Senior Software Engineer, Konnect Control Plane

Kong; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong is seeking a Software Engineer on the Konnect Control Plane team to architect the next‑generation cloud‑hosted control plane that manages global customer configurations. You will build microservices and APIs that ensure high availability and fast, seamless connectivity for Kong Konnect.

Bring 3+ years of distributed software experience, strong Go skills, and a passion for scalable systems, perf optimization, and automated testing. Collaboration with cross‑functional teams is essential.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience building distributed software in a team.
• Strong Go (Golang) programming skills and performant API design.
• Experience designing and scaling microservices on Kubernetes.
• Proficient in DevOps monitoring and observability for SaaS platforms.
• Familiar with L4/L7 proxies like Nginx, Envoy, or HAProxy.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Architect and scale microservices powering Kong Konnect's cloud-hosted control plane to manage global customer configurations seamlessly.
• Design, implement, and maintain highly performant, low-latency APIs and services that deliver exceptional Developer Delight.
• Drive solutions for technical problems of moderate complexity, focusing on preventing technical debt.
• Prevent regressions and guarantee product stability by writing robust, automated tests.
• Own the reliability and uptime of services in production by participating in an active on-call rotation.
• Collaborate with Product Management, Solutions Architects, and cross-functional engineering teams to implement impactful business features.

Skills

Go (Golang)

Distributed systems

Microservices

Kubernetes

Observability/Monitoring

API design

Communication

Tools

Nginx

HAProxy

Envoy

OpenTelemetry

Job description

Are you ready to unlock intelligence?

If you don’t think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job, please apply. 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.

The Mission:

At Kong, we are pioneering the Agentic Era of service connectivity by building the infrastructure that powers the modern API world. As a Software Engineer on the Konnect Control Plane team, you will architect the next‑generation cloud‑hosted control plane that manages global customer configurations seamlessly. Your work will directly empower developers worldwide, ensuring high availability, speed, and seamless connectivity for Kong's flagship service connectivity platform.

What You’ll Do:

• Architect and scale microservices that power Kong Konnect's cloud-hosted control plane to manage global customer configurations seamlessly.
• Design, implement, and maintain highly performant, low-latency APIs and services that deliver exceptional Developer Delight.
• Drive solutions for technical problems of moderate complexity, keeping an active focus on preventing technical debt.
• Prevent regressions and guarantee product stability by writing robust, automated tests.
• Own the reliability and uptime of services in production by participating in an active on‑call rotation.
• Collaborate closely with Product Management, Solutions Architects, and cross-functional engineering teams to implement impactful business features.

What You’ll Bring:

The Toolkit

• 3+ years of experience working in a team environment to develop, deliver, and maintain complex, distributed software solutions.
• Solid proficiency in Go (Golang) and designing relational database data models.
• Practical experience building, debugging, and maintaining microservices architectures at scale.
• Demonstrated experience performing DevOps monitoring, observability, and supporting a large‑scale SaaS platform running on Kubernetes and containerized environments.
• Working knowledge of L4/L7 proxies such as Nginx, HA‑proxy, or Envoy.
• Firm grasp of API lifecycle management, design standards, and testing frameworks (TDD/automated testing).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

The Kong DNA

• Ownership: You act as a driver, not a passenger, and take complete accountability for the quality of your systems and outcomes.
• Urgency: You thrive in a high-growth environment, iterating quickly and pushing for results with passion and grit.
• Collaboration: You break down silos, communicate transparently, and model the true spirit of a team player.

Bonus Points:

• Deep experience with Go standards and writing idiomatic, highly optimized Go.
• Direct experience with Nginx, OpenResty, LuaJIT, or the Kong gateway core.
• Experience with cloud-native observability stacks, specifically Datadog or OpenTelemetry.
• Active contributions to open‑source software projects.

About Kong:

Kong Inc., a leading developer of API and AI connectivity technologies, is building the infrastructure that powers the agentic era. Trusted by the Fortune 500 and startups alike, Kong's unified API and AI platform, Kong Konnect, enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI models. For more information, visit www.konghq.com.