Graph QL Engineer

Technical criteria - MUST HAVE

• Strong TypeScript and Node.js (server-side)

  • Builds backend services in TypeScript, not just front-end work

  • Comfortable in a large, strictly typed codebase

• API design and contract management

  • Has designed and versioned APIs used by multiple applications

  • Understands backwards compatibility and how to change an API without breaking existing consumers

• OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect authentication

  • Can explain and implement different authentication flows

  • Understands token scoping, delegation and secure token handling

• AWS experience in a restricted enterprise environment

  • Productive with limited access and permissions

  • Familiar with load balancers, secrets management, caching and container services

  • Can diagnose issues without full administrative access by working with platform teams

• Observability/Monitoring and Debugging across distributed systems

  • Can trace a failing request through multiple layers - gateway, API layer, downstream services

  • Uses logs, traces and correlation IDs systematically rather than by trial and error

• Testing discipline

  • Writes unit and end-to-end tests as part of delivering work

  • Experience with modern testing tools (e.g. Vitest/Jest, Playwright or similar)

• Modern CI/CD and version control practices

  • Works comfortably with git, automated pipelines, feature flags, release candidates and rollback

  • Experience in a shared monorepo environment is an advantage

• Security and compliance awareness in regulated systems

  • Default habits of least-privilege access and never exposing customer data or credentials in logs

  • Thinks about authorisation on every request

Technical criteria - NICE TO HAVE

• GraphQL experience - schema design, performance, error handling

• Apollo Federation (version 2)

• Apollo GraphOS or Rover tooling - schema validation and monitoring

• Prometheus and Grafana for monitoring

• API gateway experience - Kong specifically

• MCP (Model Context Protocol) - building or running an MCP server

• Retail banking domain knowledge - accounts, customers, transactions, payments

• Effective use of AI coding assistants (e.g. Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) in a large codebase

Non-technical criteria

• Excellent communication

  • Provides updates proactively rather than waiting to be asked

  • Raises blockers early, with context and a suggested way forward

  • Sydney-based (Nice to have)

• Self-motivated with strong ownership

  • Takes a loosely defined problem and comes back with a plan

  • Does not wait for a fully specified ticket before starting

  • Sees work through to completion, including the less interesting final detail

• Product and business-analysis thinking

  • Asks why something is needed before deciding how to build it

  • Spots missing requirements, edge cases and customer impact

• Genuinely switched on

  • Absorbs new context quickly and connects information across different systems

  • Works things out from first principles where documentation is missing or out of date

• Collaborative team member

  • Reviews colleagues' work properly, pairs when it helps, shares what they learn

  • Can disagree on technical matters without creating friction

• Reliable delivery at sprint cadence

  • Breaks work into realistic pieces and give estimates they can stand behind

  • Flags slippage as soon as it becomes likely, not at the end of the sprint

• Pragmatic judgement on quality versus speed

  • Knows when to ship incrementally and when to stop and fix the underlying problem