Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for creating, managing and implementing data encryption and key management in a software application through an application programming interface (API) via a SAAS-based API-based platform. A developer can quickly and easily build encryption into any application with an API accessed through an API-based platform that allows the developer to enter basic information about an application, generate encryption keys, download a client library and implement the encryption into the application based on the application information and encryption keys with only two calls to the API. The encryption is built into the software layer and the keys are managed remotely, providing security and simplicity for implementing and executing encryption.