Senior Software Engineer

You will be embedded within the development squad, providing hands-on technical leadership and ensuring the solution is robust, scalable, and well-aligned with both business needs and broader technical standards. You will lead our GraphQL API strategy and delivery—owning schema design, performance, governance, and (where appropriate) federation for our enterprise graph on GCP.

Ford Credit Europe is building several new Digital Services products on our Google Cloud Platform. Your primary focus will be the new application suite providing critical enterprise data services for Vehicle & Residual Value Data, and Marketing Program setup, serving our Digital Experiences. This suite of applications is key to the future success of our EU modernisation program, and your technical leadership will be instrumental in its success. A key outcome is a robust, well-governed GraphQL API layer powering our Digital Experiences, with clear contracts, observability, and performance at scale.

Role & Responsibilities:

• Lead the technical design and architecture within the dedicated squad for the Vehicle Configuration Service, Residual Data, and Marketing Program applications.
• Own the end-to-end GraphQL architecture for these services, including schema (SDL) design, query/mutation/subscription definitions, resolver design, and schema evolution.
• Establish schema governance and versioning strategies (naming conventions, deprecation policies, schema registry) and drive consumer-aligned API contracts with European stakeholders.
• Drive GraphQL performance, reliability, and security: DataLoader-based batching, caching strategies, avoiding N+1, persisted queries, query cost/depth/complexity limits, and robust observability/tracing.
• Collaborate closely with the Product Lead, Business Analysts, Architects, and European Stakeholders to understand requirements and translate them into robust, scalable, and efficient application-level technical solutions on GCP.
• Develop and maintain key application architecture documentation, including component designs, sequence diagrams, API specifications (GraphQL SDL and, where used, REST/OpenAPI), and technical design documents, ensuring clarity and alignment with best practices.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership and guidance to the development team (senior and junior engineers), mentoring them on best practices (including schema-first development, contract testing, and non-breaking evolution), performing code reviews for critical components, and overseeing the implementation of architectural designs.
• Perform technical feasibility studies, evaluate technology choices, frameworks, and patterns specifically for the application, ensuring they meet functional and non-functional requirements.
• Actively participate in hands-on development for proofs-of-concept, complex features, or critical troubleshooting to drive progress and resolve technical challenges.
• Champion technical excellence, code quality, and sound engineering practices within the team.

Required Skills and Selection Criteria:

• Minimum of 8+ years’ experience in technical engineering roles, with significant, demonstrable experience in designing, developing, and architecting complex, cloud-native applications.
• Deep understanding of cloud-first strategies and design principles, specifically with hands-on experience building applications on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or one of the other major cloud platforms.
• 3+ years of hands-on, production experience designing and delivering GraphQL APIs at scale (schema-first/SDL), including resolver design, schema evolution, and consumer alignment.
• Practical experience with GraphQL in Java ecosystems (e.g., Spring for GraphQL, graphql-java, or Netflix DGS). Experience with federation patterns (e.g., Apollo Federation) is highly desirable.
• Strong application architecture knowledge designing solutions with API Gateways (e.g., Apigee) and GraphQL-first APIs (with complementary REST where appropriate). Solid experience designing RESTful APIs and understanding when REST vs GraphQL is the right fit.
• Deep familiarity with GraphQL performance and security: DataLoader, caching and persisted queries, query cost/depth/complexity limits, and field-level authorization with OAuth2/JWT.
• Experience operating GraphQL on GCP (Cloud Run/Functions, Apigee GraphQL proxy or Apollo Gateway), with CI/CD integration and production-grade observability/tracing.
• Proven hands-on expertise working with applications using Java frameworks (especially Spring Boot/Spring MVC/Spring Batch).
• Strong application architecture knowledge designing with GCP serverless technologies (e.g., Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, App Engine).
• Exceptional technical leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills. Proven ability to clearly articulate complex technical ideas to both technical and non-technical audiences (developers, product owners, business stakeholders, management). Strong problem-solving skills.

Nice to Have

• Google Professional Cloud Architect certification
• Master’s degree in computer science / engineering, Data science or related field
• Experience in Banking, Finance, or Automotive Finance domains.
• Commercial development experience using front-end frameworks like React or Angular (for understanding full-stack implications) and consuming GraphQL APIs from these clients.
• Ability to work on multiple related components within the application suite in a fast-paced & dynamic environment.
• Experience with No-SQL and BigQuery databases is a plus.
• Experience with GraphQL schema registry and contract tooling (e.g., Apollo Studio, GraphQL Inspector) and integrating contract checks into CI/CD.
• Familiarity with frontend GraphQL clients (Apollo Client, Relay) and pagination patterns (e.g., Relay-style connections) to optimize consumer experience.