This is a full-time API developer role you can work from home, based anywhere, with an annual salary of $115,000. The team sits within a broader software development group and owns the interfaces that enable internal applications and external partners to exchange data.
The category here is software development in the traditional sense, but the specific slice of it is narrower than a general backend job. Instead of owning a whole application end-to-end, this position owns the connective layer between systems — the part that other engineers, and sometimes other companies, actually touch when they integrate with the product. That narrower focus tends to suit people who like getting one interface exactly right rather than juggling five different parts of a codebase at once.
Day-to-day, the work centers on designing new endpoints, writing the code behind them, and keeping the documentation current enough that another engineer can integrate without pinging you first. A fair amount of the job is also about protecting that data exchange: making sure requests are properly authenticated, payloads are validated before they reach a database, and nothing sensitive slips through an endpoint that wasn't carefully scoped. When a partner team's integration breaks at nine on a Friday night, this is the person who gets the message, and being reachable in those moments is part of what the salary is paying for.
What you'll be doing
- Design, build, and maintain REST and GraphQL APIs consumed by internal teams and external clients
- Write and update API documentation so other engineers and partner teams can integrate without guesswork
- Build in authentication, access control, and other security measures at the endpoint level
- Work directly with front-end engineers and partner integration teams as systems connect
- Track down and resolve data exchange issues when something between two systems stops behaving
What you'll need
A bachelor's degree in computer science, or a closely related field, is the baseline for this role. Beyond that, at least 24 months of hands-on experience building APIs that other systems and outside clients actually rely on is required — this isn't a first job. Most people who land in a fully remote seat like this one spent a couple of years first building and documenting APIs inside a regular backend role before the flexibility came along.
- Experience with REST and GraphQL API design
- Proficiency in at least one backend language, such as Node.js, Python, or Java
- A solid grasp of database design and schema management
- Working knowledge of API security practices, including authentication and authorization standards
- Comfort with documentation tooling such as Swagger, OpenAPI, or Postman
None of the following are dealbreakers, but they do shorten the ramp-up: exposure to an API gateway like Kong or Apigee, some history with CI/CD pipelines, or prior work on a cloud platform such as AWS or Azure. Someone who's already had to explain an API design decision to a non-technical partner will also have an easier first few weeks here than someone who hasn't.
Anyone plotting how to become a remote API developer tends to focus on the coding and skip the writing. In practice, a good chunk of this job is written communication: pull request descriptions, changelog notes, a migration guide for a breaking change that has to make sense to someone in a different time zone who can't just walk over and ask a question. The engineering itself follows fairly standard patterns once the core language and database skills are solid.
Compensation and benefits
The position pays $115,000 a year and comes with a fairly standard package for a full-time role. Health insurance, paid time off, and 401(k) matching are included, and the remote-work flexibility is baked into the job itself since it's open to candidates anywhere. Some employers hiring for this kind of position also offer tuition reimbursement or a learning stipend for people who want to keep building technical depth on company time.
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- 401(k) matching
- Full remote flexibility, with the option to work from home anywhere
How the team works
Weeks vary quite a bit in a job like this. Some are steady, predictable feature work on new endpoints. Others get eaten up by a partner integration's edge case that nobody wrote down anywhere, and the fix takes longer than it should. Recruiters at Naukri Mitra hear that unevenness described often by API developers, and it's fairly normal for the work generally, not a sign that anything here runs unusually chaotically.
Because the role touches systems that other teams and outside clients depend on, communication matters as much as the code itself. An API that works but isn't well documented creates almost as much friction as one that's broken. Most of the collaboration happens asynchronously, through pull requests, written design notes, and the occasional video call when a decision genuinely needs live back-and-forth rather than a comment thread.
Career growth from here tends to run in one of two directions. Some developers move deeper into platform or infrastructure work, eventually owning the API gateway or the company's broader integration strategy. Others move toward technical leadership on a specific product line, using the API knowledge as a foundation for decisions about what the whole system should look like. Neither path is guaranteed, and how quickly either opens up generally depends on the company's size and growth rate.
Applying
Candidates should apply with an updated resume and, where possible, a couple of examples of APIs they've built or documented. A GitHub link, a Postman collection, or a short write-up all work fine. Given the salary band and the two-year experience bar, expect the process to include a technical conversation about actual API design decisions rather than generic interview trivia.
Anyone comparing what a remote API developer job like this one pays to other backend roles will find that the $115,000 figure is already on the high end for a fully remote, individual-contributor position, so there isn't much extra negotiating room built into the range. What tends to move during a conversation is start date and, occasionally, a small adjustment for someone coming in with unusually deep GraphQL federation experience. This listing is open to applicants worldwide, and there's no fixed closing date, so timing an application around a deadline isn't a factor here.
