--- title: 'Sr. Director of Engineering - API at Hatch IT' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/sr-director-of-engineering-api-hatch-it-reston-va-or-somerville-yhrqw1c81e5a' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-29' --- # Sr. Director of Engineering - API at Hatch IT - **Company:** Hatch IT - **Location:** Reston VA OR Somerville, MA - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-10-26 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-29 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/hatchit/8729f7ee-366d-4fe6-9305-301fbd149200 ## Job description hatch I.T. is partnering with Babel Street to find a Sr. Director of Engineering. Please see details below: ## About the Role Babel Street is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead Babel Street’s API and MCP platform strategy and delivery as we evolve toward an AI-native, agent-driven platform. This is a hands-on, senior technical leadership role responsible for defining and delivering API-first platform capabilities that enable both developers and AI agents to interact with Babel Street’s services. You will lead the design and implementation of semantic APIs, Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations, and context-aware service patterns that power next-generation intelligence workflows. This role requires a finger-on-keyboard engineer who 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 are consistent, 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 while maintaining a strong focus on execution and delivery. This is a hybrid role working out of either their Reston, VA or Somerville, MA office. Full remote may be considered. ## About the Company Babel Street is the trusted technology partner for the world’s most advanced identity intelligence and risk operations. They 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 empowers 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. Why This Role Matters: This role will be instrumental to 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: API Platform & Strategy You will define and lead Babel Street’s API-first platform strategy, establishing consistent patterns for service design, versioning, discoverability, and governance. You will help evolve the platform toward agent-ready APIs, ensuring services are consumable by both human developers and AI agents. You will establish standards for API consistency, reliability, and performance across the organization. You will also work closely with product and engineering teams to ensure APIs are designed as first-class platform capabilities, not just service interfaces. MCP & Agent Integration You will lead Babel Street’s Model 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: - MCP service exposure - Tool and service discovery - Agent-to-service communication - Context-aware interactions You will partner closely with AI and platform teams to enable agent-native workflows across the organization. Semantic APIs & Agent-Ready Interfaces You will lead the design of semantic, agent-friendly APIs, where documentation becomes a first-class interface for AI-driven systems. This includes defining standards for: - API descriptions optimized for agents - Schema consistency and semantic modeling - Tool and service discoverability - API documentation optimized for agent consumption You will establish best practices for documentation-as-code, ensuring APIs are designed for both developers and AI systems. Context Management & Runtime Patterns You will define patterns for context-aware APIs and services, including: - Context management and retrieval - Context caching - Session and state management - Memory-aware service interactions You will help design scalable context-aware systems leveraging technologies such as Vertex AI Context Caching and related frameworks. Key Responsibilities: - Partner closely with Architecture to define and lead Babel Street’s API and MCP platform strategy - Design and deliver semantic, agent-ready APIs - Establish MCP standards and implementation patterns - Define context management patterns for agent workflows - Partner with AI and Data teams to enable agent-native architectures - Establish API governance and platform standards - Build foundational frameworks and reusable components - Provide hands-on technical leadership and mentorship - Partner with Google and other vendors on platform capabilities - Drive adoption of API and MCP standards across engineering teams Required Qualifications: - 10+ years of software engineering experience - Experience operating at Principal Engineer or Staff+ level - Strong hands-on experience building distributed systems - Experience designing and building API-first platforms - Experience with cloud-native architectures (GCP preferred) - Experience building developer platforms or service-oriented architectures - Strong system design and architectural thinking skills - Proven ability to lead cross-team technical initiatives Preferred Qualifications: - Hands-on work with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) - Familiarity with Vertex AI Agent Engine - Background in ADK and reasoning frameworks such as LangChain - Understanding of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) - Exposure to data warehouse technologies like BigQuery and Snowflake - Knowledge of Apigee or similar API gateway solutions - Proven ability to design semantic APIs for AI or agent-driven use cases - Experience managing context or building memory systems - Development of agent-based architectures or orchestration frameworks - Exposure to Anti-Gravity What Success Looks Like: 30 Days - Assess current API and platform architecture - Define API and MCP platform strategy - Identify early opportunities for standardization 60 Days - Deliver initial platform frameworks and standards - Begin rollout of semantic API patterns - Establish MCP integration approach 90 Days - Agent-ready APIs in production - MCP-enabled services deployed - Clear platform standards adopted across teams - Measurable improvement in API consistency and developer velocity Benefits at Babel Street (just to name a few...) Health Benefits: Babel Street covers 85-100% monthly premium costs for Medical, Dental, Vision, Life & Disability insurances – for you and your family! Retirement Plans: Babel Street offers both a Traditional and Roth 401(K) with a very competitive match. Unlimited Flexible Leave: We trust our employees to manage their own time and balance their personal and work lives. Holidays: Babel Street provides employees with 12 paid Federal Holidays Tuition Reimbursement: We are committed to investing in our employees. One way we do that is with our Tuition Reimbursement Program for continuing education. ## About Hatch IT ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Hatch I.T. is a specialized tech recruiting partner that connects mission-driven startups with engineering, data, and product talent through flexible hiring models. - **Entity Type**: Private (Bootstrapped) - **Headquarters**: Tysons, Virginia, United States - **Founded**: 2012 - **Founders**: Tim Winkler (Founder & CEO) ## Core Business - Primary industry: Staffing and Recruiting, with a focus on technology roles for startups in defense, healthcare, AI, cybersecurity, and space. - Target customers: B2B – early-stage and high-growth startups, especially those with a national security, healthcare, or dual-use mission. - Mission or purpose statement: "Where talent meets mission" – connecting companies with skilled talent who are deeply aligned with the company’s mission and values. ## Products & Services - **RPO / Embedded Recruiting**: Dedicated recruiters embedded in the client’s culture, managing full-cycle hiring from sourcing to onboarding. - **Contingency Hiring**: Pay-only-when-you-hire model for hard-to-fill roles. - **Contract-to-Hire**: Evaluate talent on the job before committing to a full-time hire. - **Executive Search**: Finding leadership for mission-driven startups. - **Scale**: Technical consulting and recruiting services for high-growth startups. - **Stride**: Technical strategy and consulting for early-stage startups. - **hatchpad**: An online community platform for startup technologists to network, learn, and advance their careers. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not publicly available (no disclosed funding rounds). - **Key Metric**: 20 employees (down 12% YoY); 94% 1-year retention rate; 28 days average time to hire. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: No external investors identified. Partners include startups across defense, healthcare, and cyber sectors. - **Growth Signals**: Active hiring for 5+ roles (Senior Data Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, etc.) with a 25% monthly increase in job postings; expanding remote/hybrid options; offices in the US and distributed team across 6 countries. ## Competitive Advantages - Specialized focus on mission-driven startups (defense, national security, healthcare, AI) – a niche that traditional staffing firms often overlook. - Flexible pricing and engagement models (contingency, contract-to-hire, RPO) tailored to startup budgets. - High retention rates (94%) and fast hiring cycles (28 days) demonstrate effective matching. - Proprietary community (hatchpad) and content (The Hatch Pad newsletter) to attract and engage technologists. ## Strategic Focus - Deepen partnerships within defense, healthcare, AI, and cybersecurity verticals. - Scale the hatchpad community to become a go-to resource for startup technologists. - Maintain a distributed remote/hybrid workforce to access talent globally while supporting clients primarily in the Washington D.C. metro area. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Emphasis on mission alignment, relational (not transactional) approach, and collaborative small-team environment. - **Work Policy**: Hybrid and remote roles available depending on position; some on-site roles in Washington, DC, Arlington, VA, Reston, VA, and Somerville, MA. - **Perks & Engineering Culture**: Not extensively documented, but employee reviews on LinkedIn rate Work-Life, Compensation, and Culture all at 5.0/5.0 (3 reviews). The company invests in professional community through hatchpad. - **Team**: Small (20–25 employees), with a high proportion of HR and recruiting specialists. Distributed across the US, South Africa, Canada, Romania, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. ## Sources 1. [hatchit.io](https://www.hatchit.io/) 2. [LinkedIn - hatch I.T.](https://www.linkedin.com/company/hatch-it) 3. [Built In - hatch I.T.](https://builtin.com/company/hatch-it) 4. [Lever careers page - Hatch IT](https://jobs.lever.co/hatchit) 5. [The Org - hatch IT](https://theorg.com/org/hatch-it) ## Other roles at Hatch IT - [Junior Test Engineer (VOR)](https://feeny.ai/job/junior-test-engineer-vor-hatch-it-washington-pwgjq5mdq52n) — Washington, DC - [Associate Proposal Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-proposal-manager-hatch-it-washington-kgcy26d2v6mn) — Washington, DC - [Senior Contracts Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-contracts-manager-hatch-it-washington-gcx6fq0sqb5k) — Washington, DC - [Software Engineer (DEA) - Java Developer & Pega Integration](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-dea-java-developer-pega-integration-hatch-it-arlington-xng5ecvhhtxd) — Arlington, VA - [System Administrator (Azure)](https://feeny.ai/job/system-administrator-azure-hatch-it-washington-n7b92rhwhbgx) — Washington, DC - [Mission Director - IC](https://feeny.ai/job/mission-director-ic-hatch-it-reston-ew0dgxwprbg0) — Reston, VA - [Proposal Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/proposal-specialist-hatch-it-washington-6atha952pqvv) — Washington, DC - [Sr. Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-account-executive-hatch-it-australian-capital-territory-4a8fb6ryqaq1) — Australian Capital Territory - [Senior UX Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-ux-designer-hatch-it-reston-va-or-somerville-sh62gsp78rva) — Reston VA OR Somerville, MA - [Sr. Full Stack Developer](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-full-stack-developer-hatch-it-washington-25eyq6wmwbw2) — Washington, DC