Technical Product Owner - API Specialist

Emirates; Dubai; On-site; AED 420,000 - 640,000; Full time

Job summary

Emirates Group IT is seeking a Technical Product Owner - API Specialist in Dubai to lead API-driven product delivery. You will own user stories, manage acceptance criteria, and coordinate with cross-functional teams to ensure timely PI planning and homegrown API governance.

The role requires deep API experience and a customer-centric product mindset. You will collaborate with Product Owners to drive PI demos, manage technical debt, and refine non-functional requirements, while contributing to a

Qualifications

• Degree or Honours in IT.
• 5+ years in Information Technology with 2+ years as Product Owner/Manager, delivering at pace.

Responsibilities

• Be responsible for story content, acceptance criteria, and end story sign-off across team backlogs.
• Ensure Technical Debt and non-functional requirements are captured, refined, and prioritised.
• Capture additional BAU, Ceremony, and Spike activities into backlogs.
• Prepare contribution to PI demos with other Product Owners.
• Maintain feature quality and manage risks/dependencies back to Portfolio backlog.
• Attend and contribute to key Product Management meetings, especially PI Planning.
• Define metrics to measure success and efficiency of prioritised work.

Skills

API-first

API-as-a-Product

REST APIs

Async APIs

OpenAPI

Event-driven patterns

API governance

API Security by Design

Scaled Agile / SAFe

CI/CD

GitLab CI

Docker

Terraform

Ansible

Kong API Gateway

Developer Portals

API catalogues

Education

Degree or Honours (12+3) in IT

Tools

Kong API Gateway

GitLab CI

Artifactory

Nexus

Docker

Terraform

Ansible

Job description

Job Purpose

At Emirates, we believe in connecting the world, to and through, our global hub in Dubai; and in constantly innovating to ensure our customers ‘Fly Better’. Emirates Group IT thrives on the dynamic nature of technology. Being pioneers in aviation innovation, we’re always at the forefront, pushing boundaries. We’re on the lookout for exceptional IT professionals to fortify our position as leaders in the industry. Embark on a journey with the world’s largest international airline and become a vital part of our cutting-edge information and technology team as Technical Product Owner - API Specialist.

Join our Technical Product Management team, where we build effective technology products and services that our customers love. We offer a mix of B2B and B2C products and services in domains such as Digital, Airline and Airport Operations, Group Services, and Commercial. Our goal is to continuously evolve our products, enriching them with features that focus on delivering value to our customers and users. If you are passionate about creating impactful technology products and ensuring their success, we invite you to apply and to contribute to the innovation and excellence at Emirates Group.

In This Role, You Will

• Be responsible for the story content, acceptance criteria definition, and end story "sign off" across team backlogs, ensuring user stories are prepared on time for future PI's, refined frequently with the entire team, and prioritised accordingly in alignment with other team backlogs.
• Ensure Technical Debt and non-functional requirements are captured, refined, and prioritised across all sprints.
• Capture additional BAU, Ceremony, and Spike activities, and incorporate into team backlogs, within the boundaries of available capacity.
• Prepare contribution to PI demo, in conjunction with other applicable Product Owners.
• Maintain the quality and integrity of features within their technical and team boundaries, ensuring identification and contribution of risks and dependencies back to the Product Portfolio backlog.
• Attend and contribute to key Product Management meetings, in particular PI Planning.
• Define metrics to measure the success and performance of prioritised work, ensuring any further BAU iterations can be proposed and prioritised accordingly within the boundaries of available capacity.
• Participate in establishing and growing a community of Product Owners, building an identity for the role, focus upon collaboration, and identifying opportunities for improvement and growth.
• Contribute to the Product Management Communities and their continual evolution to help drive efficient practices and empowered teams.
• Be working with your team(s) to identify and capture team driven innovation ideas, consolidating across peer group for playback up to TPM (Technical Product Manager) community.

Qualification

• Degree or Honours (12+3) in IT.
• 5+ years of total experience in Information Technology including 2+ years practical experience of working as a Product Owner/Manager, in a team facing capacity, with proven record of driving discernible change and delivery, at pace.

Knowledge/Skills

• Operations Research, Marketing science, Information Systems, e-Commerce or a combination of industry certification.
• Global Product (CSPO/SAFe/PSPO) trained and certified.
• Whilst not essential, some experience of working within a Scaled Agile framework, across multiple initiatives and circa 50+ teams.
• Demonstrated technical or domain expertise, utilising a depth and breadth of knowledge and practical experience within the specific domain or technical area. Stays up to date with regulatory and other changes in the technical area, and understands how they apply to the Emirates group.
• Well-versed with the tools for the Product Management aspects of software delivery.
• Strong and concise communicator at peer, line, and stakeholder levels.
• Builds strong relationships with peers and team members.
• Appetite for building and identifying value, with a customer centric mind-set.
• Strong understanding of:
• API-first & API-as-a-Product concepts
• REST / Async APIs, OpenAPI, event-driven patterns
• API lifecycle: master all the API Stage to ensure governance
• Familiarity with:
• API Gateways & platforms (Kong API Gateway is a Nice to Have)
• Developer Portals & API catalogues: familiar with API Developer Experience
• CI/CD, automation, and platform engineering concepts : Gitlab CI / Artifactory/Nexus/Docker/Terraform/Ansible
• Solid grasp of API Security by Design principles: OWASP10-2025
• Have experience contributing to an API program on a large scale.

Leadership role

Yes

Salary & benefits

Join us in Dubai and enjoy an attractive tax-free salary and travel benefits that are exclusive to our industry, including discounts on flights and hotels stays around the world. Find out what it’s like to live and work in our fast-paced, cosmopolitan home city in the Dubai Lifestyle section of our website www.emirates.com/careers.