Senior Software Engineer, Control Plane

Kong; Macerata; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Bonus

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Paid holidays and PTO

Professional development opportunities

Job summary

Kong is seeking a Senior Software Engineer, Control Plane, based in Macerata, Italy. You will design and implement core features for the Kong Gateway Control Plane using Golang, owning the full lifecycle of services from design to deployment and operations.

You will lead architectural discussions to minimize debt and ensure 99.99% uptime, shaping cloud-native roadmaps and mentoring engineers. Join a team focused on a globally used platform underpinning API and AI traffic management, with equity,

Qualifications

• Production experience with Golang services.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems and API design.
• Hands-on Kubernetes experience and cloud-native ecosystem.
• Proficiency with relational databases (PostgreSQL).
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code practices.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement core features for the Kong Gateway Control Plane using Golang.
• Own end-to-end service lifecycle from design to deployment and operations.
• Lead architectural discussions to minimize debt and ensure 99.99% uptime.
• Influence roadmap for cloud-native components in a distributed system.
• Mentor engineers through code reviews and design sessions.
• Collaborate with product managers and other engineering teams on impactful solutions.
• Resolve complex bugs and performance bottlenecks in networking and configuration management components.

Skills

Golang

Distributed systems

API design

Kubernetes

Cloud-native architecture

Mentoring engineers

Code reviews

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Kubernetes

PostgreSQL

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

In this role you will design and implement core features for the Kong Gateway Control Plane using Golang, owning the full lifecycle of services from design to deployment. You will drive architectural decisions to maintain high uptime and performance while shaping a cloud-native roadmap. You’ll mentor engineers, collaborate with product teams, and tackle complex bugs to deliver a reliable developer experience at enterprise scale. This is a chance to impact a globally used platform that underpins API and AI traffic management.

• Offers Equity
• Offers Bonus
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid holidays and PTO
• Professional development opportunities and tools
• Design and implement core features for the Kong Gateway Control Plane using Golang
• Own end-to-end service lifecycle from design to deployment and operations
• Lead architectural discussions to minimize debt and ensure 99.99% uptime
• Influence roadmap for cloud-native components in a distributed system
• Mentor engineers through code reviews and design sessions
• Collaborate with product managers and other engineering teams on impactful solutions
• Resolve complex bugs and performance bottlenecks in networking and configuration management components
• Production experience with Golang services
• Deep understanding of distributed systems and API design
• Hands-on Kubernetes experience and cloud-native ecosystem
• Proficiency with relational databases (PostgreSQL)
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code practices
• Proactive ownership mindset
• Strong collaborative and cross-functional communication
• Bias for action in fast-paced environments
• Golang
• Distributed systems

Senior Software Engineer, Control Plane macerata, marche, it