Build One Third-Party API Integration (FastAPI + PostgreSQL)

Our SaaS platform is live and used daily by around 40 client companies to track shipments. The backend is Python/FastAPI with PostgreSQL, hosted on AWS, and the codebase is in reasonable shape: documented, tested, nothing exotic. What we need One of our clients uses a third-party carrier service, and we need to pull their shipment tracking data into our system automatically instead of the manual CSV export our ops team does today. Specifically: Connect to the carrier's REST API (API key auth - docs are public, we'll send the link) Fetch shipment status updates for our tracked shipments Normalize their response format into our existing shipments table schema (we'll provide the model) Run it on a schedule (we already use APScheduler in the project - please use it, no new infra) Handle failures properly: retries with backoff, timeouts, and don't double-write if a job runs twice Log clearly enough that our team can tell what happened when something goes wrong Write tests for the main paths Short README so the next developer can pick it up What we'll provide at kickoff Repo access (GitHub) and a working local dev setup guide API credentials for the carrier's sandbox environment (already provisioned) Link to the carrier's API documentation Our existing data model and an example of how another integration in the codebase is structured - please follow the same pattern What we're looking for Solid Python and FastAPI experience You've integrated third-party APIs before and know where they go wrong - rate limits, partial failures, inconsistent responses Clean, tested code that matches the conventions already in our repo, not your personal preference You ask questions upfront rather than guessing and delivering the wrong thing Nice to have Experience with logistics or carrier APIs Docker (our dev environment uses it) To apply Please tell us briefly: one third-party integration you've built, how you handled failures/retries in it, and any questions you have about the scope above. We'll pick quickly and want to start this week.