Forward-Deployed AI & API Solutions Engineer

KONG; Phoenix (AZ); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to work with enterprise customers, designing and delivering Kong-based solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on‑premise environments. You will lead hands-on implementations, build automation, and drive migration from legacy platforms.

The role requires deep Kubernetes and cloud-native expertise, strong programming skills, and a proven ability to collaborate with diverse teams to achieve measurable outcomes.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in customer-facing engineering, platform engineering, or similar roles.
• Strong hands-on software engineering and implementation experience.
• Experience with API gateways, API management, 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.
• Programming in Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, or Lua.
• Experience with Infrastructure‑as‑Code tools like Terraform, Helm, Ansible, GitOps.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and implement Kong-based solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments.
• Lead hands-on implementation for API gateways, AI gateways, service mesh, and related tech.
• Build automation frameworks, migration tooling, integrations, and accelerators.
• Drive migration initiatives from legacy API management to Kong.
• Collaborate with customer developers, architects, and security teams to solve challenges.
• Develop production-grade code, scripts, plugins, and CI/CD integrations.
• Work with Product and Engineering to influence roadmap based on feedback.
• Create reusable best practices, reference architectures, and design patterns.

Skills

Customer-facing engineering

API gateways

Kubernetes

Cloud-native infrastructure

Automation

CI/CD pipelines

Programming languages

Linux & Networking

Tools

Terraform

Helm

Ansible

GitOps

Job description

Kong is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to work with enterprise customers, designing and delivering Kong-based solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on‑premise environments. You will lead hands-on implementations, build automation, and drive migration from legacy platforms.

The role requires deep Kubernetes and cloud-native expertise, strong programming skills, and a proven ability to collaborate with diverse teams to achieve measurable outcomes.