Software Engineer 2

kong; India; Hybrid; INR 1,500,000 - 2,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to work directly with enterprise customers, building and implementing Kong-based solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments.

You will lead hands-on migrations, automation, and integration efforts, collaborating with multiple teams to deliver production-grade outcomes in real-world settings. Strong coding and customer-facing delivery experience are essential.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in customer-facing engineering, platform engineering, professional services, 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.
• Proficiency in Linux, networking, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps practices.
• Experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and implement Kong-based solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments.
• Lead hands-on implementation for API gateways, AI gateways, service mesh, and related connectivity technologies.
• Build automation frameworks, migration tooling, and reusable accelerators to ease adoption.
• Drive migrations from legacy API platforms to Kong.
• Develop production-grade code, scripts, plugins, and CI/CD integrations.

Skills

Kubernetes

Python

Go

Java

JavaScript

Lua

Terraform

Helm

Ansible

GitOps

Linux

Networking

Tools

Terraform

Helm

Ansible

Job description

About the Role:

We are seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to join Kong's growing Professional Services organization. This is a highly strategic, customer-facing engineering role focused on helping enterprise customers accelerate adoption of Kong's API and AI Connectivity platform through hands-on implementation, automation, migration tooling, and solution engineering. As an FDE, you will work directly alongside customer engineering teams to solve complex technical challenges, accelerate migrations, build reusable automation, and deliver production-grade solutions in real-world enterprise environments. You will operate at the intersection of software engineering, architecture, platform engineering, and customer delivery. This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy building, coding, solving ambiguous problems, and working directly with customers on mission-critical initiatives involving APIs, AI gateways, service connectivity, modernization, and cloud-native platforms. You will collaborate closely with Solutions Architects, Engagement Managers, Product Engineering, Customer Success, and Product teams to ensure successful customer outcomes while also influencing Kong's product direction based on field experience. Working at Kong is a unique opportunity to make a massive impact on Fortune 50/500 customers as they modernize mission-critical systems for the AI era.

What's in it for you?

Impact

Work directly with some of the world's largest enterprises to modernize API infrastructure and accelerate AI adoption through Kong's connectivity platform.

Growth

Accelerate your technical and professional growth through exposure to cutting-edge cloud-native technologies, distributed systems, AI connectivity, automation frameworks, and large-scale enterprise architectures.

Opportunity

Be part of a rapidly growing Professional Services organization that is shaping how enterprises adopt APIs, AI gateways, and modern connectivity platforms globally.

What You'll Do:

• 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.

What You'll Bring:

Experience

• 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 sk