API Governance Lead

Position Summary

Lead enterprise API governance strategy, defining and enforcing API design standards, lifecycle policies, and compliance frameworks. Partner with Architecture, Security, and Platform teams to drive an API-first approach focused on consistency, security, scalability, and regulatory alignment. This is a governance and architecture leadership role—not hands-on development.

Key Responsibilities

API Governance & Standards

• Define enterprise API design standards (REST, OpenAPI, GraphQL), naming/versioning conventions, and lifecycle policies.
• Lead API Governance Board and maintain reference architecture, playbooks, and policy templates.
  
  
  

Lifecycle & Platform Governance (Apigee X)

• Oversee API onboarding, publishing, versioning, and runtime policy enforcement.
• Ensure consistent use of API products, proxies, catalogs, and analytics.
  
  
  

Security & Compliance

• Govern API security patterns (OAuth2, JWT, mTLS) and align to regulatory frameworks (HIPAA, GDPR, PSD2).
• Partner with Risk/Security to support audits and control validation.
  
  
  

Enablement & Continuous Improvement

• Improve developer experience through standards, training, and reusable artifacts.
• Define governance KPIs and leverage analytics to drive maturity improvements.
• Integrate policy-as-code and compliance checks into CI/CD pipelines.
  
  
  

Required Qualifications

• 10 years IT experience; 5 years in API governance or platform leadership.
• Deep expertise in API lifecycle management, OpenAPI, REST, GraphQL.
• Experience with Apigee X (or similar platforms) from a governance perspective.
• Strong knowledge of API security standards and regulatory compliance.
• Proven ability to create policies, lead governance forums, and influence stakeholders.
  
  
  

Preferred

• GCP / Apigee certifications
• Experience with Ping Identity, IAM, DevSecOps, and policy-as-code automation
  
  
  

Core Focus

Strategic API governance, risk management, standards enforcement, stakeholder alignment, and measurable compliance outcomes.