Python Fastapi Developer Jobs in Amherst, MA (NOW HIRING)

Detailed JD *(Roles and Responsibilities)
Max rate is XXX/Hr.
Full stack developer with Core Responsibilities:
Build and own full vertical slices of the product: React components, TypeScript interfaces, RTK Query endpoints, Node.js/Express handlers, etc. within the same feature.
Design shared component and API patterns that other stories consume - not just implementing your own tickets but considering how the building blocks you create will be used across the feature.
Participate actively in sprint planning and backlog refinement; push back on stories that lack sufficient design or data specification before they enter a sprint.
Write behavioral tests (Vitest + React Testing Library) alongside implementation, not as a separate phase.
Identify and document reuse opportunities across implementation areas - patterns and observations that prevent duplicate work by teammates.
Mandatory skills*
5+ years of professional React development; 3+ years using TypeScript in a production React codebase - not just annotating JS, but designing typed data contracts, discriminated unions, and generic component interfaces. Strong understanding of React 18 patterns: functional components, custom hooks, memo/use Callback usage, Suspense and lazy loading.
Practical experience with Redux Toolkit and RTK Query: defining API slices, managing loading/error states, understanding caching and cache invalidation behavior. Experience with Redux middleware or Thunks is useful but secondary to RTK Query fluency.
Form handling with react-hook-form and schema-based validation (Yup or Zod). Comfort with multi-step forms, conditional field logic, and controlled vs. uncontrolled patterns. Familiarity with design system libraries coupled with the ability to read component documentation and use the provided components correctly without reaching for custom solutions.
3+ years building and maintaining REST APIs with Node.js and Express (or equivalent framework).
The ability to design endpoint shapes that are efficient to consume from the client and that handle partial failures gracefully.
Experience integrating with external APIs or SaaS platforms - writing against third-party REST or SOAP interfaces, handling pagination, rate limiting, and API version differences.
Working knowledge of authentication middleware: JWT validation, token refresh patterns, understanding of OAuth 2.0 / OIDC flows even if you have not built them from scratch.
Comfort with Redis for caching: setting TTLs, invalidation strategies, understanding when caching introduces staleness risk.
Writes tests as part of implementation, not after. Can articulate the difference between testing behavior and testing implementation details.
Experience with React Testing Library (or equivalent) - tests that simulate user interactions and assert on visible output, not on component internals.
Able to write meaningful tests for async behavior (loading states, API responses, error boundaries) using mocked service layers
Desired skills*
Salesforce Integration
Configuration-Driven UI Patterns
Authentication and Identity
Event-Driven Systems -Exposure to Apache Kafka or a comparable message broker - consuming events from a topic, understanding at-least-once delivery, schema registry basics.
Financial Services Domain
Python API Development- Production experience building REST APIs in Python using FastAPI, Flask, or Django REST Framework. Data Manipulation and ETLm-Hands-on experience using Python for data transformation work
Accessibility-Working knowledge of WCAG 2.1 AA compliance - aria attributes, keyboard navigation, screen reader behavior.
Domain*
Insurance