Senior Solutions Engineer, AI/API Connectivity

Kong; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 220,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is seeking a Staff Solutions Engineer for Austin, TX to drive enterprise API and AI initiatives. You’ll guide customers through a secure, scalable API ecosystem and agentic AI strategies, acting as a trusted technical advisor.

You will own complex multi-stakeholder deals, mentor junior SEs, collaborate with product and engineering, and lead technical workshops and demonstrations of Kong’s API & AI governance capabilities.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering and/or solutions engineering experience at a SaaS, open source, or enterprise software company.
• Proven track record owning complex, enterprise-level deals with multiple technical and executive stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring or coaching other SEs or technical team members.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud-native platforms.
• Experience with REST and GraphQL APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and API security patterns (OAuth2, OIDC, mTLS).
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tooling — Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex, or equivalent is required.
• Working knowledge of AI/LLM architectures, including model routing, rate limiting, semantic caching, and prompt governance.
• Familiarity with Model Context Protocol (MCP) and agentic AI patterns.
• Solid understanding of cloud computing trends and open source business models.
• Strong listener and communicator — you can confidently lead discussions with engineers, architects, and executives.

Responsibilities

• Support field sales by explaining Kong's API and AI connectivity platform.
• Conduct discovery conversations to map requirements to Kong solutions.
• Support POCs through evaluation, owning technical validation and stakeholder alignment.
• Ensure customer satisfaction across assigned accounts.
• Collaborate with support, product, and engineering to advocate for customer needs.
• Create technical documentation for DevOps, implementations, and services.
• Lead and support API Management and AI Governance evaluations.
• Deliver demonstrations of Kong’s API & AI governance capabilities.
• Run Technical Feasibility Workshops to validate fit for AI architectures.
• Own the technical strategy for complex, multi-stakeholder deals from qualification through close.
• Mentor and coach junior SEs on skills, discovery, and deal strategy.
• Drive thought leadership via blogs, webinars, and conference talks.
• Influence product direction from customer feedback and market signals.

Skills

Senior engineer mindset

Solutions engineering

Enterprise deals

Mentoring SEs

REST & GraphQL

CI/CD pipelines

API security (OAuth2/OIDC/mTLS)

AI-assisted tooling

ML/LLM architectures

MCP familiarity

Agentic AI patterns

Communication & stakeholder mgmt

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Cloud-native platforms

Job description

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is seeking a Staff Solutions Engineer for Austin, TX to drive enterprise API and AI initiatives. You’ll guide customers through a secure, scalable API ecosystem and agentic AI strategies, acting as a trusted technical advisor.

You will own complex multi-stakeholder deals, mentor junior SEs, collaborate with product and engineering, and lead technical workshops and demonstrations of Kong’s API & AI governance capabilities.