Staff Solutions Engineer - West

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

Job summary

Kong is seeking a Staff Solutions Engineer in the United States to be at the center of API and AI connectivity. You will advise customers, map requirements to Kong solutions, and lead technical validation through POCs and workshops.

You will own technical strategy for multi-stakeholder deals, mentor junior SEs, and help shape product direction with customer feedback and market signals. This role emphasizes enterprise impact and cross-functional collaboration.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering and/or solutions engineering experience in SaaS or enterprise software.
• Proven track record owning complex, enterprise deals with multiple stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring other SEs or technical team members.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud-native platforms.
• Experience with REST and GraphQL APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and API security patterns.

Responsibilities

• Support field sales in helping customers understand Kong's API and AI connectivity platform.
• Conduct discovery conversations to map requirements to Kong solutions from review to production.
• Own technical validation and stakeholder alignment during POCs and evaluations.
• Ensure customer satisfaction across assigned accounts and collaborate with teams to advocate for needs.
• Create technical documentation for DevOps, implementations, and services engagements.
• Lead API Management and AI Governance evaluations including use-case scoping and governance requirements.
• Deliver demonstrations of Kong’s API/AI governance capabilities and run feasibility workshops.

Skills

Enterprise deal ownership

Mentoring other SEs

Software engineering

AI tooling experience

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Cloud-native platforms

REST APIs

GraphQL APIs

CI/CD pipelines

OAuth2 / OIDC / mTLS security patterns

Job description

Are you ready to unlock intelligence? 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

Are you ready to sit at the epicenter of the API and AI connectivity revolution? As a Staff Solutions Engineer at Kong, you won’t just be selling a platform — you’ll be a trusted technical advisor helping the world’s most innovative enterprises architect secure, scalable API ecosystems while navigating the transition into the agentic AI era. Kong sits at the intersection of API management and AI connectivity, and you’ll be the person who makes that story real for customers.

What You’ll Do

• 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, from initial product reviews through to production.
• Support POCs throughout the entire evaluation process, owning technical validation and stakeholder alignment.
• Ensure customer satisfaction across your assigned set of accounts.
• Collaborate with support, product, and engineering teams to advocate for customer needs.
• Create technical documentation for DevOps, implementations, and services engagements.
• Lead and support API Management and AI Governance evaluations, including scoping API/AI use cases, LLM traffic management, and governance requirements.
• Deliver demonstrations of Kong’s API AI governance and agentic connectivity capabilities, including Model Context Protocol (MCP) governance, semantic caching, prompt guardrails, and shadow AI detection.
• Run API AI-focused Technical Feasibility Workshops (TFWs) to validate Kong’s fit for modern and/or AI/agentic architectures.
• Own the technical strategy for complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise deals from qualification through close.
• Mentor and coach junior SEs on technical skills, discovery methods, and deal strategy.
• Drive thought leadership by authoring technical blogs, hosting webinars, speaking at industry events and conferences such as AWS re:Invent, Google Next, API AI summit, and regional events.
• Influence product direction by synthesizing customer feedback and market signals into actionable input for the product team.
• And any additional tasks required by manager.

What You’ll Bring

• 7+ years of software engineering and/or solutions engineering experience at a SaaS, open source, or enterprise software company.
• 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.
• Experience with REST and GraphQL APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and API security patterns (OAuth2, OIDC, mTLS).
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tooling — Claude Code