Senior API & AI Solutions Architect

Kong; Sacramento (CA); On-site; USD 220,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong is seeking a Staff Solutions Engineer in Sacramento, CA to be a trusted technical advisor at the intersection of API management and AI connectivity. You’ll support field sales, run POCs, and craft technical strategies for complex enterprise deals, mentoring junior SEs and shaping product input.

You’ll lead demonstrations of Kong’s API & AI capabilities, participate in governance discussions, and drive customer success across high-impact accounts in a fast-paced, high-visibility environment.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering and/or solutions engineering in SaaS/open source/enterprise software.

Responsibilities

• Support field sales by demonstrating Kong API and AI connectivity value to customers.
• Conduct discovery conversations to map customer requirements to Kong solutions from review to production.
• Own technical validation and stakeholder alignment during POCs.
• Ensure customer satisfaction across assigned accounts.
• Collaborate with support, product, and engineering to advocate for customer needs.
• Create technical docs for DevOps, implementations, and services engagements.
• Lead API Management and AI governance evaluations, including MCP governance and prompt governance.
• Deliver demonstrations of Kong’s API & AI governance and agentic connectivity capabilities.
• Run Technical Feasibility Workshops to validate Kong’s fit for modern AI architectures.
• Own the technical strategy for complex enterprise deals from qualification through close.
• Mentor junior SEs on skills, discovery methods, and deal strategy.
• Contribute thought leadership through blogs, webinars, and industry events.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Technical leadership

APIs (REST/GraphQL)

CI/CD pipelines

OAuth2/OIDC/mTLS

AI-assisted development tooling

Model Context Protocol

LLM architectures

Cloud computing trends

Communication

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Cloud-native platforms

Job description

Kong is seeking a Staff Solutions Engineer in Sacramento, CA to be a trusted technical advisor at the intersection of API management and AI connectivity. You’ll support field sales, run POCs, and craft technical strategies for complex enterprise deals, mentoring junior SEs and shaping product input.

You’ll lead demonstrations of Kong’s API & AI capabilities, participate in governance discussions, and drive customer success across high-impact accounts in a fast-paced, high-visibility environment.