Are you ready to unlock intelligence?
If you don’t think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box - we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others.
About the Role:
As Kong advances into the Agentic Era, the AI Gateway team is developing the vital infrastructure that links enterprise systems with generative AI technologies. In this position, you will focus on engineering the core system powering live AI traffic. You will take ownership of the runtime and data plane responsible for routing, translating, securing, and analyzing every request, ensuring performance, security, and scalability as AI workloads expand.
What You'll Do:
Responsible for designing, building and maintaining Kong’s AI Gateway runtime and its underlying data plane stack.
Architecture, design, and implement new innovative features including proxying capabilities, semantic/intelligent routing, load balancing, guardrails and compression, and identity, that extend Kong’s AI Gateway offering.
Build and maintain security, performance, and compliance foundations, including token cost management, access control, and low-level optimizations for production AI workloads.
Engage with the open source community and extend Kong core to support the latest industry trends.
Fill the gaps between Kong AI Gateway and third-party AI/ML providers, deployment platforms, and tooling.
And any additional tasks required by the manager.
What You'll Bring:
8+ years of programming in server-side applications and components.
Experience designing, prototyping, building and debugging applications that are highly scalable, distributed, reliable and resilient.
Solid hands-on low-level technical expertise in Linux systems troubleshooting, and profiling.
Experience in distributed systems, Linux networking stack and computer systems programming, Kong works with APIs on both L7 and L4 transports and protocols, so this expertise and knowledge are required.
Comfortable working with a remotely distributed team.
Strong sense of ownership and excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Familiarity with AI LLM concepts and applications development.
Bonus Points:
Hands-on experience with NGINX/OpenResty/Kong/LuaJIT.
Hands-on experience with Envoy or Istio.
Hands-on experience with Rust.
Hands-on experience leveraging AI agents to deliver intricate software systems efficiently and with superior quality.
#LI-CL1
About Kong:
Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI-native startups alike, Kong’s unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic — on any model, any cloud. For more information, visit www.konghq.com.
Skills Required
- 8+ years of programming experience in server-side applications and components
- Experience designing, prototyping, building, and debugging highly scalable, distributed, reliable, and resilient applications
- Hands-on low-level expertise in Linux systems troubleshooting and profiling
- Experience with distributed systems, the Linux networking stack, and computer systems programming
- Knowledge of APIs operating across Layer 7 and Layer 4 transports and protocols
- Ability to work comfortably with a remotely distributed team
- Strong ownership and excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Familiarity with AI LLM concepts and application development
- Hands-on experience with NGINX, OpenResty, Kong, or LuaJIT
- Hands-on experience with Envoy or Istio
- Hands-on experience with Rust
Kong Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Kong and has not been reviewed or approved by Kong.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Flexible PTO, company-wide Unplug Days, and a four‑week paid sabbatical after five years are prominently offered to support rest and work–life balance. These programs are presented as meaningful perks beyond base pay and are highlighted across official materials and third‑party summaries.
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Healthcare Strength — U.S. medical, dental, and vision coverage is described as strong, with plan quality drawing positive sentiment. Solid healthcare appears to contribute meaningfully to overall satisfaction with the total package.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Stock options are offered to most employees, creating ownership upside alongside cash compensation. Equity is positioned as a visible component that helps keep offers competitive for certain technical and go‑to‑market roles.
Kong Insights
What We Do
Kong Inc., a leading developer of API and AI connectivity technologies, is building the connectivity layer for AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500 and AI-native startups alike, Kong’s unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic — on any model, any cloud. No AI without APIs.
Why Work With Us
It starts with how we show up for each other. We’ve created a workplace that’s intentionally flexible, deeply inclusive, and built for meaningful collaboration — whether virtual or in person. We trust our teams to own their work, and we give them the support, tools, and freedom to grow.
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