Software Engineer, AI Gateway - Milan

Kong Inc.; Milano; In loco; EUR 40.000 - 70.000; Tempo pieno

Descrizione del lavoro

A leading developer of cloud API technologies in Milan is seeking a Software Engineer for the AI Gateway Team. In this role, you will build and maintain API management software for AI applications. Ideal candidates have 3+ years of programming experience, expertise in Linux systems, and a strong sense of ownership. The position offers an innovative work environment focused on AI and LLM technologies.

Competenze

• 3+ years of programming experience in server-side applications.
• Experience building and debugging scalable and reliable applications.
• Solid technical expertise in Linux systems troubleshooting.

Mansioni

• Build and maintain API management software for AI.
• Implement new features including load balancing and database support.
• Troubleshoot bugs and perform optimizations.

Conoscenze

Programming in server-side applications

Building scalable applications

Low-level technical expertise in Linux

Experience in distributed systems

Familiarity with AI LLM concepts

Hands on experience with Rust

Strumenti

NGINX

OpenResty

Kong

LuaJIT

Envoy

Istio

Descrizione del lavoro

Are you ready to power the World’s connections?

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

You will join the engineering team that builds the Kong AI gateway, empowering companies and developers around the world to govern every step of their AI & LLM based innovation.

As a Software Engineer in the AI Gateway Team, you will be working on core features such as multi-LLM routing and balancing, semantic caching and routing, MCP, and more.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Responsible for building and maintaining API management software for AI and LLMs and its underlying stack.
• Implement new innovative features including proxying capabilities, load balancing, databases support that extend Kong AI Gateway’s offering.
• Bugs troubleshooting, performance tuning and low-level optimizations.
• Fill the gaps between Kong and third-party deployment platforms and tooling.
• Any additional tasks required by manager.

What You’ll Bring

• 3+ years of programming in server-side applications and components.
• Experience building and debugging applications that are highly scalable, distributed, reliable and resilient.
• Solid hands-on low-level technical expertise in Linux systems troubleshooting, and profiling.
• Experience in distributed systems, Linux networking stack and computer systems programming, Kong works with APIs on both L7 and L4 transports and protocols, so this expertise and knowledge are required.
• Comfortable working with a remotely distributed team.
• Strong sense of ownership and excellent verbal and written communication skills – engineers at Kong write the documentation for their products
• Familiarity with AI LLM concepts and applications development
• Hands on experience with Rust

Bonus Points

• Hands on experience with NGINX / OpenResty / Kong / LuaJIT.
• Hands on experience with Envoy or Istio.

About Kong

Kong Inc., a leading developer of cloud API technologies, is on a mission to enable companies around the world to become “API-first” and securely accelerate AI adoption. Kong helps organizations globally — from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises — unleash developer productivity, build securely, and accelerate time to market. For more information about Kong, please visit www.konghq.com or follow us on X @thekonginc.