Kong Platform Migration Engineer — Hybrid DC

eTelligent Group; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

eTelligent Group in Washington, DC, is seeking a senior API gateway engineer to build out Kong on the IRS platform and migrate APIs with a migration factory approach. You will work under two-week sprints with an experienced platform engineer guiding the migration, ensuring no disruption to calling systems.

The role emphasizes secure API design, automated templates, and governance through IRS change control. A federal/customer environment experience is preferred.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in API gateway, integration or middleware engineering.
• Hands-on configuration of Kong, or comparable gateway (webMethods/API Gateway, Apigee, MuleSoft, AWS).
• Working knowledge of REST, HTTP, TLS/mTLS, OAuth2, OIDC, and JWT.
• Experience with Kubernetes/OpenShift and declarative Git configuration.

Responsibilities

• Configure Kong Gateway Enterprise control and data planes, Workspaces, RBAC, services, routes and plugins on OpenShift and cloud.
• Convert webMethods API definitions to Kong configuration using decK templates in Git.
• Migrate simple and medium APIs with appropriate security and provider grouping.
• Run functional equivalency tests comparing webMethods and Kong versions.
• Support dual run cutovers with gradual traffic shifts and rollback planning.
• Apply security patterns (mTLS, OAuth2, JWT, ACL, IP rate limiting) with IRS approval.
• Follow IRS change control: impact assessments, lower env testing, CAB approvals.

Skills

Kong configuration

Gateway tooling (webMethods/API/AWS)

Kubernetes/OpenShift

Linux scripting (Bash, Python/Go)

REST/HTTP/TLS/OAuth2/OIDC/JWT

Education

Bachelor's degree in a technical field

Tools

Git

decK templates

Job description

eTelligent Group in Washington, DC, is seeking a senior API gateway engineer to build out Kong on the IRS platform and migrate APIs with a migration factory approach. You will work under two-week sprints with an experienced platform engineer guiding the migration, ensuring no disruption to calling systems.

The role emphasizes secure API design, automated templates, and governance through IRS change control. A federal/customer environment experience is preferred.