Staff Forward Deployed Engineer

Socket.dev; California (MO); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong Inc. is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to join our Professional Services group. You’ll work directly with enterprise teams to design, implement, and optimize Kong-based solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on‑prem environments.

You will lead hands-on implementations, build automation tooling, and drive migrations from legacy platforms while collaborating with product teams to influence roadmaps. This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy direct customer impact and complex,

Qualifications

• 8+ years in customer-facing engineering, platform engineering, or software roles.
• Strong hands-on software engineering and implementation experience.
• Experience with API gateways, API management, integrations, or distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Partner with enterprise customers to design, build, and implement Kong-based solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments.
• Lead hands-on implementation for API gateways, AI gateways, service mesh, and related connectivity tech.
• Build automation frameworks, migration tooling, and reusable accelerators.
• Drive migration projects from legacy API management to Kong.
• Collaborate with customer developers, platform teams, and execs to solve complex challenges.
• Develop production-grade code, scripts, and CI/CD integrations for engagements.
• Create reusable best practices, reference architectures, and design patterns for delivery excellence.
• Support strategic customer initiatives involving AI connectivity and modernization.

Skills

API gateways

Kubernetes

Cloud-native infra

Automation frameworks

CI/CD pipelines

Programming (Python/Go/Java/JS/Lua)

Terraform

GitOps

Tools

Terraform

Helm

Ansible

GitOps

Job description

Are you ready to unlock intelligence?

Join the global leader in API and AI governance in the era of Artificial Intelligence!

API traffic now outnumbers human traffic online, and a significant portion of that traffic is powered by the Kong platform, the world's most popular API gateway. As organizations modernize for AI-driven connectivity, Kong is uniquely positioned at the center of enterprise transformation.

We are seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to join Kong's growing Professional Services organization. This is a highly strategic, customer-facing engineering role focused on helping enterprise customers accelerate adoption of Kong's API and AI Connectivity platform through hands-on implementation, automation, migration tooling, and solution engineering.

As an FDE, you will work directly alongside customer engineering teams to solve complex technical challenges, accelerate migrations, build reusable automation, and deliver production-grade solutions in real-world enterprise environments. You will operate at the intersection of software engineering, architecture, platform engineering, and customer delivery.

This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy building, coding, solving ambiguous problems, and working directly with customers on mission-critical initiatives involving APIs, AI gateways, service connectivity, modernization, and cloud-native platforms.

You will collaborate closely with Solutions Architects, Engagement Managers, Product Engineering, Customer Success, and Product teams to ensure successful customer outcomes while also influencing Kong's product direction based on field experience.

Working at Kong is a unique opportunity to make a massive impact on Fortune 50/500 customers as they modernize mission-critical systems for the AI era.

Impact

Work directly with some of the world's largest enterprises to modernize API infrastructure and accelerate AI adoption through Kong's connectivity platform.

Growth

Accelerate your technical and professional growth through exposure to cutting-edge cloud-native technologies, distributed systems, AI connectivity, automation frameworks, and large-scale enterprise architectures.

Opportunity

Be part of a rapidly growing Professional Services organization that is shaping how enterprises adopt APIs, AI gateways, and modern connectivity platforms globally.

What You’ll Do:

• Partner directly with enterprise customers to design, build, and implement Kong-based solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments.

• Lead hands-on implementation efforts for API gateways, AI gateways, service mesh, developer portals, and related connectivity technologies.

• Build automation frameworks, migration tooling, custom integrations, and reusable accelerators to simplify customer adoption and modernization efforts.

• Drive migration initiatives from legacy API management platforms to Kong.

• Work closely with customer developers, platform teams, architects, security teams, and executives to solve complex technical and operational challenges.

• Develop production-grade code, scripts, plugins, CI/CD integrations, Kubernetes automation, and infrastructure tooling as part of customer engagements.

• Collaborate with Kong Product and Engineering teams to influence roadmap priorities based on real-world customer feedback and implementation learnings.

• Create reusable best practices, technical assets, reference architectures, documentation, and design patterns to scale delivery excellence across the organization.

• Support strategic customer initiatives involving AI connectivity, governance, platform modernization, and cloud-native transformation.

What You’ll Bring:

Experience

• 8+ years in customer-facing engineering, platform engineering, professional services, site reliability engineering, or software engineering roles.

• Strong hands-on software engineering and implementation experience.

• Experience with API gateways, API management, integrations, or distributed systems platforms.

• Strong Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure expertise.

• Experience building automation frameworks, deployment tooling, CI/CD pipelines, or migration tooling.

• Strong proficiency in Linux, networking, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps practices.

• Experience with major cloud providers including AWS, Azure, or GCP.

• Programming experience in languages such as Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, or Lua.

• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code and automation tooling such as Terraform, Helm, Ansible, or GitOps frameworks.

• Prior experience working in API Management, Open Source, Middleware, SaaS, or Infrastructure software companies is highly preferred.

Preferred Attributes:

• Strong builder mindset with the ability to solve complex technical problems with minimal supervision.

• Comfortable operating in ambiguous, fast-moving enterprise environments.

• Passion for working directly with customers and delivering measurable business outcomes.

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills across technical and executive audiences.

• Highly organized with strong prioritization and execution skills.

• Passion for innovation, modern infrastructure, APIs, AI, and cloud-native technologies.

• Team-oriented with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.

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.