Senior Security Engineer (Security Champion), Runtimes

Kong; United States; Hybrid; USD 86,000 - 107,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

CCNL Commercio contract

Hybrid work Milan Hub

Job summary

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is seeking a Security Champion to join the Runtimes team. You will secure the AI Gateway and API Gateway, coaching teams on secure coding and integrating security into day-to-day development.

Role focuses on threat modeling, vulnerability triage, and collaboration with platform engineering to address emerging AI threat patterns. Hybrid work from Milan hub.

Qualifications

• 3+ years building production software, with 2+ years in a dedicated security role (AppSec, vulnerability research, or pentesting)
• Solid coding skills in a object oriented language (Rust, Java, Python, Go, or similar)
• Practical threat‑modeling experience
• Working knowledge of cybersecurity (especially L7 security and authentication)
• Basic knowledge of AI attack vectors

Responsibilities

• Run security-focused code audits, threat modeling, and secure design reviews across our AI Gateway and API Gateway capabilities
• Own vulnerability management end-to-end: triage, reproduction, verification
• Partner with AI Gateway engineering on emerging AI/LLM threat patterns (ie: prompt injection, data leakage, model abuse)
• Coach engineers on secure coding practices, turning security findings into lasting team habits
• Contribute hands‑on to Gateway feature work, with security built-in from day one

Skills

Security

Threat modeling

Secure coding

AI/LLM security

Tools

Nginx

OpenResty

Envoy

Kong

Lua

Job description

Are you ready to unlock intelligence? Nobody checks every box - we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others. At Kong, our API and AI Gateway sits at the center of how Fortune 500 enterprises and AI-native startups secure and govern the flow of intelligence. Every request into a company's infrastructure goes through the Gateway first. Security isn't a side concern here, it's the top priority: you're guarding the front door. You'll be securing AI traffic while the playbook is still being written: prompt injection, agentic authorization, MCP. These are problems nobody has fully solved yet. We're looking for a Software Engineer with a security specialization to join our Runtimes team as a Security Champion: an engineer who writes real code and makes security a built-in part of how we ship.

What you'll do:

• Run security-focused code audits, threat modeling, and secure design reviews across our AI Gateway and API Gateway capabilities
• Own vulnerability management end-to-end: triage, reproduction, verification
• Partner with AI Gateway engineering on emerging AI/LLM threat patterns (ie: prompt injection, data leakage, model abuse)
• Coach engineers on secure coding practices, turning security findings into lasting team habits
• Contribute hands‑on to Gateway feature work, with security built-in from day one

What you'll bring:

• 3+ years building production software, with 2+ years in a dedicated security role (AppSec, vulnerability research, or pentesting)
• Solid coding skills in a object oriented language (Rust, Java, Python, Go, or similar)
• Practical threat‑modeling experience
• Working knowledge of cybersecurity (especially L7 security and authentication)
• Basic knowledge of AI attack vectors

Nice‑to‑have:

• Familiarity with L7 proxies/API gateway architecture (Nginx, OpenResty, Envoy, HAProxy or Kong)
• Experience with Lua
• Open‑source contributions
• Willingness to learn Rust is important for where our platform is heading: we’ll help you get there

What we offer:

• A permanent contract under the CCNL Commercio (Quadro) Bonus and welfare system
• Hybrid work from our Milan Hub at Talent Garden Isola, and a seat at the table where security decisions actually shape what millions of API calls run through every day

About Kong:

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500 and AI-native startups alike, Kong ’s unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic - on any model, any cloud.

For more information, visit .

Compensation Range:

€77,180 - €95,340 Originally posted on Himalayas