API & Developer Market Place lead

Thus, the Lead API & Developer Marketplace is strategically accountable for:

• Platform Strategy & API Exposure Architecture: Define and evolve the organisation wide platform exposure strategy, ensuring fintech capabilities are externalized through scalable, interoperable APIs that enable ecosystem growth while aligning with the cluster roadmap.
• API Productization & Lifecycle Governance: Lead the productization of APIs as managed platform assets, establishing lifecycle standards, version governance, security protocols, and performance benchmarks that ensure reliability, scalability, and regulatory compliance.
• Developer Marketplace Growth & Ecosystem Enablement: Build and scale the Developer Marketplace by strengthening developer experience (DX), structured onboarding, documentation standards, and ecosystem engagement models that accelerate third-party adoption and platform usage.
• Monetization Governance for Platform Exposure: Establish commercial guardrails for API monetization, including usage models, pricing principles, and revenue-sharing frameworks, ensuring platform exposure
• Anchored in Safaricom’s purpose of transforming lives by connecting people to people, people to opportunities, and people to information, the Lead API & Developer Marketplace ensures that Financial Services evolves from product-centric offerings to a scalable, ecosystem-powered platform that expands access, innovation, and sustainable revenue growth.contributes sustainably to revenue growth and EBITDA targets without duplicating Product monetization ownership.
• Agile API Squads & DevSecOps Alignment: Align API squads with agile delivery principles and DevSecOps standards to ensure secure, high-performance, continuously deployable APIs that balance innovation speed with platform stability and risk management.
• Agile Leadership & Delivery Governance: Leads empowered cross-functional squads aligned to shared OKRs, operating within clearly defined decision rights and escalation protocols. Champions iterative delivery and hypothesis-driven experimentation while balancing speed with regulatory, financial, and operational guardrails to ensure responsible, outcome-led execution.

Key accountabilities and decision ownership:

Platform Strategy & API Exposure Architecture

• Define and maintain the Safaricom and Financial Services API exposure strategy aligned to cluster growth and platform ambitions.
• Translate fintech roadmap priorities into scalable exposure architectures that enable ecosystem integration across payments, credit, wealth, insurance, and partner ecosystems.
• Establish scalability, interoperability, and security standards that support high transaction volumes and cross-border expansion.
• Partner with Product to ensure capabilities are platform-ready from inception — without assuming ownership of product functionality.
• Align exposure standards with regulatory, security, and risk requirements across all API surfaces.

API Productisation & Lifecycle Governance

• Productise APIs as managed platform assets with defined lifecycle stages, version control, deprecation policies, and backward compatibility standards.
• Define performance benchmarks and reliability thresholds for all exposed services; embed security-by-design and compliance-by-design across API development.
• Ensure documentation, testing, sandbox environments, and support models meet enterprise-grade standards.
• Govern API portfolio rationalisation: eliminate duplication, retire deprecated APIs, and optimise platform efficiency.

Developer Marketplace Growth & Ecosystem Enablement

• Build and scale the Developer Marketplace as a structured ecosystem growth engine — strengthening developer experience (DX) through intuitive onboarding, self-service documentation, and structured support frameworks.
• Define clear value propositions and use cases for third-party developers, enterprises, and ecosystem integrators.
• Monitor ecosystem adoption metrics (active integrations, API call volumes, developer activation rates) and identify levers to accelerate usage.
• Establish structured feedback loops to continuously improve developer engagement and marketplace performance.

Monetisation Governance for Platform Exposure

• Define API monetisation principles aligned to revenue and EBITDA objectives — establishing pricing guardrails and usage models for API consumption.
• Ensure revenue-sharing and partnership structures are economically viable and margin-protective; track API monetisation performance against defined financial targets.
• Enable controlled commercial experimentation within approved boundaries; align monetisation frameworks with Product and Commercial teams to prevent overlap or duplication.

Agile API Squads & DevSecOps Alignment

• Align API squads to agile delivery principles, enabling rapid iteration and continuous improvement.
• Embed DevSecOps practices to ensure secure, reliable, and scalable API deployments; ensure platform stability while supporting innovation velocity.
• Monitor service uptime, reliability, and incident response standards; coordinate cross-functional collaboration between API squads, Product, and Technology teams.
• Promote automation and continuous integration practices that enhance deployment speed and resilience.

Leadership & Talent Development

• Build and lead a high-performing, multidisciplinary team embedding OKR-driven accountability, agile ways of working, and a culture of continuous learning and innovation.
• Ensure succession readiness for all critical roles through structured coaching, mentoring, and capability development programmes.
• Champion cross-functional collaboration across M-PESA to ensure integrated, outcome-led delivery of products and initiatives.
• Model ethical leadership — reinforcing integrity, transparency, and responsible innovation — and ensure governance and compliance in all initiatives.

Agile Leadership & Delivery Governance

• Lead empowered cross-functional squads aligned to shared OKRs, with clearly defined decision rights, accountability structures, and escalation protocols.
• Champion iterative delivery and hypothesis-driven experimentation, balancing execution speed with regulatory, risk, and operational guardrails.
• Enable transparent progress tracking through sprint reviews and performance rituals, fostering a culture of ownership and outcome-based performance.

Key performance indicators:

Revenue & Monetisation

• API-driven revenue contribution: grow to at least 5% of total FS revenue .
• Developer marketplace revenue growth: achieve > 10% YoY growth.
• API monetisation yield per integration: achieve average acceptable yield per active third-party integration monthly.

Ecosystem Growth

• Active API integrations: achieve 10,000+ active enterprise and third-party integrations.
• API usage growth rate: achieve 15% YoY growth in total API call/transaction volume.
• Ecosystem partner activation and retention rate: achieve 80%+ 90-day partner retention.
• Average time to onboard new developers or partners: reduce to 48 hours.

Platform Performance & Quality

• API platform uptime: maintain 99%+ availability across all production API surfaces.
• Mean time to resolve (MTTR) API incidents: achieve below 2 hours for P1/P2 incidents.
• Percentage of new fintech products that are API-enabled at launch
• API security compliance: zero critical security vulnerabilities in production; all findings remediated within defined SLA.

Must have technical / professional qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Business, or a related field.
• Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA), Technology Management, Digital Platforms, or related discipline is advantageous.
• Minimum 10–12 years’ experience in digital platforms, APIs, fintech, product management, or ecosystem strategy within large-scale, technology-driven organizations.
• Proven experience leading API strategy, platform exposure, or developer ecosystem initiatives at enterprise scale.
• Strong understanding of API productization, platform monetization models, and digital ecosystem economics.
• Demonstrated experience working within agile delivery environments and aligning API squads with DevSecOps practices.
• Solid understanding of cloud-native architectures, microservices environments, and scalable platform design principles (without requiring deep engineering specialization).
• Experience managing platform reliability, security, compliance, and performance standards in regulated financial or technology environments.
• Track record of building and scaling developer marketplaces, partner ecosystems, or B2B platform adoption programs.
• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to link API exposure strategy to revenue growth, monetization governance, and EBITDA impact.
• Demonstrated ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders across Product, Technology, Growth, and Commercial teams.
• Strong executive communication capability with the ability to translate technical concepts into strategic business outcomes.