Principal API Architect AI & Microservices-10094

Extreme Networks is seeking a Principal API Architect for AI & Microservices to innovate new networking experiences using generative AI, IoT, big data, cloud computing, and microservices. This role involves establishing and enforcing industry-best practices for API architecture and lifecycle management, ensuring frictionless consumption by AI/agentic systems. The architect will shape the Core AI foundation by designing secure, resilient, observable, and agent-friendly APIs that serve as the backbone for AI capabilities across Extreme’s platform, partnering closely with AI engineers on a greenfield project.

Must Have

• Define and govern API standards across REST/gRPC and event-driven interfaces
• Design APIs for Core AI integration layer with machine-readable contracts and agent/tool specifications
• Integrate Model Context Protocol (MCP) principles into API design for AI agents
• Optimize APIs for agentic workflows including streaming, pagination, and rate-limit headers
• Champion Operational Excellence (OE) and Engineering Excellence (EE) for API lifecycle
• Advance resiliency patterns like idempotency, retries, circuit breakers, and dynamic throttling
• Mentor engineers and set governance for API reviews, linting rules, and style guides
• Collaborate across product & platform teams to align API roadmaps with business outcomes
• BS in Computer Science or related field
• 8+ years designing and building large-scale microservices and APIs
• 3+ years driving API standards or architecture across multiple teams
• Deep expertise with REST/gRPC and OpenAPI 3.1 / JSON Schema / AsyncAPI
• Hands-on experience implementing MCP-compliant APIs for AI orchestration
• Strong grasp of security for AI-integrated systems and agent-driven workflows
• Experience with dynamic throttling, adaptive rate limiting, and quota enforcement
• Experience with resilience patterns critical for AI orchestration
• Cloud-native delivery on AWS/Azure/GCP with Kubernetes, CI/CD, and zero-downtime deployments
• Solid programming skills in Golang, Java or Python

Good to Have

• MS or PhD in Computer Science or equivalent experience
• Deep expertise in architecting distributed microservices and systems
• Knowledge of agentic platforms, RAG pipelines, vector stores, and data contracts for AI-driven workflows
• Experience with API gateways and service meshes for policy enforcement and traffic shaping
• Background in contract testing, fuzzing, chaos engineering, and performance benchmarking
• Networking domain exposure and real-time systems optimized for AI inference loops
• Awareness of data privacy/compliance for AI workloads and multi-tenant isolation strategies
• Experience partnering with product and program management teams
• Strong understanding and passion for ML and generative AI

Are you energized by the idea of innovating with generative AI? Do you aspire to create a global impact while

tackling challenges at the forefront of ML and microservices? Do you want to be part of the team working on

groundbreaking products that define the future of AI-driven network management? Then come, advance with us.

This is an incredible opportunity to innovate new networking experiences while working at the cutting edge of

generative AI, IoT, big data, cloud computing and microservices. We are specifically seeking an expert in API design

for microservices, someone who can establish and enforce industry-best practices for API architecture and lifecycle

management (e.g., forward/backward compatibility, schema evolution, versioning, idempotency, and dynamic

throttling) and make those APIs frictionless for consumption by AI/agentic systems. In this role, you will play a

pivotal part in shaping the Core AI foundation by architecting APIs that serve as the backbone for agentic and

generative AI capabilities across Extreme’s platform. You will partner closely with AI engineers to ensure APIs are

consistently modeled (OpenAPI/JSON Schema/AsyncAPI), secure, resilient, observable, and agent -friendly (clear

contracts, tool/function specs, streaming support, and robust error taxonomies).

This is a greenfield project in which you will help define every aspect of user and product experience and drive

significant portions of the technical and scientific roadmaps.

There has never been a better time to join Extreme, after several acquisitions extending our portfolio and go -to

market strategy, we have seen enormous opportunity and growth within the regions. Aside from being a

Technology Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant, we also adamantly promote an internal culture that truly

embraces diversity, inclusion, and equality in the workplace. Having Diversity and Inclusion as part of our core

values and beliefs, we’re proud to foster an environment where every Extreme employee can thrive because of

their differences, not despite them. Our motto here at Extreme is ‘Advance with us’, and it applies to everyone we

work with – inside and outside the company.

Job Responsibilities:

▪ Define and govern API standards across REST/gRPC and event-driven interfaces, emphasizing

forward/backward compatibility, additive change safety, and clear deprecation policies.

▪ Design APIs that form the Core AI integration layer, delivering high-quality, machine-readable contracts,

consistent resource models, typed error codes, and agent/tool specifications suitable for function calling and

automation.

▪ Integrate Model Context Protocol (MCP) principles into API design to ensure seamless interoperability with

AI agents and orchestration frameworks. This includes defining tool schemas, context negotiation, and safe

execution boundaries for agent-driven workflows.

▪ Partner with AI/ML teams to optimize APIs for agentic workflows: streaming, pagination tokens, consistent

envelopes, explicit contracts for tool use, and predictable rate-limit headers for planner/runtime alignment.

▪ Champion Operational Excellence (OE) and Engineering Excellence (EE) for API lifecycle: design reviews,

contract/consumer-driven testing, schema evolution, semantic versioning, release notes, and automated

documentation/SDK generation.

▪ Advance resiliency patterns: idempotency, retries with jitter, circuit breakers, dynamic throttling for bursty

AI Workloads, timeouts, request hedging, long-running job orchestration, and zero-downtime deployments.

▪ Mentor engineers and set governance: reviews, linting rules, style guides, compliance, golden paths, and

reference implementations that promote repeatable excellence.

▪ Collaborate across product & platform teams to align API roadmaps with business outcomes, ensuring

compatibility across Extreme’s portfolio and partner ecosystems.

Basic Qualifications:

▪ BS in Computer Science or related field.

▪ 8+ years designing and building large-scale microservices and APIs; 3+ years driving API standards

or architecture across multiple teams.

▪ Deep expertise with REST/gRPC and OpenAPI 3.1 / JSON Schema / AsyncAPI, with proven ability to

design APIs that are forward/backward compatible and optimized for machine consumption.

▪ Hands-on experience implementing MCP-compliant APIs for AI orchestration, including tool schema

definition, context negotiation, and secure execution boundaries.

▪ Strong grasp of security for AI-integrated systems: fine-grained scopes, and safe execution

boundaries for agent-driven workflows.

▪ Hands-on experience with dynamic throttling, adaptive rate limiting, and quota enforcement to

support AI-driven bursty workloads and multi-agent orchestration.

▪ Experience with resilience patterns critical for AI orchestration: idempotency keys, retries with jitter,

circuit breakers, timeouts, and bulkheads for high-concurrency environments.

▪ Cloud-native delivery on AWS/Azure/GCP with container orchestration (Kubernetes), CI/CD

pipelines, and zero-downtime deployment strategies (blue/green, canary).

▪ Solid programming skills in Golang, Java or Python with ability to generate SDKs and developer

tooling for AI-friendly APIs.

▪ Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration, capable of leading design reviews and

documenting standards that enable AI/agentic integration at scale.

Preferred Qualifications:

▪ MS or PhD in Computer Science or equivalent experience.

▪ Deep expertise in architecting distributed microservices and systems, either building them from the

ground up or significantly enhancing existing architectures to boost availability and performance.

▪ Knowledge of agentic platforms, RAG pipelines, vector stores, and data contracts for AI -driven workflows.

▪ Experience with API gateways and service meshes for policy enforcement and traffic shaping in AI -heavy

environments.

▪ Background in contract testing, fuzzing, chaos engineering, and performance benchmarking under AIscale

loads.

▪ Networking domain exposure and real-time systems optimized for AI inference loops.

▪ Awareness of data privacy/compliance for AI workloads (PII handling, retention, auditability) and multitenant

isolation strategies.

▪ Experience partnering with product and program management teams.

▪ Strong understanding and passion for ML and generative AI.

Come work with a team of highly talented engineers, and advance with us to achieve new heights every day!