Tyk API Management - Connecting all the systems in the world
Project Overview: I’ve spent 8 years leading the engineering team at Tyk, where we build and maintain an API management platform that helps companies connect their systems together. It’s been a mix of hands-on coding, growing a global team, and figuring out where we need to go next technically.
Objectives
- Build great engineering teams that write solid code
- Make our API platform better and faster
- Share what we’ve learned with the wider tech community
Key Responsibilities
- Engineering Leadership:
- Running engineering teams across multiple timezones
- Making sure we write good code that works
- Getting my hands dirty with coding when needed
- Team Development:
- Finding and bringing on new engineers
- Helping people grow in their careers
- Building teams that work well together even when apart
- Strategic Planning:
- Keeping the board updated on what we’re doing
- Helping the sales team understand the technical stuff
- Planning what we should build next
- Industry Engagement:
- Speaking at tech conferences and meetups
- Writing about what we’ve learned
- Building relationships with partners
- Technical Excellence:
- Making key architecture decisions
- Keeping our code quality high
- Finding new ways to make our platform better
Technology Stack
- Go for core API Gateway development
- Redis and MongoDB for data storage
- GraphQL and REST API implementations
- Cloud-native technologies including Kubernetes
Outcome
We’ve built Tyk into a solid API platform that lots of companies rely on. I’m proud of the engineering culture we’ve created - we care about doing things right, but we’re always looking for ways to improve. The team has grown a lot, but we’ve kept our focus on building stuff that actually helps people.