Are you ready to power the World's connections?
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:
You will be the leader of the engineering team that builds the Kong AI gateway, empowering companies and developers around the world to govern every step of their AI & LLM based innovation.
You will need strong technical leadership and a solid background in AI and LLM technologies, so you are able to technically challenge engineers and ensure that they keep growing, make valuable contributions, and generally have a great experience in Kong. You will have the opportunity to influence the culture, facilitate technical delivery, and work with your team on strategy and execution.
What you'll be doing:
Hire, mentor, and maintain healthy Engineering teams who value collaboration and innovation.
Manage work assignments, measure key performance indicators (KPIs), assure high-quality work and SLA.
Own the customer escalation system technically, including collaboration with other departments, stakeholders (Sales, Customer Experience, Sales Engineering etc.) and where necessary customers.
Organize and manage your teams to fit constructively into the org as a whole and help the company succeed.
Set and manage expectations with other engineering teams, senior management, and external stakeholders.
Give constructive feedback to Engineers, conduct 1:1s, address inter-personal issues, and conduct performance reviews.
What you'll bring:
5+ years of managing engineering teams and obsessing over customer experience
Solid technical expertise for AI and LLM in one or more of the following:
APIs, models and consumption models for different providers
Self-hosted models
RAG and Vector Databases
MCP
Experience managing performance reviews, hiring, compensation.
Experience managing remote teams and distributed workforce
Demonstrated leadership of Engineering teams
On-premise, cloud and hybrid product background
Proven customer relationship skills sets
Business fluent English language skills both written and verbal
Experience managing Rust projects
Bonus Points:
Hands-on experience in managing NGINX/OpenResty backend services
Experience managing projects in an Enterprise Software company
#LI-BR2
About Kong:
Kong Inc., a leading developer of API and AI connectivity technologies, is building the infrastructure that powers the agentic era. trusted by the Fortune 500 and startups alike, Kong's unified API and AI platform, Kong Konnect, enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI models. For more information, visit www.konghq.com.
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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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is considered competitive for many roles, particularly in senior and technical positions, with bonuses and overtime enhancing earnings for some. Compensation is generally described as strong across a range of functions.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Policies such as flexible time off, company Unplug Days, U‑First Fridays, and a paid sabbatical create multiple avenues for rest and personal development. These offerings support work‑life balance for a distributed workforce.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Stock options and an employee stock purchase plan enable broad participation in company equity. Equity is positioned as a meaningful component of total rewards alongside cash compensation.
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What We Do
Kong Inc., a leading developer of cloud API technologies, is on a mission to enable companies around the world to become “API-first” and securely accelerate AI adoption. Kong helps organizations globally — from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises — unleash developer productivity, build securely and accelerate time to market.
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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