Job Description: API Designer (Banking Domain)

Location: Philippines (Full Onsite)
Role Type: Full Time
Experience Level: Senior
Department: Enterprise Architecture / Digital Channels / Integration Services

About the Role

We are seeking a highly skilled API Designer to join our enterprise architecture and digital integration team. This role is critical in shaping the bank’s API‑first strategy and enabling seamless connectivity across channels, microservices, legacy systems, and partner ecosystems.

You will work closely with product owners, domain architects, backend engineers, and integration specialists to design enterprise‑grade APIs, domain‑aligned service contracts, and modern integration patterns that follow BIAN, cloud‑native, and financial‑industry standards.

This position is ideal for professionals with strong experience in financial systems, legacy‑to‑modern modernization, domain‑driven API design, and translating business requirements into high‑quality API specifications.

Key Responsibilities

API Design & Governance

• Design clear, reusable, and versioned REST APIs for internal services, channels, and external partners.
• Produce API contracts using OpenAPI/Swagger, including:
• endpoint definitions
• domain models
• sequence diagrams
• integration flows
• Define standards for naming, versioning, pagination, error handling, idempotency, and backward compatibility.
• Ensure all APIs comply with security, governance, and regulatory requirements (e.g., PCI/PII, data masking).

Domain & Requirements Analysis

• Work with business units and product teams to refine requirements and define domain boundaries.
• Map capabilities to BIAN service domains and design modular, domain‑aligned APIs.
• Break business processes into stable domain models and service contracts.
• Produce functional/technical specifications that guide development teams.

Integration & System Analysis

• Design APIs that interface with:
• Core banking systems
• Legacy systems (SOAP/REST/JDBC, mainframe gateways)
• Middleware and API Gateways
• Event-driven architectures (Kafka/SQS/EventBridge)
• Support modernization using patterns such as:
• Anti‑Corruption Layer (ACL)
• Strangler Fig
• Domain decomposition
• Service migration
• Provide guidance on:
• sync vs. async design
• caching strategies
• payload modeling
• error/compensation flows

Documentation & Collaboration

• Create high‑quality technical design docs, API catalogs, and sequence/flow diagrams.
• Collaborate with QA, DevOps, SRE, and development teams to ensure API consistency and readiness.
• Participate in architecture review boards, sprint grooming, and solution design workshops.

Qualifications

Must Have

• 5+ years experience as API Designer, Business Analyst, Systems Analyst, or Integration Analyst in financial systems.
• Strong ability to turn business requirements into technical API specifications.
• Proven experience in:
• REST API design
• JSON schema design
• OpenAPI/Swagger
• System integration & domain modeling
• Experience in banking, fintech, payments, or enterprise-scale financial systems.

Technical Competencies

API & Integration Technologies

• REST API standards, API modeling, OpenAPI 3.x
• API Gateways such as:
• Apigee, Kong, WSO2, Mulesoft, or equivalent
• Message-driven integration using:
• Kafka, MSK, RabbitMQ, SQS, or EventBridge

Legacy Integration

• SOAP/WSDL, XML/XSD, JAX‑WS
• JDBC/database integration with legacy core systems
• Experience designing ACL (Anti‑Corruption Layer) patterns

Architecture & Patterns

• BIAN domains, service landscape mapping
• Microservices architecture (Spring Boot preferred)
• Event-driven patterns:
• CQRS
• Outbox pattern
• Saga Pattern (orchestration/choreography)
• Chained Services & event sourcing

Security & Compliance

• OAuth2, JWT, HMAC signatures, mTLS
• API rate limiting, throttling, quota management
• PCI/PII-safe payload design and data masking

Tooling

• Postman / Insomnia
• SwaggerHub / Stoplight / Redocly
• Confluence, Jira, Lucidchart / Draw.io
• Git/GitLab for design versioning

Soft Skills

• Excellent analytical and communication skills
• Strong documentation habits
• Ability to lead discussions with business, architects, and engineering teams
• Comfortable working in Agile teams with fast-paced delivery cycles

Nice to Have

• Experience in:
• Payments, settlements, lending, core banking
• ODS caching (Redis/DynamoDB)
• Event choreography and distributed systems
• Designing APIs for partner onboarding and external ecosystems
• Certifications:
• BIAN Practitioner
• Business Analysis
• API Design
• Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)