OpenAPI Engineer

📍 Locations: San Francisco (Hybrid), New York (Hybrid), or Remote (US)

We’re hiring an OpenAPI (OAS) Engineer to own and evolve the systems that power our API Explorer and API Designer - two of the most critical surfaces in the ReadMe product. This role sits at the intersection of developer experience, API design, and product engineering. You’ll shape how thousands of companies design, validate, and interact with their APIs. You won’t just be implementing specs…you’ll help define how APIs should feel.

We're a small team of humans (and one owl) working together to do big things — and that’s where you come in. In this role you’ll have a transformational impact on ReadMe across both the trajectory of the business and our thriving culture.

🦉 What we do

ReadMe helps more than 5,000 leading startups and tech companies build beautiful, personalized, and interactive developer hubs. If you’ve ever visited the developer docs for PagerDuty, Samsara, or Nvidia, you’ve used ReadMe!

We love what we do because it’s so much more than just documentation. We’re providing tools for teams to build a better developer experience and make their products and APIs easier to use. We’ve got great support from our investors at Accel who led our Series A, and our interview process reflects the open, caring, and whimsical culture we want to maintain as we scale.

✅ What you’ll do here

This isn’t a feature team where a PM hands you tickets. You’ll help decide what gets built, why it matters, and how it works end-to-end. But you won’t be doing it alone. ReadMe is a highly collaborative environment where people show up for each other. Ownership here means you’re driving, but not driving solo.

You’ll specifically own:

• The API Explorer and API Designer: the tools thousands of companies rely on to design, test, and interact with their APIs through ReadMe.
• The OAS pipeline: how we parse, validate, transform, and render OpenAPI specs across the product.
• The technical vision: where these surfaces go next as the API landscape evolves (new spec versions, AI-assisted workflows, shifting developer expectations).
• The developer experience: you’ll think deeply about what it feels like to use these tools, not just whether they work.
  
  

Day-to-day that means you’ll:

• Ship meaningful improvements early, changes that customers notice, even before the full vision takes shape.
• Define a technical roadmap for the OAS-powered surfaces that the team can get behind and build toward together.
• Make the big architectural calls. Decide what to evolve, what to reimagine, and how to get there.
• Stay ahead of the curve. The API tooling landscape is shifting fast. You’ll keep an eye on where things are heading and make sure ReadMe stays out in front.
  
  

💙 You'll love this job if you...

• Care deeply about developer experience and API usability.
• Have strong opinions on what makes a “good” API - and can back them up.
• Enjoy working on tools that other developers use every day.
• Like turning complex systems into simple, elegant interfaces.
• Are excited about how AI can improve how developers understand and use APIs.
  
  

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️ ⭐️ This role is a great fit if you have...

• Deep familiarity with OpenAPI / Swagger.
• Strong JavaScript/TypeScript experience.
• Experience building or working with API explorers or API clients.
• Understanding of:
• Authentication flows (OAuth, API keys, SSO)
• REST API design patterns
• JSON Schema and validation systems
• Comfort debugging real API requests (headers, payloads, errors).
• Familiarity with frontend systems (React, rendering structured data).
• Experience designing developer-facing tools is a big plus.
  
  

🌱 How you'll grow within one month...

• Learn how ReadMe ingests and renders OpenAPI specs.
• Ship your first improvements to the API Explorer or Designer.
• Pair with engineers across the product and platform teams.
  
  

🪴 Within a few months, you'll...

• Own meaningful parts of the API Explorer or Designer experience.
• Identify gaps in how we handle OpenAPI and propose solutions.
• Become a go-to resource for API-related decisions across the company.
  
  

🌳 Within your first year, you'll...

• Define the direction of API tooling at ReadMe.
• Have shipped major improvements used by thousands of developers daily.
• Help shape how modern APIs are designed and consumed.
  
  

🛣️ What's the hiring process like?

• We can’t wait to read your resume and (hopefully personality-filled) cover letter! Let us know what excites you about full stack engineering, and help us get to know you better!
• If we think we might be a good fit for you, we’ll set up a 30 minute phone chat with our VP Engineering Moses! He’ll tell you more about the role, and get a chance to hear about your experiences.
• Next will be a second 30 minute phone interview with one of our Engineering Managers where we’ll dive a bit more into your background.
• We’ll then do a technical assessment with a couple of ReadMe engineers.
• Finally we’ll invite you to an "onsite" interview conducted over Zoom! These usually take 3.5 to 5 hours including an hour break in between. We are able to be flexible with the schedule and split it up over two days if that works best for you! We start with a 15-minute get-to-know-you with the people you’ll be interviewing with, and then have you talk with people one-on-one later on.
• We’ll let you know how things went within a week! If it still seems like a good fit all around, we’ll extend you an offer! If not, we will update you to let you know so you aren’t left hanging.
  
  

✨ Our Benefits Include…

• Unlimited PTO with a three-week minimum. 🏝️
• Fully covered medical, dental, and vision insurance for you, and 100% for your dependents.
• A One Medical membership. 👨‍⚕️
• A gym or fitness stipend of up to $150 per month. 🏋️‍♀️
• One-to-one donation matching of up to $1,000 per year. 💸
• Twelve weeks of paid parental leave after the birth or adoption of a child. 🐣
• Work from home. 🏠
• Three offsite retreats per year to get together with coworkers and plan for the quarter ahead. ✈️
• Take a look at our handbook for more information on our benefits! 📘
  
  

Not sure if you’d be the right fit? Apply anyway! We’d love to see your application.

At ReadMe, we’re committed to cultivating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We welcome people of all different backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives. We are an equal opportunity employer and a pleasant and supportive place to work. We'd love to have you come join us here! ReadMe is open to hiring folks fully remote in the US, hybrid, or in-person at our New York or San Francisco HQ.