Sr. Director of Engineering - API

Babel Street is the trusted technology partner for the world’s most advanced identity intelligence and risk operations. We deliver advanced AI and data analytics solutions providing unmatched, analysis-ready data regardless of language, proactive risk identification, 360-degree insights, high-speed automation, and seamless integration into existing systems. Babel Street empower s government and commercial organizations to transform high-stakes identity and risk operations into a strategic advantage. The actionable insights we deliver safeguard lives and protect critical assets around the world. Babel Street is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with regional offices in Boston, MA and Cleveland, OH, and international offices in Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, and the U.K. For more information, visit www. babelstreet.com .Role Summary We are seeking aPrincipal Engineer to lead Babel Street’s API and MCP platform strategy and deliveryas we evolve toward anAI-native, agent-driven platform. This is ahands-on, senior technical leadership roleresponsible for defining and deliveringAPI-first platform capabilitiesthat enable both developers and AI agents to interact with Babel Street’s services. You will lead the design and implementation ofsemantic APIs, Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations, and context-aware service patternsthat power next-generation intelligence workflows. This role requires afinger-on-keyboard engineerwho can both define direction and deliver foundational systems. You will partner closely with AI, Data, and Platform teams to ensure Babel Street’s APIs and services areconsistent, discoverable, scalable, and optimized for agentic workflows. You will work in close partnership with the Architecture function to align on long-term technical direction, ensuring API and MCP platform decisions are consistent with the company’s broader architectural vision whilemaintaininga strong focus on execution and delivery. This is a hybrid role working out of either our Reston, VA or Somerville, MA office. Full remote may be considered. Why This Role Matters This role will be instrumentalto Babel Street’s AI-native technology strategy. The API and MCP platform will serve as the interface layer between data, AI, and product capabilities, enabling agents, developers, and systems to interact seamlessly. This is a high-impact, senior technical leadership role with broad influence across the organization and the opportunity to shape the future of Babel Street’s platform. The position spans four core domains: You will define and lead Babel Street’sAPI-first platform strategy, establishingconsistent patterns for service design, versioning, discoverability, and governance. You will help evolve the platform towardagent-ready APIs, ensuring services are consumable by both human developers and AI agents. You willestablishstandards for API consistency, reliability, and performance across the organization. You will also work closely with product and engineering teams to ensure APIs are designed asfirst-class platform capabilities, not just service interfaces. MCP & Agent Integration You will lead Babel Street’sModel Context Protocol (MCP)strategy and implementation, enabling agents and AI systems to interact with services in a standardized and scalable way. This includes defining patterns for: Tool and service discovery Agent-to-service communication Context-aware interactionsYou will partner closely with AI and platform teams to enableagent-native workflowsacross the organization. Semantic APIs & Agent-Ready Interfaces You will lead the design ofsemantic, agent-friendly APIs, where documentation becomes a first-class interface for AI-driven systems. This includes defining standards for: API descriptionsoptimizedfor agents Schema consistency and semantic modeling Tool and service discoverability API documentation optimized for agent consumption You willestablishbest practices fordocumentation-as-code, ensuring APIs are designed for both developers and AI systems. Context Management & Runtime Patterns You will define patterns forcontext-aware APIs and services, including: Context management and retrieval Context caching Session and state management Memory-aware service interactionsYou will help design scalable context-aware systemsleveragingtechnologies such asVertex AI Context Cachingand related frameworks.