Azure API Management (APIM) Project Manager
Role Summary
The Azure API Management (APIM) Project Manager is responsible for planning, coordinating, and delivering the migration of APIs from an existing Azure APIM instance to a new APIM platform. The role will drive end-to-end migration activities, including API onboarding, stakeholder management, application endpoint migration, testing coordination, cutover execution, and post-migration stabilisation.
The successful candidate will work closely with application teams, integration teams, infrastructure teams, vendors, and business stakeholders to ensure a seamless transition with minimal disruption to business operations.
Key Responsibilities
Programme & Project Management
- Own and drive the overall APIM migration programme from initiation to closure.
- Develop and maintain migration plans, timelines, milestones, dependencies, risks, and issue logs.
- Track migration progress and provide regular status updates to project sponsors and stakeholders.
- Establish governance, migration standards, and execution frameworks across participating teams.
- Manage project scope, schedule, budget, and resource coordination.
API Migration & Onboarding
- Assess and inventory APIs currently hosted on the existing APIM instance.
- Develop migration waves and onboarding strategies based on business criticality and dependencies.
- Coordinate onboarding and configuration of APIs onto the new APIM platform.
- Ensure API policies, products, subscriptions, security settings, certificates, and routing configurations are migrated accurately.
- Validate that migrated APIs meet operational, security, and performance requirements.
Stakeholder & Application Team Coordination
- Engage application owners, project teams, developers, architects, vendors, and business stakeholders.
- Coordinate with consuming application teams to update API endpoints and connectivity configurations.
- Drive alignment of migration schedules across multiple dependent projects and systems.
- Facilitate workshops, technical discussions, migration reviews, and cutover planning sessions.
Testing & Cutover Management
- Coordinate system integration testing, end-to-end testing, performance testing, and user acceptance testing.
- Ensure application teams complete endpoint updates and validation activities.
- Develop and execute cutover plans for production migration.
- Manage migration rehearsals, rollback procedures, and go-live readiness assessments.
- Monitor migration execution and resolve issues during transition windows.
Risk & Issue Management
- Identify migration risks, technical dependencies, and business impacts.
- Escalate critical blockers and drive resolution across cross-functional teams.
- Ensure compliance with security, governance, and operational requirements.
- Maintain mitigation and contingency plans throughout the migration lifecycle.
Post-Migration Support
- Oversee production stabilisation activities following migration.
- Coordinate issue resolution with technical teams and vendors.
- Track migration success metrics and lessons learned.
- Ensure formal project closure and transition to operational support teams.
Required Skills & Experience
Technical Experience
- Strong understanding of Microsoft Azure services, particularly Azure API Management (APIM).
- Experience managing API migration, integration, middleware, or cloud transformation projects.
- Knowledge of REST APIs, API gateways, authentication protocols (OAuth, JWT, OpenID Connect), and API lifecycle management.
- Familiarity with Azure networking, security, certificates, DNS, and application integration architecture.
Project Management Experience
- Proven experience leading large-scale enterprise technology migration programmes.
- Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional coordination skills.
- Experience managing multiple application teams and vendor stakeholders.
- Ability to manage competing priorities, dependencies, and complex migration schedules.
Soft Skills
- Strong leadership and influencing skills.
- Excellent communication and presentation abilities.
- Strong problem-solving and risk-management capabilities.
- Ability to work effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline.
- PMP, Agile, Scrum, or equivalent project management certification preferred.
- Microsoft Azure certifications are highly desirable.
Success Measures (KPIs)
- 100% of targeted APIs successfully onboarded to the new APIM platform.
- Application endpoint migrations completed within agreed timelines.
- Minimal production incidents during migration and cutover.
- Successful completion of testing and business sign-off.
- Migration completed within approved schedule.
- Stakeholder satisfaction and successful operational handover.