Software Engineer 2, Ai Gateway

Kong; Toscana; On-site; EUR 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Bonus

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Paid holidays and PTO

Job summary

Kong is seeking a Software Engineer 2 for the AI Gateway team in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. You will build and evolve API management for AI/LLM workloads, focusing on multi-LLM routing, semantic caching, and high-scale components with a globally distributed team.

You bring hands-on systems expertise, 3+ years of server-side programming in Golang or Rust, and strong Linux profiling and network skills to deliver low-latency, reliable software.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of server-side programming experience.
• Hands-on experience with Golang or Rust.
• Proven ability to build and debug highly scalable, distributed systems.
• Strong Linux systems troubleshooting and profiling skills.
• Experience with distributed systems and Linux networking on L7/L4.
• Comfortable working in a globally distributed team.
• Strong ownership and communication skills.
• Familiarity with AI/LLM concepts.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain API management software for AI/LLM stacks.
• Develop features such as proxying, load balancing, and database support for Kong AI Gateway.
• Troubleshoot bugs, tune performance, and perform low-level optimizations.
• Bridge Kong with third-party deployment platforms and tooling.
• Handle additional tasks as assigned by management.

Skills

Server-side programming

Golang

Rust

Distributed systems

Linux troubleshooting

Communication

Ownership

Tools

Linux networking tools

Kong tooling

Job description

Join the AI Gateway engineering team to help build and evolve Kong's API management stack for AI and LLM workloads. You will shape core features like multi-LLM routing, semantic caching, and high-scale components, partnering with a distributed team to deliver reliable, low-latency capabilities. You’ll work on proxying, load balancing, and platform integrations, driving performance and robustness. This role offers the chance to influence how enterprises govern AI-driven API traffic at scale. A strong candidate brings hands-on systems expertise and a proactive, ownership-driven approach.

• Equity
• Bonus
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid holidays and PTO
• Build and maintain API management software for AI/LLM stacks
• Develop features such as proxying, load balancing, and database support for Kong AI Gateway
• Troubleshoot bugs, tune performance, and perform low-level optimizations
• Bridge Kong with third-party deployment platforms and tooling
• Handle additional tasks as assigned by management
• 3+ years of server-side programming
• Hands-on experience with Golang or Rust
• Proven ability to build and debug highly scalable, distributed, reliable systems
• Strong Linux systems troubleshooting and profiling skills
• Experience with distributed systems and Linux networking on L7/L4
• Comfortable working in a globally distributed team
• Strong ownership and communication skills (documentation written by engineers)
• Familiarity with AI/LLM concepts
• ownership
• clear written and verbal communication
• collaboration in a distributed team
• Golang
• Rust
• Linux systems programming and profiling

Software Engineer 2, AI Gateway lucca, toscana, it