Site Reliability Engineer 2

Kong; Olympia (WA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong is seeking a Site Reliability Engineer to join the global Platform SRE team responsible for building, operating, and scaling Kong’s multi-region SaaS platform that powers the world’s API connectivity.

You will design, automate, and run production systems spanning AWS, GCP, and Azure, with focus on reliability, performance, and security across regions and clouds. This hands-on role emphasizes automation, incident response, and scalable architectures.

Qualifications

• BS in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience.
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Responsibilities

• Operate and scale Kong’s global SaaS platform (Konnect) ensuring reliability, availability and performance across regions and clouds.
• Build, automate, and maintain Kubernetes-based infrastructure and deployment workflows.
• Design and optimize multi-region data and caching layers (PostgreSQL, Redis, ClickHouse, Druid) for high availability and low latency.
• Operate and improve Kong Gateway and Kong Mesh environments for hybrid and distributed architectures.
• Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines and GitOps workflows to automate service delivery and infrastructure changes.
• Enhance observability and incident response with Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, Thanos and define SLOs.
• Collaborate with development and security teams to ensure reliability, security, and regulatory compliance.
• Participate in 24/7 on-call rotation and improve operational playbooks and postmortems.
• Lead scaling initiatives to improve elasticity, reliability, and cost-efficiency across the SaaS platform.

Skills

Kubernetes

Cloud platforms

Go

Python

Bash

Linux

Networking

Education

BS in Computer Science

Tools

Terraform

Terragrunt

Helm

ArgoCD

Datadog

Prometheus

Grafana

Thanos

PostgreSQL

Redis

ClickHouse

Druid

Atlantis

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

As a Site Reliability Engineer, you’ll join the global Platform SRE team responsible for building, operating, and scaling Kong’s multi-region SaaS platform that powers the world’s API connectivity.

You’ll design, automate, and run production systems serving thousands of customers across AWS, GCP, and Azure. You’ll work on everything from multi-region Kubernetes clusters to service mesh and gateway architectures, ensuring the reliability, scalability, and security of Kong’s SaaS offerings.

This is a hands-on role ideal for engineers who thrive on running production SaaS systems at scale, automating operations, and continuously improving performance, resilience, and deployment pipelines.

What You’ll Do

• Operate and scale Kong’s global SaaS platform (Konnect), ensuring reliability, availability, and performance across regions and clouds.
• Build, automate, and maintain Kubernetes-based infrastructure and deployment workflows using Terraform/Terragrunt, Helm, and ArgoCD.
• Design, maintain, and optimize multi-region data and caching layers — including PostgreSQL, Redis, ClickHouse, and Druid — for high availability and low latency.
• Operate and improve Kong Gateway and Kong Mesh environments supporting hybrid and distributed architectures.
• Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines and GitOps workflows to automate service delivery and ensure consistent infrastructure changes.
• Enhance observability and incident response readiness through systems like Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, and Thanos, defining and tracking SLOs.
• Collaborate closely with development and security teams to ensure smooth operation of SaaS services in compliance with reliability, security, and regulatory standards.
• Participate in a global 24/7 on-call rotation and drive continuous improvement of operational playbooks and postmortem practices.
• Lead and contribute to scaling initiatives that improve elasticity, reliability, and cost-efficiency across the SaaS platform.

What You’ll Bring

• BS in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience.
• Proven experience managing SaaS or PaaS systems at enterprise scale (multi-region, multi-tenant, secure environments).
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes, including debugging cluster/networking issues and designing for fault tolerance and scalability.
• Strong proficiency with Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform or Terragrunt.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and GitOps workflows (ArgoCD, Atlantis, Helm).
• Proficiency in one or more programming languages (Go, Python, Bash) for automation and tooling.
• Solid understanding of Linux/Unix systems, networking (DNS, TLS/SSL, HTTP), load balancers and distributed systems.
• Experiencing working with API gateway and service mesh technologies
• Familiarity with streaming systems like Kafka and observability platforms (Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana).
• Experience working in a 24/7/365 production support environment.

Bonus Points

• Hands-on experience with Kong Gateway, Kong Mesh, or similar service connectivity technologies.
• Experience operating ClickHouse, Druid, or other time-series and analytics databases.
• Experience managing PostgreSQL and Redis in multi-region configurations.
• Working knowledge of AWS networking (PrivateLink, Transit Gateway, VPC Peering, Firewalls), Azure VNet, or GCP NCC.
• Strong understanding of disaster recovery, resiliency testing, and compliance-driven reliability practices.

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 www.konghq.com.