Staff Solutions Engineer: API & AI Governance Leader

Kong Inc.; Texas; On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, seeks a Staff Solutions Engineer to act as a trusted technical advisor for Fortune 500s and AI-native startups. You will help customers architect secure, scalable API ecosystems and guide them through POCs, technical validation, and stakeholder alignment.

You’ll collaborate with product and engineering, deliver demonstrations of Kong's governance capabilities, and lead multi-stakeholder engagements while mentoring junior SEs and contributing to

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering or solutions engineering experience in SaaS, open source, or enterprise software.
• Proven track record owning complex, enterprise-level deals with multiple technical and executive stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring or coaching other SEs or technical team members.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud-native platforms.

Responsibilities

• Support field sales in helping customers understand the value of the Kong API and AI connectivity platform.
• Conduct discovery conversations to understand customer requirements and map them to Kong solutions.

Skills

SaaS experience

Enterprise deals

Mentoring SEs

Docker

Kubernetes

REST APIs

GraphQL APIs

CI/CD pipelines

API security patterns

AI tooling

AI/LLM architectures

Model Context Protocol

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, seeks a Staff Solutions Engineer to act as a trusted technical advisor for Fortune 500s and AI-native startups. You will help customers architect secure, scalable API ecosystems and guide them through POCs, technical validation, and stakeholder alignment.

You’ll collaborate with product and engineering, deliver demonstrations of Kong's governance capabilities, and lead multi-stakeholder engagements while mentoring junior SEs and contributing to