kong - Forward Deployed Engineer

Trenton, New Jersey, United States - Hybrid$133k - $190k2mo ago

In Office Senior NA Cloud Computing Software Frontend Engineer Go Java Lua Linux Python

Requirements

• 8+ years in customer-facing engineering, platform engineering, professional services, site reliability engineering, or software engineering roles. • Strong hands-on software engineering and implementation experience. • Experience with API gateways, API management, integrations, or distributed systems platforms. • Strong Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure expertise. • Experience building automation frameworks, deployment tooling, CI/CD pipelines, or migration tooling. • Strong proficiency in Linux, networking, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps practices. • Experience with major cloud providers including AWS, Azure, or GCP. • Programming experience in languages such as Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, or Lua. • Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code and automation tooling such as Terraform, Helm, Ansible, or GitOps frameworks. • Prior experience working in API Management, Open Source, Middleware, SaaS, or Infrastructure software companies is highly preferred. • PREFERRED ATTRIBUTES • Strong builder mindset with the ability to solve complex technical problems with minimal supervision. • Comfortable operating in ambiguous, fast-moving enterprise environments. • Passion for working directly with customers and delivering measurable business outcomes. • Excellent communication and collaboration skills across technical and executive audiences. • Highly organized with strong prioritization and execution skills. • Passion for innovation, modern infrastructure, APIs, AI, and cloud-native technologies. • Team-oriented with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.

Responsibilities

• Partner directly with enterprise customers to design, build, and implement Kong-based solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments. • Lead hands-on implementation efforts for API gateways, AI gateways, service mesh, developer portals, and related connectivity technologies. • Build automation frameworks, migration tooling, custom integrations, and reusable accelerators to simplify customer adoption and modernization efforts. • Drive migration initiatives from legacy API management platforms to Kong. • Work closely with customer developers, platform teams, architects, security teams, and executives to solve complex technical and operational challenges. • Develop production-grade code, scripts, plugins, CI/CD integrations, Kubernetes automation, and infrastructure tooling as part of customer engagements. • Collaborate with Kong Product and Engineering teams to influence roadmap priorities based on real-world customer feedback and implementation learnings. • Create reusable best practices, technical assets, reference architectures, documentation, and design patterns to scale delivery excellence across the organization. • Support strategic customer initiatives involving AI connectivity, governance, platform modernization, and cloud-native transformation.

Benefits

• Estimated Base Salary $133,056 – $190,080 • Offers Equity • Offers Bonus • Kong has different base pay ranges for different work locations within the United States and Canada, which allows us to pay employees competitively and consistently in different geographic markets. Compensation varies depending on a wide array of factors, including but not limited to specific candidate location, role, skill set and level of experience. Certain roles are eligible for additional rewards including sales incentives depending on the terms of the applicable plan and role. Benefits may vary depending on location. US based employees are typically offered access to healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan, short and long term disability benefits, basic life and AD&D insurance, among others. • Upload your resume here to autofill key application fields. • Drop your resume here! • Parsing your resume. Autofilling key fields... • or drag and drop here • Add anything else you would like to share. • I prefer not to answer • Another Gender Identity • Heterosexual / straight • Asian or Asian American • Black or African American • Hispanic or Latine • Indigenous or Native American • Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander • Person with disability • Refugee or immigrant • None of the above • Yes, Kong can contact me about future job opportunities for up to 3 years. • Note: The consent period lasts for 3 years • Recruiting Privacy Policy • Kong may use Artificial Intelligence with this application. Learn more.