Senior Staff Software Engineer - Agent Marketplace

Kong; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong Inc. is seeking a seasoned architect to join a zero-to-one engineering squad building the coordination fabric for agent-to-API and agent-to-agent transactions on Kong's runtime stack. You will own the end-to-end design and delivery of high-performance marketplace surfaces.

You’ll mentor engineers, translate product bets into concrete milestones, document architectures, and collaborate across gateway runtime, security plugins, and core teams to scale distributed systems at global scale.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience engineering enterprise-grade production software.
• Expertise with a modern backend stack (Golang or similar).
• Deep architectural command of API infrastructure, Kubernetes, and cloud-native patterns.
• Experience with multi-tenant architectures, usage-based metering pipelines, and secure data exchange.
• Strong written communication and ability to work in distributed global teams.

Responsibilities

• Architect end-to-end full-stack surfaces of the marketplace loop, delivering high-performance tools and REST API substrate.
• Design agent-native UX, MCP server capabilities, sandboxed test environments, and CLI/SDK workflows.
• Scale transaction infrastructure with identity verification, metering, and multi-party settlement pipelines.
• Drive cross-functional execution with gateway runtime, security plugins, and core teams for integration.
• Lead architectural design reviews and prevent scaling bottlenecks in distributed backends.
• Mentor engineers and translate product bets into defined, shippable milestones.
• Own documentation and product specifications for all systems you architect.

Skills

Distributed systems

Golang backend

API architecture

Kubernetes

Cloud-native patterns

Technical leadership

Remote collaboration

Tools

Kong Konnect

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.

About the Role

Architect the future of machine-to-machine commerce as a founding member of a zero-to-one engineering squad. You will design, build, and scale the coordination fabric for agent-to-API and agent-to-agent transactions—spanning discovery, identity, billing, and settlement—built directly on top of Kong’s world‑class runtime stack. Operating as an autonomous startup unit inside Kong, this team is responsible for lowering organizational drag, unlocking engineering velocity, and establishing Kong’s absolute leadership in the Agentic Era.

What You’ll Do

• Architect and own the end-to-end full-stack surfaces of the marketplace loop, delivering high-performance tools, the underlying REST API substrate, and developer-facing onboarding systems.
• Design the foundational agent-native user experience, creating robust Model Context Protocol (MCP) server capabilities, sandboxed test environments, and elegant CLI/SDK generation workflows.
• Scale and protect the transaction infrastructure by building high-reliability pipelines for programmatic identity verification, usage attribution, granular metering, and complex multi-party settlement.
• Drive cross-functional execution across Kong's engineering ecosystem, partnering with gateway runtime, security plugins, and global core teams to smoothly integrate marketplace features.
• Lead architectural design reviews and champion a zero-technical‑debt culture while proactively preventing scaling bottlenecks across distributed backend components.
• Mentor engineers across the organization, multiplying the team's output by translating ambiguous product bets into highly defined, modular, and shippable technical milestones.
• Own the technical lifecycle completely by writing crystal‑clear engineering documentation and product specifications for every system you architect.

What You’ll Bring

• 7+ years of experience engineering enterprise-grade production software with a proven capability to design, build, and support complex distributed systems from scratch.
• Master-level expertise with a modern backend stack (such as Golang or similar systems languages) alongside deep architectural command of API infrastructure, Kubernetes, and cloud-native patterns.
• Extensive hands-on experience developing autonomous agent applications, tool-calling systems, prompt loops, or systems designed explicitly for machine consumption.
• Deep operational familiarity with multi-tenant architectures, usage-based metering pipelines, billing integration patterns, or secure data exchange layers.
• Strong written communication and technical articulation skills, with an unwavering comfort operating within remote, globally distributed engineering environments (West Coast/Bay Area alignment preferred).

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.