Senior Software Engineer - API Solutions

athenahealth • Boston, MA

3d

About The Position

Join us as we work to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all. athenahealth is building next generation platform capabilities that enable developers, partners, and customers to safely extend the athena ecosystem. We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to build and scale API Solutions within the Data and Ecosystem Platform organization, including offerings such as MCP (Model Context Protocol) for AI-driven workflows and agentic experiences. In this role, you will design and operate scalable, resilient API infrastructure that provides secure access to athena’s clinical, administrative, financial, and operational data. You will help ensure these systems meet healthcare-grade standards for privacy, reliability, auditability, and trust. Position Summary We are looking for an experienced Senior Software Engineer with strong expertise in distributed systems, API architecture, and modern backend platforms. The ideal candidate is hands-on, quality-focused, and pragmatic in solving complex technical problems. This role also requires strong proficiency with AI-assisted engineering tools, including sound judgment on when to use AI and when to rely on manual engineering. Experience with spec-driven development is highly valued

Requirements

• 5+ years of software engineering experience in distributed systems and scalable backend services.
• Strong proficiency in Java; experience with TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, or similar languages.
• Experience building APIs/microservices in public cloud environments (AWS preferred).
• Strong understanding of HTTP, REST, API design, and API gateway patterns.
• Knowledge of OAuth 2.0, JWT, API tokens, and authorization models (RBAC/ABAC).
• Experience with CI/CD, Docker, Kubernetes, and production operations.
• Proven ability to use AI development tools to improve engineering productivity.
• Experience with spec-driven development.
• Bachelor’s/master's degree in computer science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with FHIR and healthcare interoperability standards.
• Familiarity with AI/ML platforms, agent frameworks, or MCP-style integrations.
• Experience with observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, and ELK.
• Learns quickly and adapts to evolving technologies and requirements.
• Builds performant, secure, maintainable systems with strong privacy awareness.
• Makes sound technical decisions and drives execution in fast-paced environments.
• Collaborates effectively across diverse teams and stakeholder groups.
• Demonstrates strong analytical and systems-thinking skills around scale, latency, and failure modes.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate scalable API services for athena’s FHIR and proprietary APIs.
• Implement core API capabilities, including schema design, session/state management, and event-driven patterns.
• Build secure access controls, including authentication, authorization, and data minimization.
• Write, test, deploy, and support production code with timely issue resolution.
• Follow Definition of Done standards, including testing, peer review, documentation, and regression prevention.
• Implement observability and operational controls, including logging, metrics, alerting, audit trails, and tracing.
• Improve service reliability, scalability, security, and maintainability.
• Use AI-powered development tools to speed up implementation, debugging, refactoring, and multi-file code generation.
• Apply AI effectively in day-to-day engineering while maintaining code quality, security, and correctness.
• Demonstrate strong judgment on when AI is appropriate and when manual engineering is the better approach.
• Practice spec-driven development by translating requirements into clear technical specs, acceptance criteria, and implementation plans.
• Own features and services from design through production support.
• Participate actively in Agile ceremonies and continuous improvement.
• Perform code reviews and mentor junior engineers.
• Manage cross-team dependencies to support predictable delivery.
• Partner with Product, Architecture, Security, Legal, Compliance, and Engineering teams to align technical execution with business and regulatory needs.
• Communicate technical decisions clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Work with internal product teams to pilot and scale API integrations in real athena workflows.

Benefits

• Along with health and financial benefits, athenistas enjoy perks specific to each location, including commuter support, employee assistance programs, tuition assistance, employee resource groups, and collaborative workspaces — some offices even welcome dogs.
• We also encourage a better work-life balance for athenistas with our flexibility.
• In addition to our traditional benefits and perks, we sponsor events throughout the year, including book clubs, external speakers, and hackathons.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level