Senior Lead- API Governance & Product Management

First Abu Dhabi Bank; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 300,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent financial institution in Abu Dhabi is looking for an experienced API governance lead to define and implement an API strategy aligned with digital transformation efforts. This role requires 15+ years of experience, with a strong background in banking and API management. Responsibilities include overseeing the API lifecycle, fostering innovation, and ensuring compliance with regulatory frameworks. This is an exciting opportunity to join a leading bank in the region.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of overall experience, 10+ years in Banking.
• Ability to translate business needs into API capabilities.
• Expertise in API gateways and service mesh.

Responsibilities

• Lead the API onboarding process for consumers.
• Develop and maintain API governance policies.
• Monitor and report API performance to leadership.

Skills

API protocols (REST, GraphQL, gRPC)

API lifecycle governance

API analytics and performance optimization

Strong communication skills

Ability to lead cross-functional teams

Regulatory frameworks knowledge

Tools

API Management tools

Kong

Kubernetes

Job description

Company Description

Join the UAE’s largest bank and one of the world’s largest and safest financial institutions. Our focus is to create value for our employees, customers, shareholders and communities to grow through differentiation, agility and innovation. We are looking for top talent and your success is our success. Accelerate your growth as you help us reach our goals and advance your career. Be ready to make your mark a top company, in an exciting and dynamic industry.

Overview

• Define and implement a comprehensive API governance framework that ensures consistency, security, and scalability across all value streams.
• Drive the API Technical product strategy to support digital transformation, platform enablement, and ecosystem integration.
• Foster an API-first mindset across the streams, promoting modularity, reusability, and agility.
• Ensure APIs are designed and managed as strategic digital assets that deliver measurable business value.
• Align API initiatives with enterprise architecture, data strategy, and reusable adoption goals.
• Establish metrics and KPIs to measure API performance, adoption, and business impact.

Role specific responsibilities

• Lead the API onboarding process through technical product owners for internal and external consumers, ensuring ease of access and compliance.
• Develop and maintain API governance policies, including naming conventions, documentation standards, and security protocols.
• Own the API product lifecycle, from ideation and design to retirement and replacement.
• Manage the API catalog and developer portal, ensuring discoverability and usability.
• Monitor and report on API performance, adoption, and ROI to leadership.
• Facilitate API design reviews, ensuring adherence to governance and architectural standards.
• Drive API innovation, including experimentation with emerging technologies like AI-powered APIs and event-driven architectures.

General functional responsibilities

• Promote API reuse and standardization across business units to reduce duplication and accelerate delivery.
• Ensure security and compliance through regular audits, threat modeling, and policy enforcement.
• Lead cross-functional working groups to align API strategy with enterprise goals.
• Maintain API documentation standards, ensuring clarity, completeness, and accessibility.
• Support incident management and troubleshooting for API-related issues.
• Contribute to budget planning and resource allocation for API Engineering.
• Provide training, enablement, and support to development teams on API best practices.

Qualifications

Core competencies required (Exp Overall : 15+ Years, Banking 10+ Years)

• Ability to translate business needs into API capabilities.
• Expertise in API protocols (REST, GraphQL, gRPC), API gateways, and service mesh.
• Strong grasp of API lifecycle governance, versioning, and deprecation policies.
• Familiarity with regulatory frameworks (e.g., Open Banking, GDPR, PSD2, HIPAA) and their impact on APIs.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence without authority.
• Strong communication and evangelism skills to promote API adoption and literacy.
• Proficiency in API analytics, usage tracking, and performance optimization.
• Experience with tools like API Management, Kong, Cloud Native Services, Kubernetes