Site Reliability Engineer 2

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

Job summary

KongHQ is seeking a Site Reliability Engineer to join the global Platform SRE team responsible for building, operating, and scaling the company’s multi-region SaaS platform. You’ll design, automate, and run production systems across AWS, GCP, and Azure, covering Kubernetes clusters, service mesh, and gateway architectures to ensure reliability and security.

This hands-on role suits engineers who thrive on automating operations, improving performance, resilience, and deployment pipelines in a

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS or equivalent practical experience.
• Enterprise-scale SaaS/PaaS experience in multi‑region, secure environments.
• Deep Kubernetes expertise with fault-tolerant design and debugging.
• Proficient in Terraform/Terragrunt for IaC; familiar with CI/CD and GitOps.
• Programming in Go, Python or Bash for automation.
• Strong Linux/Unix networking, DNS/TLS/HTTP, load balancers, distributed systems.
• Experience with API gateways, service mesh, and observability stacks.
• Experience in 24/7/365 production support environments.

Responsibilities

• Operate and scale the global SaaS platform (Konnect) for reliability and performance.
• Build and maintain Kubernetes-based infra and deployment workflows using IaC tools.
• Design multi-region data/cache layers (PostgreSQL, Redis, ClickHouse, Druid).
• Manage gateway and mesh environments for hybrid/distributed architectures.
• Develop CI/CD pipelines and GitOps workflows to automate service delivery.
• Enhance observability with Datadog/Prometheus/Grafana and define SLOs.
• Collaborate with development/security to ensure reliability and security standards.
• Participate in 24/7 on-call rotations and improve incident response playbooks.
• Lead scaling initiatives to improve elasticity, reliability, and cost-efficiency.

Skills

Kubernetes

Terraform

Terragrunt

CI/CD

GitOps

Go

Python

Bash

Linux networking

API gateway

Service mesh

Kafka

Datadog/Prometheus

24/7 production support

Education

BS in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

ArgoCD

Atlantis

Helm

Terraform

Terragrunt

PostgreSQL

Redis

ClickHouse

Druid

Job description

About the Role:

As a Site Reliability Engineer, you’ll join the global Platform SRE team responsible for building, operating, and scaling the company’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 the company’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 the company’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 the company Gateway and the company 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 the company Gateway, the company 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.

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About the company:

the company, the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI‑native startups alike, the company’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.