Senior Apigee X Technical Lead (API Gateway Specialist)
Samaha Consulting · Johannesburg, Gauteng
Overview
Samaha Consulting is looking for a seasoned Senior Apigee X Specialist and Technical Lead to manage and evolve a large scale enterprise API gateway ecosystem in Johannesburg. This temporary contract role offers a chance to lead complex Apigee X, Hybrid and Edge projects, migrations and API governance for a major client. If you have deep hands-on Apigee expertise and enjoy leading engineering teams and driving platform improvements, this could be your next big move.
About the role
As a Senior Apigee X Specialist and Technical Lead at Samaha Consulting, you will take ownership of a large scale enterprise API ecosystem, providing technical leadership, governance and operational oversight across Apigee X, Apigee X Hybrid and legacy Apigee Edge environments. You will work closely with engineering teams, managed service operations and other stakeholders to ensure secure, reliable and scalable API services across multiple environments.
Day to day you can expect to:
- Design, review and govern API proxies, shared flows, policies, target servers, KVMs and gateway configurations.
- Establish and enforce API engineering standards, governance frameworks, naming conventions and reusable patterns.
- Drive configuration as code, GitOps and CI/CD automation for Apigee proxy bundles and related configurations.
- Manage deployment governance, release validation, production promotions, rollback procedures and audit requirements.
- Lead Apigee Edge to Apigee X and Hybrid migration initiatives, including assessments, testing, cutover and stabilisation.
- Govern API security controls such as OAuth 2.0, JWT, API keys, TLS/mTLS, rate limiting and threat protection.
- Provide technical oversight of Developer Portal integration, OpenAPI/Swagger definitions and multi environment configurations.
- Lead complex troubleshooting and root cause analysis across gateway, routing, DNS, certificates and authentication.
- Conduct workshops, knowledge sharing sessions and mentoring for engineering and support teams.
- Collaborate with DevSecOps, Information Security, Platform Engineering and Architecture teams to ensure secure API delivery.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems or a related technical discipline is preferred.
- Relevant certifications in Google Cloud, Apigee, API Management, Cloud Security or Enterprise Architecture would be advantageous.
- 8 to 10+ years of professional experience in software engineering, integration, middleware or API engineering.
- Minimum 5+ years of substantial API Gateway / API Management experience with deep hands-on Apigee expertise.
- Strong production experience with Google Cloud Apigee X and practical understanding of Apigee Edge migration and Apigee X Hybrid deployments.
- 3 to 5+ years of experience in a Senior Engineer, Platform Specialist, Lead Engineer or Technical Lead capacity.
- Proven experience supporting multiple delivery teams, environments or business units through a shared API platform.
- Experience in platform migrations, production cutovers, rollback planning, incident management and post migration support.
- Demonstrated experience in technical leadership, governance, operational handover and knowledge transfer.
- Essential technical skills: Apigee X, Apigee X Hybrid, Apigee Edge, API proxies, API products, shared flows, flow hooks, KVMs, gateway policies, REST APIs, OpenAPI/Swagger, JSON, YAML, OAuth 2.0, JWT, API keys, TLS/mTLS, Google Cloud IAM, RBAC, service account management, Git, GitHub, Azure DevOps, CI/CD automation, Terraform, Configuration as Code, GitOps, DNS, routing, load balancing, VPN, ingress, IP whitelisting, API analytics, BigQuery, incident troubleshooting, API Developer Portal integration, production change management and rollback procedures.
- Advantageous skills: large scale telecommunications API platforms, Azure hosted Developer Portal integration, Kubernetes / AKS, ServiceNow, Akamai API Security, Looker, Grafana, TM Forum Open APIs, SRE practices and SLIs/SLOs.
Responsibilities
- Provide senior technical leadership for Apigee X, Apigee X Hybrid and legacy Apigee Edge environments.
- Design, review and govern API proxies, proxy revisions, API products, shared flows, policies, target servers, KVMs and gateway configurations.
- Establish, maintain and enforce API engineering standards, governance frameworks, naming conventions and reusable gateway patterns.
- Govern API lifecycle management, including API publication, versioning, deprecation, backward compatibility and migration of legacy endpoints.
- Drive Configuration as Code, GitOps and CI/CD automation for Apigee proxy bundles, shared flows, API products and Developer Portal configurations.
- Manage deployment governance, release validation, production promotions, rollback procedures and audit requirements.
- Lead Apigee Edge to Apigee X and Apigee X Hybrid migration initiatives, including migration assessments, testing, cutover and production stabilisation.
- Govern API security controls, including OAuth 2.0, JWT, API keys, TLS/mTLS, rate limiting, quotas and threat protection.
- Design and manage role based access control (RBAC), Google Cloud IAM, privileged access and least privilege security practices.
- Provide technical oversight of API Developer Portal integration, OpenAPI/Swagger definitions, developer onboarding and multi environment configurations.
- Lead complex troubleshooting and root cause analysis involving gateway behaviour, routing, DNS, certificates, authentication and backend connectivity.
- Provide technical guidance and escalation support to OpCo engineering teams across multiple environments.
- Conduct technical workshops, knowledge sharing sessions and mentoring for engineering and support teams.
- Collaborate with Managed Service Operations (MSO) teams to establish sustainable L1, L2 and L3 support models.
- Develop operational runbooks, technical documentation, health checks, support procedures and escalation processes.
- Monitor API performance, availability, latency, traffic patterns and error behaviour using Apigee analytics and observability tools.
- Collaborate with DevSecOps, Information Security, Platform Engineering and Architecture teams to ensure secure and reliable API delivery.
- Drive continuous platform improvement, automation, knowledge transfer and reduction of technical debt.
Job details
- Organisation
- Samaha Consulting
- Location
- Johannesburg, Gauteng
- Job type
- Temporary
- Experience level
- Senior (8+ years)
- Education
- Bachelor
- Category
- IT & Software Development
- Application Method
- Apply manually
Success Guide
This is a senior technical lead role, so your application should highlight real hands on Apigee X and migration experience, not just buzzwords. Make sure your CV clearly shows the scale of API ecosystems you have managed, the teams you have led and the results you delivered. In an interview, expect deep technical questions about API gateway architecture, security, CI/CD and how you handle production incidents. Be ready to talk through a migration you led from start to finish. Since this is a temporary contract, show that you can hit the ground running and transfer knowledge to permanent teams. A concise cover letter that connects your specific Apigee experience to their enterprise needs will help you stand out.
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