Wants and prefers people from big tech companies, think Meta, Amazon, Google etc. DOES NOT WANT people from financial or insurance companies or anything similar.
Technical Program Manager (Contractor) – API Unification / API Platform / Ads API
Role Overview
My client is seeking a Technical Program Manager (Contractor) to help drive execution, alignment, and production readiness across a set of interconnected API Platform and Ads API initiatives that are critical to the broader API Unification program.
This role is focused on bringing structure and momentum to several foundational technical workstreams, including:
· TypeSpec Pants pipeline
· Alloy emitter framework
· Pydantic support
· TypeSpec Mutation Pipeline
· GraphQL Emitter
· COI / Component Interfaces
The ideal TPM will help connect these technical efforts into a coherent, outcome-driven program plan with clear milestones, ownership, dependencies, risks, and production launch criteria. This is not a “status tracking” role — we are looking for someone who can help teams define what success looks like, drive cross-functional alignment, and accelerate delivery toward meaningful production outcomes.
What You’ll Do
Program Leadership and Roadmap Integration
· Integrate API Platform workstreams into the broader API Unification roadmap
· Build and maintain a unified view of milestones, dependencies, decision points, ownership, and success criteria across API Platform and Ads API
· Ensure workstreams are represented as part of a broader product/program outcome, not isolated technical efforts
· Help teams align on near-term milestones and longer-term production goals
Outcome and Milestone Definition
· Partner with engineering and technical leads to define:
· desired outcomes
· success criteria
· “definition of done”
· launch and readiness gates
· first meaningful production/adoption milestones
· Convert technical plans into outcome-based milestone plans, rather than task-based tracking
· Clarify what is experimental versus production-supported for each workstream
Cross-Team Dependency and Risk Management
· Surface and manage dependencies across API Platform, Ads API, and API Unification partner teams
· Track technical, organizational, and resourcing risks
· Create lightweight mechanisms for escalating blockers and driving decisions to closure
· Ensure risks and blockers are visible early and consistently reviewed
Production Readiness and Launch Planning
· Help define what “production ready” means for key initiatives, especially:
· TypeSpec Pants pipeline
· Alloy emitter framework + Pydantic support
· TypeSpec Mutation Pipeline + GraphQL Emitter
· COI / Component Interfaces
· Establish readiness criteria including documentation, support model, ownership, operational expectations, pilot scope, and adoption path
· Drive a structured path to production launch, especially for COI
Operating Cadence and Alignment
· Create a pragmatic cross-team operating model that improves visibility and alignment without adding unnecessary process
· Lead regular program reviews, milestone check-ins, and decision/risk tracking
· Ensure engineering owners, decision-makers, and partner teams remain aligned on scope, tradeoffs, and timing
Key Areas of Focus
1) API Unification Program Integration
Drive incorporation of API Platform workstreams into the broader API Unification roadmap with shared milestones, dependencies, decision points, and success criteria.
2) TypeSpec Pants Pipeline
Help establish a clear path for the TypeSpec Pants pipeline to become a dependable, documented, production-ready foundation for TypeSpec-based API workflows.
3) Alloy Emitter Framework + Pydantic Support
Drive clarity around the intended role, acceptance criteria, adoption path, and readiness model for generating Python/Pydantic models from TypeSpec.
4) TypeSpec Mutation Pipeline + GraphQL Emitter
Help align teams on the customer/problem being solved, scope of use cases, delivery milestones, and dependencies required to turn this into a usable capability for API Unification and Ads API.
5) COI / Component Interfaces
Bring structure, urgency, and accountability to the COI effort so it can move from architectural development to a clearly scoped and supported production launch.
Expected Deliverables
This contractor TPM will be expected to help produce and maintain outputs such as:
· Integrated Workstream Map
· ownership
· dependencies
· status
· target outcomes
· Outcome-Based Milestone Plan
· shipped capabilities
· readiness gates
· key decisions
· Decision and Risk Register
· open decisions
· blockers
· risks
· cross-team dependencies
· COI Production Launch Plan
· launch definition
· pilot scope
· readiness checklist
· ownership
· timeline
· adoption expectations
· API Unification Integration Plan
· clear mapping of how API Platform efforts support broader API Unification goals
What Success Looks Like
A successful TPM in this role will help ensure that:
· API Platform workstreams are clearly represented in the API Unification roadmap
· Milestones are tied to outcomes, not just engineering activity
· Dependencies between API Platform, Ads API, and partner teams are explicit
· Engineering owners and decision-makers are clear
· Risks and blockers are surfaced early and tracked consistently
· Teams can clearly answer:
· What outcome are we trying to achieve?
· Who benefits from it?
· What does “done” mean?
· What is the first meaningful production milestone?
· COI has a credible, actionable path to production launch
· Teams have shared clarity on what is production-supported versus experimental
Qualifications
Required
· 8+ years of experience in Technical Program Management, preferably supporting platform, infrastructure, developer tooling, or API-related programs
· Proven ability to drive execution across complex, ambiguous, highly technical cross-team initiatives
· Experience building milestone plans, managing dependencies, and driving risk/decision tracking across multiple engineering teams
· Strong ability to translate technical work into clear business/program outcomes
· Experience driving production readiness, launch planning, and operational alignment
· Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to work effectively with senior engineers, tech leads, and engineering managers
· Strong organizational skills with a bias toward clarity, accountability, and execution
Preferred
· Experience working with API platforms, developer infrastructure, schema/code generation systems, or platform architecture programs
· Familiarity with concepts such as:
· API lifecycle/tooling
· GraphQL
· code generation pipelines
· build systems
· production launch readiness
· Experience supporting open-ended architectural efforts and helping shape them into concrete, phased delivery plans
· Comfort operating in environments where technical direction is still evolving and outcomes need to be sharpened through collaboration
Ideal Candidate Profile
The ideal contractor TPM is:
· highly structured but lightweight in process
· comfortable working with deeply technical engineering teams
· able to identify ambiguity and turn it into clear plans and decisions
· strong at cross-team coordination without becoming purely administrative
· focused on outcomes, launch readiness, and visible execution
· skilled at creating a single operating view across multiple related workstreams
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