Staff Software Engineer, Konnect Core Platform

Kong; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong is seeking a senior identity platform engineer to design and implement advanced token management and a scalable identity infrastructure for global developers. You will lead the extensible claims engine, support dynamic attribute resolution, and optimize for sub-millisecond authentication latency across regions.

You will mentor teams, shape Kong Identity's developer experience, and drive security, compliance, and observability integrations across the platform.

Qualifications

• 7+ years building production identity platforms at leading providers or enterprise software.
• Deep expertise in OAuth 2.0 extensions (PKCE, mTLS, JWT) and secure token design.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement advanced token management systems with real-time revocation.
• Lead development of an extensible claims engine and contextual evaluation at token issuance.
• Architect global identity infrastructure with edge optimization and cross-region replication.
• Build rate limiting, anomaly detection, and fraud prevention for credential protection.
• Develop enterprise identity federation, including SAML bridge patterns and adapters.
• Drive Kong Identity developer experience with SDKs, webhooks, and analytics dashboards.
• Oversee client management systems with dynamic registration and policy enforcement.
• Shape plugin architecture for custom grant flows and third-party integrations.
• Lead compliance initiatives (SOC 2, FedRAMP, GDPR) with audit trails and data controls.
• Integrate Kong Identity with observability platforms for tracing and security events.
• Mentor teams on zero-trust, workload identity, and service mesh integration.

Skills

Identity platforms

OAuth 2.0 extensions

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, 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:

Kong is building the future of API management for developers. We’re a fast-growing, well-funded company with happy customers and motivated employees. Insomnia, acquired in 2019, is a full-lifecycle API development platform that has quickly become an integral part of Kong’s product portfolio.

What You’ll Do:

• Design and implement advanced token management systems, including refresh token rotation, proof-of-possession tokens, and custom token introspection with real-time revocation capabilities.
• Lead development of Kong Identity's extensible claims engine supporting dynamic attribute resolution, contextual claim injection, and complex business logic evaluation at token issuance.
• Architect global identity infrastructure with edge optimization, intelligent token caching, and cross-region replication strategies for sub-millisecond authentication latency worldwide.
• Design sophisticated rate limiting, anomaly detection, and fraud prevention systems to protect against credential stuffing, token abuse, and distributed attacks.
• Build enterprise identity federation capabilities, including SAML bridge patterns, external IdP chaining, and custom protocol adapters for legacy system integration.
• Lead technical strategy for Kong Identity's developer experience, including SDKs, webhooks, audit logging, and real-time analytics dashboards for token lifecycle visibility.
• Architect advanced client management systems supporting dynamic client registration, automated credential rotation, and programmatic policy enforcement.
• Design Kong Identity's plugin architecture enables custom grant flows, protocol extensions, and third-party integrations while maintaining security boundaries.
• Drive implementation of compliance frameworks (SOC 2, FedRAMP, GDPR), including comprehensive audit trails, data residency controls, and privacy-preserving token designs.
• Lead technical initiatives for Kong Identity's integration with observability platforms, supporting distributed tracing, metrics collection, and security event correlation.
• Mentor engineering teams on advanced identity concepts including zero-trust architectures, workload identity, and service mesh integration patterns.

What You’ll Bring:

• 7+ years of experience building production identity platforms at leading identity providers or enterprise software companies, with proven track record of handling millions of authentication requests daily.
• Deep expertise in advanced OAuth 2.0 extensions (PKCE, mTLS, JWT bear