Staff Solutions Engineer — API & AI Connectivity Leader

Kong; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 132,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong Inc. is seeking a Staff Solutions Engineer to own complex enterprise deals at the intersection of API management and AI connectivity.

You will advise customers, run discovery, validate POCs, and coordinate with product and engineering to deliver secure, scalable API ecosystems for AI-enabled architectures. You will mentor junior SEs, deliver technical blogs and talks, and help shape Kong's approach to MCP governance, semantic caching, and model context routing in a fast-paced,

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software or solutions engineering experience in SaaS, open source, or enterprise software.
• Experience owning complex, enterprise-level deals with multiple technical and executive stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring other SEs or technical teams.
• Hands-on with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud-native platforms.
• Experience with REST and GraphQL APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and API security patterns.

Responsibilities

• Support field sales by clarifying Kong API/AI value for customers.
• Run discovery to map requirements to Kong solutions from review to production.
• Advise on POC during evaluation with technical validation and stakeholder alignment.
• Ensure satisfaction across assigned accounts and drive renewals.
• Collaborate with support, product and engineering to advocate customer needs.
• Create technical docs for DevOps, implementations and services.
• Lead API Management and AI governance evaluations and scoping.
• Deliver demos of Kong API & AI governance capabilities (MCP, semantic caching, guardrails).
• Facilitate Technical Feasibility Workshops to validate fit for AI/agentic architectures.
• Own technical strategy for complex enterprise deals from qualification to close.
• Mentor junior SEs on skills, discovery, and deal strategy.
• Support thought leadership via blogs, webinars, and industry talks.
• Influence product direction from customer feedback and market signals.

Skills

Enterprise deals

Stakeholder mgmt

Docker

Kubernetes

REST APIs

GraphQL APIs

CI/CD

OAuth2/OIDC

mTLS

AI tooling

MCP knowledge

Cloud computing

Communication

Leadership

Mentoring

Public speaking

Discovery methods

Deal strategy

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Cloud-native platforms

Job description

Kong Inc. is seeking a Staff Solutions Engineer to own complex enterprise deals at the intersection of API management and AI connectivity.

You will advise customers, run discovery, validate POCs, and coordinate with product and engineering to deliver secure, scalable API ecosystems for AI-enabled architectures. You will mentor junior SEs, deliver technical blogs and talks, and help shape Kong's approach to MCP governance, semantic caching, and model context routing in a fast-paced,