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:
Kong is building the future of AI connectivity and API management. We're hiring a Senior Staff Design Technologist to sit at the intersection of product design, design systems, and frontend implementation — shaping how design and engineering work together more effectively at scale.
You'll join our ~20-person Product Design team, reporting to the VP of Design, as the second specialist focused on design systems. Our design systems practice is already strong — you'll contribute across all of it while helping us push into new territory: AI-enabled design workflows, deeper design ↔ engineering convergence, and how we design for emerging agent-driven experiences.
We're looking for someone with strong product and visual design instincts who has the technical fluency and collaboration skills to bridge design and engineering. Roughly half your time will be in design tools; the other half in code, tooling, and cross-functional collaboration
What You'll Do:
Lead AI-enabled design workflows
Build and maintain our AI prototyping starter kits, repos, and conventions
Write internal scripts, tools, and workflows that accelerate how the Product Design team works
Experiment with MCP Apps (ext-apps) and emerging agent UI patterns — helping establish how Kong designs for AI-native and agent-driven experiences
Stay close to what's emerging in AI tooling and enable the team on the latest best practices
Be a bridge between design and engineering
Build trusted, ongoing relationships with frontend engineers
Help reduce drift between design and implementation systems, in service of both teams
Drive platform UI cohesion
Collaborate with your design systems colleagues, designers, and engineers to identify or revamp reusable patterns
Audit and identify opportunities to reduce one-off patterns and improve cross-product cohesion
Contribute to documentation, usage guidance, and governance — and enable the team effectively on changes
Raise the bar on craft
Help establish a high standard for visual quality, interaction design, and usability across technical product experiences
Bring strong judgment around when to follow conventions versus when to push forward
Partner with designers to improve consistency, polish, and accessibility
What You'll Bring:
8+ years of experience in Design Engineering, Product Design, Design Systems, or similar hybrid roles — rooted in design
Strong product and visual design instincts, especially for technical or developer-focused products
Technical fluency with modern frontend systems — enough to collaborate deeply with engineers, contribute meaningfully to shared systems, and build internal tooling
Hands-on experience with AI tooling, prototyping workflows, or building design-adjacent scripts and automations
Familiarity with Figma ↔ code workflows — CodeConnect, design tokens, component APIs, Storybook, or similar
Experience working closely with both designers and frontend engineers as a collaborative partner
Genuine excitement about where AI is taking product development — and the initiative to help your team get there
Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to build trust across disciplines
Strong systems thinking and ability to balance short-term pragmatism with long-term scalability
Portfolio expectations:
A portfolio, site, and/or repo demonstrating:
Strong visual and interaction design craft
AI Prototyping, tooling, and technical experimentation
Design systems and frontend collaboration work
Multiple examples of driving meaningful impact backed by an effective process
#LI-AW1
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.
Skills Required
- 8+ years of product design experience with significant time owning or co-owning a design system at scale
- Exceptional modern visual and interaction design craft (type, color, spacing, motion)
- Detail-oriented, organized approach to systems work; thinking in states, variants, and edge cases
- Solid working knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and experience partnering with engineers on accessible component implementation, including high contrast support
- Track record of enabling a team of designers via documentation, critiques, office hours, or coaching
- Comfort partnering with engineering on implementation tradeoffs, component APIs, and leading a design system roadmap
- Strong written and verbal communication skills; ability to write clear guidance and hold craft decisions collegially
- Portfolio demonstrating design system work, component libraries, templates, documentation, accessibility decisions, and shipped product outcomes
- Comfort collaborating on AI-assisted prototyping and Figma ↔ code workflows
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
Gallery
