Senior API & AI Solutions Architect

Speedrun Talent Network; Town of Texas (WI); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is seeking a Staff Solutions Engineer to act as a trusted technical advisor for Fortune 500 and AI-native customers, architecting secure, scalable API ecosystems and agentic AI strategies.

You’ll lead technical engagements across multi-stakeholder teams, mentor junior SEs, deliver governance demos, and shape product direction through customer feedback, in a fast-paced, high-impact setting.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software or solutions engineering experience in SaaS or enterprise software.
• Proven track record owning complex, enterprise-level deals with multiple stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring SEs or technical team members.
• Hands-on with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud-native platforms.
• Experience with REST and GraphQL APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and API security patterns.
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tooling (Claude Code, Copilot, Codex).
• Working knowledge of AI/LLM architectures, including model routing and caching.
• Familiarity with MCP and agentic AI patterns.
• Strong listening and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Support field sales in explaining Kong's API and AI connectivity value.
• Conduct discovery to map customer requirements to Kong solutions.
• Support POCs through evaluation, owning technical validation and alignment.
• Ensure customer satisfaction across assigned accounts.
• Collaborate with support, product, and engineering to advocate for customers.
• Create technical documentation for DevOps and implementations.
• Lead API Management and AI governance evaluations.
• Deliver demonstrations of Kong's API & AI governance and MCP capabilities.
• Run technical feasibility workshops for AI architectures.
• Own the technical strategy for complex enterprise deals.
• Mentor junior SEs on skills, discovery methods, and deal strategy.
• Drive thought leadership via blogs, webinars, and conferences.
• Influence product direction from customer feedback.
• And other tasks as required.

Skills

Enterprise deal experience

Technical leadership

Mentoring others

Docker

Kubernetes

REST APIs

GraphQL APIs

CI/CD

API security patterns

AI tooling

AI/LLM architectures

Model Context Protocol

Cloud computing

Open source models

Strong communication

Stakeholder management

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

OpenAI Codex

Claude Code

GitHub Copilot

Job description

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is seeking a Staff Solutions Engineer to act as a trusted technical advisor for Fortune 500 and AI-native customers, architecting secure, scalable API ecosystems and agentic AI strategies.

You’ll lead technical engagements across multi-stakeholder teams, mentor junior SEs, deliver governance demos, and shape product direction through customer feedback, in a fast-paced, high-impact setting.