Whisker is the maker of Litter-Robot, Feeder-Robot, and Litterbox.com. At Whisker, we believe pet parenthood can always get better.

As leading innovators in pet tech and refined pet accessories, we work tirelessly to solve problems and deliver smarter insights for pet parents while enriching the lives of pets. Whether it’s a self-cleaning litter box that automates scooping, an automatic feeder that helps pets develop healthier eating habits, or a modern cat tree that delights both humans and felines, we strive to deliver better solutions for consumers while transforming pet care along the way. To us, having a pet is the best thing ever. At Whisker, life together just keeps getting better.

Whisker is based in Auburn Hills, Michigan and Juneau, Wisconsin with 600+ passionate team members.

What You’ll Do:

The Manager of API Services & Core Infrastructure leads a team responsible for developing and maintaining robust APIs, core services, and global infrastructure that power Whisker’s digital ecosystem. This role ensures high availability, scalability, and reliability while enabling seamless integrations and enhancing customer experiences across all products worldwide.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

This list of duties and responsibilities is not all-inclusive and may be expanded to include other duties and responsibilities as deemed necessary.

• Drives the vision, strategy, and execution of Whisker’s API and infrastructure roadmap. Balances short-term deliverables with the long-term strategic vision for scalable, secure, and globally distributed backend services.
• Advances Whisker’s core backend capabilities, ensuring infrastructure is designed for multi-region deployment, international data centers, and integration with global CDN services. Builds infrastructure that scales to support Whisker’s global expansion and customer base.
• Leads the design, development, and optimization of RESTful and GraphQL APIs to ensure secure, efficient, and developer-friendly interfaces for internal and external consumers, with a focus on global reliability and latency optimization.
• Oversees the development and deployment of multi-region services to provide fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and low-latency experiences for customers worldwide. Implements best practices for cross-region data replication and failover strategies.
• Orchestrates seamless integration between API, infrastructure, and services teams, ensuring cohesive efforts result in exceptional performance and reliability across all products. Achieves this through proactive communication, cross-functional workflows, and implementation of integrated development processes.
• Establishes and enforces best practices for securing APIs, infrastructure, and data across international markets while maintaining compliance with GDPR and other global data regulations.
• Ensures infrastructure and APIs are built to scale, supporting large-scale IoT deployments, real-time operations, and the demands of a growing global customer base.
• Recruits, mentors, and develops a high-performing engineering team. Fosters technical excellence, collaboration, and leadership within the team. Focuses on developing other leaders and nurturing junior engineers to deliver exceptional global services.
• Delivers complex, globally distributed projects at scale and on time, ensuring high-quality outcomes through rigorous architecture, execution, testing, and automation.
• Drives the adoption of modern technologies, frameworks, and practices to keep Whisker at the forefront of API, infrastructure, and global service development.
• Defines and tracks KPIs for API performance, uptime, and reliability across global regions. Regularly reports progress, challenges, and achievements to stakeholders.
• Oversees the design, implementation, and maintenance of secure and scalable core services and infrastructure to support Whisker’s global ecosystem.
• Collaborates with Product, Engineering, and Operations teams to ensure seamless integration of backend services with customer-facing applications worldwide.
• Drives innovation and stays abreast of industry trends to integrate new technologies and improve existing systems, with a focus on global scalability and resilience.
• Leads crisis management efforts to quickly resolve critical service and infrastructure issues, minimizing downtime and customer impact on a global scale.
• Represents the API and Infrastructure teams in executive meetings, providing updates on progress, challenges, and strategic initiatives.
• Will perform additional responsibilities when required 

Leadership Responsibilities:

Directly supervises department Teams. Carries out supervisory responsibilities following Whisker policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, training, and hiring, planning, assigning and directing work, appraising performance, addressing team issues, and upholding safety and quality guidelines. 

What You’ll Bring:

• Bachelor’s and/or Master’s in Computer Science or a related field and / or equivalent years of experience. 
• 6+ years of experience in engineering leadership roles, including managing backend services or infrastructure teams.
• Strong expertise in API development, including RESTful and GraphQL design, performance tuning, and security best practices.
• Proven experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS) and services like EC2, S3, RDS, and IoT-specific components, with a strong focus on multi-region deployments and cross-region failover.
• Expertise in building scalable infrastructure using tools like Terraform, CloudFormation, or Kubernetes to support global operations.
• Experience with CDN technologies and strategies for optimizing global content delivery and latency.
• Familiarity with international data center operations and the design of globally distributed systems.
• Strong understanding of network protocols, database design, and system optimization techniques for global-scale applications.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices to enable efficient software delivery.
• Demonstrated ability to manage large-scale, high-availability systems in production across multiple regions.
• Excellent communication (verbal & written) and presentation skills.
• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills.
• Maintains confidentiality of proprietary information.
• Ability to maintain a professional atmosphere in a fast-paced environment with numerous interactions and interruptions.
• A high degree of initiative, self-motivation, and ability to motivate others.
• Ability to establish and maintain cooperative working relationships with Team Members and colleagues.
• Comfortable with office pets (cats, dogs). 

Benefits & Purrks: 

Join a tenacious, inventive company that empowers team members to chart their own path, lead by grounding decisions in the “why”, and has a strong sense of empathy and openness to new perspectives. Be a part of exciting growth, work with incredible people, and create tomorrow’s pet products—plus a whole lot of extras. You will also be provided with:

• Premium Medical/Dental/Vision insurance
• Paid parental leave
• Whisker Parents Program
• 1 day "pawternity" leave for new pet adoption
• Pet Insurance Discount
• 401K match
• Flexible spending accounts
• Company-paid short-term disability and life insurance
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Generous paid time off
• 14 Paid Holidays
• Top of the line equipment
• Pet-friendly office
• Whisker products and swag
• Continuing education Support
• On-site gym with Peloton
• Referral program

Statement of Inclusivity:

We believe different perspectives make Whisker better and strive to create a place where everyone has equal opportunities to thrive.

Please ensure to regularly check your email spam folder for any communication from Whisker to avoid missing important updates regarding your application status.

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