Ivan Rylach, a staff software engineer at Checkr, discusses the transition to a services-oriented architecture and the adoption of a declarative configuration for API management to enhance scalability and efficiency. Checkr, a leading company in the background check industry, initially used imperative management but faced challenges including inconsistent API gateway configurations and manual setup errors. To address these issues, Checkr integrated Kong Gateway and switched to a declarative approach, leveraging tools like Kubernetes and Helm to streamline deployments across regions and environments. This shift enabled Checkr to implement a hybrid API architecture, maintain consistent configurations, and automate deployments, while also accommodating consumer management with tools like Kafka. The system also allowed for multi-region availability and ensured eventual consistency in API management, supporting the company's growth by meeting scalability and operational efficiency requirements.