Open API Architect (Integration Solution Eng)

Job Title: Open API Architect (Integration Solution Eng)

Location: Hartford, CT (Hybrid – 1 day onsite per week)

Job Type: Contract

Role Summary:

We are seeking an experienced ISE - Integration Solution Eng with 10+ years of IT experience and strong expertise in enterprise integration, API architecture, microservices, API security, and API management.

The candidate must combine solution architecture leadership with recent hands-on engineering experience.

Required Skills:

10+ years of IT/software engineering experience with strong integration solution design and architecture expertise.

Hands-on REST API and microservices design/development using Java/Spring Boot, Node.js, or comparable technologies.

API full lifecycle management, governance, API Manager/API Gateway, and production support.

OAuth 2.0, SSO, OIDC, JWT, JWKS, OpenAPI/Swagger, YAML, JSON, REST, and HTTP/HTTPS.

UML-based integration artifacts, Git, CI/CD, API testing, troubleshooting, observability, and technical leadership.

Key Responsibilities:

Design scalable, secure, resilient, and reusable end-to-end enterprise integration solutions.

Translate business and technical requirements into integration architecture and detailed technical designs.

Select appropriate integration patterns: real-time/synchronous, batch/file-based, asynchronous messaging, and event-driven integration.

Design REST APIs and microservices, including contracts, data models, security, versioning, resiliency, and error handling.

Drive the full API lifecycle: design, development, security, testing, publishing, monitoring, versioning, maintenance, deprecation, and retirement.

Create and review OpenAPI/Swagger specifications using YAML/JSON.

Design secure solutions using SSO, OAuth 2.0, OIDC, JWT, JWKS, scopes/claims, service-to-service authentication, TLS, and mTLS.

Configure and manage APIs in enterprise API Manager/API Gateway platforms, including routing, policies, traffic management, consumer access, and backend connectivity.

Lead solution/design reviews, guide engineering teams, and troubleshoot issues across applications, identity providers, gateways, microservices, messaging platforms, and downstream systems.

Architecture & Integration Artifacts:

Strong UML and integration-modeling knowledge, including solution/context, sequence, component, activity, deployment, data-flow, API interaction, security-flow, and event/messaging diagrams; interface specifications; source-to-target mappings; Architecture Decision Records; and OpenAPI specifications.

Preferred Technologies:

Kong, IBM API Connect, Apigee, Azure API Management; PingFederate, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta; Kafka or equivalent messaging/event platforms; Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift/OCP; Splunk or equivalent observability tools.