutting-edge AI tools.
DistroKid is a fully remote company with an employee-first culture and excellent benefits.
What You’ll Do
- Own the design and implementation of high-scale backend systems and APIs that power DistroKid ’s core platform
- Architect and evolve distributed systems on AWS to handle high throughput, reliability, and performance
- Work across backend, infrastructure, and DevOps boundaries from API design to deployment and system operations
- Design and integrate with enterprise-grade systems and external platforms to support complex, high-scale workflows
- Lead technical design decisions for complex systems (data models, service boundaries, scaling strategies, failure handling)
- Write production code and remain deeply hands-on in building and improving systems
- Improve system observability, reliability, and performance at scale
- Partner closely with product and engineering teams to translate business needs into robust technical solutions
What We’re Looking For
- 10+ years of experience building and scaling backend systems in production environments
- Strong, recent hands-on coding experience (this is not a pure design/management role)
- Deep experience with AWS (compute, storage, networking, scaling, etc.)
- Proven track record designing and operating high-scale distributed systems
- Strong experience with API design and system architecture in complex environments
- Experience working across infrastructure and application layers (DevOps, deployment, reliability, etc.)
- Experience with enterprise integration platforms (e.g., AWS API Gateway, Azure API Management, MuleSoft, Apigee, Kong, or similar) or building/operating large-scale integration layers
- Ability to own systems end-to-end from architecture to implementation to production operation
- Comfortable navigating ambiguity and making high-impact technical decisions
What This Role Is NOT
- Not a pure backend feature development role
- Not a role for engineers who haven’t coded in recent years
- Not a narrow specialization (e.g., only APIs or only infra)
We are specifi