Software Developer Python Developer

Job description

**Introduction**
A career in IBM Software means you’ll be part of a team that transforms our customer’s challenges into solutions.

Seeking new possibilities and always staying curious, we are a team dedicated to creating the world’s leading AI-powered, cloud-native software solutions for our customers.

Our renowned legacy creates endless global opportunities for our IBMers, so the door is always open for those who want to grow their career.

IBM’s product and technology landscape includes Research, Software, and Infrastructure.

Entering this domain positions you at the heart of IBM, where growth and innovation thrive.
**Your role and responsibilities**
We are looking for highly motivated Python Developers to join the ContextForge MCP & A2A Gateway team.

ContextForge is an open-source production-grade gateway, proxy, and registry for Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers and A2A Agents.

It federates MCP and REST services, providing unified discovery, auth, rate-limiting, observability, virtual servers, multi-transport protocols, plugins and an Admin UI: https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge

As a Python Developer, you will build FastAPI services for MCP protocol implementation, multi-tenancy features, A2A agent integration, federation logic, and virtual server composition.

You will work closely with a distributed engineering team to deliver high-quality, well-tested code that powers cutting-edge AI infrastructure.

Your Role And Responsibilities

Core Development

• Implement MCP protocol handlers: JSON-RPC endpoints, tools/prompts/resources registries

• Build virtual server composition logic to aggregate tools and resources from multiple sources

• Develop multi-tenant authentication: OAuth2, JWT, SSO (OIDC), RBAC middleware

• Create A2A agent integration: OpenAI/Anthropic wrappers, metrics collection, agent lifecycle management

• Design federation logic: Redis pub/sub, mDNS discovery, peer health checks, cross-cluster tool aggregation

• Implement multi-transport protocols: SSE, WebSocket, stdio, streamable-HTTP with session management

Code Quality & Testing

• Write comprehensive tests: pytest unit tests, integration tests, end-to-end tests

• Achieve and maintain 90%+ test coverage on all code contributions

• Follow strict linting standards: Black (formatting), mypy strict (type checking), Ruff, Pylint

• Participate in code reviews: provide constructive feedback and learn from senior engineers

• Write clear documentation: docstrings, API documentation, architectural decision records

Technology Stack

• FastAPI for building high-performance async REST APIs

• SQLAlchemy 2.0 for database ORM with PostgreSQL/SQLite

• Alembic for database migrations

• Redis for caching and federation pub/sub

• Async Python patterns for concurrent request handling

• pytest for comprehensive testing with fixtures and mocks

Collaboration

• Work with Engineering Manager and senior engineers to translate requirements into implementation

• Collaborate with Product Manager to understand feature specifications and acceptance criteria

• Participate in daily standups, sprint planning, and retrospectives

• Contribute to technical discussions and architecture decisions

• Help maintain and improve CI/CD pipelines and development tooling
**Required technical and professional expertise**
Python Development (2-4 years)

• Few years of software development experience in Python

• Strong understanding of Python 3.11+ features: type hints, async/await, dataclasses

• Experience with FastAPI or similar async web frameworks (Flask, Django, Starlette)

• Knowledge of RESTful API design and JSON-RPC protocol patterns

• Understanding of database concepts: SQL, ORM patterns, migrations, indexing

Web Services & APIs

• Experience developing integration solutions with web service APIs using REST/JSON

• Understanding of authentication mechanisms: OAuth2, JWT, API keys

• Knowledge of HTTP protocol: methods, headers, status codes, content negotiation

• Familiarity with API documentation tools: OpenAPI/Swagger, Postman

Development Practices

• Proficiency with version control: Git workflows, branching, pull requests, code reviews

• Experience with automated testing: unit tests, integration tests, test fixtures, mocking

• Understanding of CI/CD concepts: automated builds, test pipelines, deployment automation

• Ability to debug complex issues using logging, debuggers, and profiling tools

System Knowledge

• Working knowledge of Linux environments and bash/sh shell scripting and Makefiles

• Basic understanding of networking: HTTP/HTTPS, DNS, firewalls, proxies

• Familiarity with containerization: Docker basics, container networking

• Understanding of relational databases: PostgreSQL or SQLite

Professional Skills

• Ability to learn quickly and adapt to new technologies and frameworks

• Strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail

• Good communication skills for team collaboration and documentation

• Ability to work independently and manage time effectively

• Eagerness to receive and provide constructive feedback
**Preferred technical and professional experience**
Advanced Python Skills

• Experience with async Python: asyncio, aiohttp, async context managers

• Knowledge of Python packaging and dependency management: pip, uv, poetry

• Familiarity with Python performance optimization and profiling

• Experience with Python type checking: mypy, Pydantic, type stubs

Distributed Systems

• Understanding of distributed system concepts: caching, message queues, service discovery

• Experience with Redis for caching or pub/sub messaging

• Knowledge of microservices architecture patterns

• Familiarity with API gateway or proxy technologies

AI/ML Infrastructure

• Interest in AI infrastructure, agentic systems, or LLM applications

• Experience with OpenAI API, Anthropic API, or similar AI service integrations

• Knowledge of prompt engineering or AI agent orchestration

• Understanding of observability for AI systems: metrics, tracing, telemetry

Security & Best Practices

• Understanding of security best practices: input validation, SQL injection prevention, secrets management

• Knowledge of authentication/authorization patterns: OAuth2 flows, RBAC, JWT validation

• Familiarity with security scanning tools: Bandit, pip-audit

• Understanding of OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities
IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics.

IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

Required Skill Profession

Other General