Forward-Deployed AI & API Solutions Engineer

Kong Inc.; Arizona; On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, seeks a Forward Deployed Engineer to join our Professional Services team. You will design, implement, and automate Kong-based solutions for enterprise customers across cloud, hybrid, and on‑prem environments.

You will work directly with customer engineers, build production‑grade code and tooling, and help shape our roadmap with field insights. Strong Kubernetes, cloud, and software engineering skills are essential.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in customer-facing engineering, platform engineering, or related 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 AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Programming in Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, or Lua.
• Experience with IaC and tooling like Terraform, Helm, Ansible, or GitOps.
• Prior experience in API Management, Open Source, Middleware, SaaS, or Infrastructure software is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Partner with enterprise customers to 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, developer portals, and connectivity technologies.
• Build automation frameworks, migration tooling, and reusable accelerators to ease adoption and modernization.
• Drive migration initiatives from legacy API management platforms to Kong.
• Collaborate with customer developers, platform teams, architects, security, and executives to solve complex challenges.
• Develop production-grade code, scripts, plugins, CI/CD integrations, and Kubernetes tooling for customer engagements.
• Collaborate with Kong Product and Engineering to influence roadmap based on field feedback.
• Create reusable best practices, reference architectures, documentation, and design patterns.

Skills

8+ years

Hands-on software engineering

API gateways

Kubernetes

Cloud-native

Automation frameworks

CI/CD tooling

Linux proficiency

Networking

AWS/Azure/GCP

Python

Go

Java

JavaScript

Lua

Terraform

Helm

Ansible

GitOps

Open Source

Job description

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, seeks a Forward Deployed Engineer to join our Professional Services team. You will design, implement, and automate Kong-based solutions for enterprise customers across cloud, hybrid, and on‑prem environments.

You will work directly with customer engineers, build production‑grade code and tooling, and help shape our roadmap with field insights. Strong Kubernetes, cloud, and software engineering skills are essential.