Staff Technical Support Engineer

Kong; California, Northern (MO, KY); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong is seeking a Technical Support Engineer (TSE) to resolve complex, mission-critical issues across production and pre-production environments. You will collaborate with engineers to influence roadmaps and own critical customer outcomes.

The role demands strong API, HTTP, and cloud-architecture know-how, with hands-on troubleshooting for enterprise customers. You will work with global developers, document solutions, and mentor teammates while driving continuous improvements to tools and

Qualifications

• 5+ years in a high-touch, customer-facing technical role.
• Strong foundation in API management and HTTP protocols.
• Experience with OpenID Connect or OAuth authentication.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with top developers to implement Kong products and technologies.
• Lead investigations and troubleshoot customer issues via live calls and emails.
• Create knowledge articles to complement documentation.
• Provide real-time feedback to engineering and product on performance and customer needs.
• Work with Education, TAMs, CSMs, and PS on customer issues.
• Suggest improvements to tools and processes to raise service levels for Global 5000 customers.
• Provide technical mentorship and participate in ad hoc projects.

Skills

API management

HTTP protocols

OpenID Connect

OAuth

Cloud: AWS

Azure

GCP

Git/GitHub

CI/CD

AI tools

5+ yrs exp

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Serverless

Job description

Are you ready to unlock intelligence?

About the Role:

Join Kong's fast-paced Technical Support Engineering (TSE) team to resolve complex, mission-critical issues across production and pre-production environments. In this role, engineer-to-engineer collaboration drives success as you champion the customer's voice, directly influencing our product and engineering roadmaps. Expect high-impact work, genuine ownership, and the opportunity to build lasting relationships with customers and partners while mastering cutting-edge technologies.

What You'll Do:

• Working with top developers from around the world; helping to implement Kong Products and Technologies, including our API Gateway and AI Gateway solutions

• Leading the investigation of complex technical puzzles and working collaboratively to understand and resolve customer issues via live troubleshooting calls and emails in an enterprise environment

• Creating knowledge articles to compliment our documentation and enable customers to better understand product use cases

• Work closely with engineering and product by providing real-time feedback about product performance and customer needs

• Collaborate closely with other customer-facing teams, including Education, Technical Account Managers, CSMs, and PS for customer issues

• Participate in bringing innovation within the support team, the company, and our customers by looking for better ways to do the work we do, improve the tools we use, and improve the way we raise the bar on the service we deliver to our Global 5000 customers

• Provide technical mentorship to other team members and participate in any ad hoc projects

What You’ll Bring:

• Strong foundation in API management, HTTP protocols, and modern application architectures

• Experience implementing secure authentication and authorization flows (e.g., OpenID Connect, OAuth)

• Expertise with cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP) and container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, Serverless)

• Operational knowledge of Git/GitHub versioning, change control, and CI/CD workflows

• Ability to utilize AI tools (Claude, Gemini, etc.) to streamline technical workflows and diagnostics

• 5+ years in a high-touch, customer-facing technical role (e.g., Support Engineering, Solutions Architecture, or Technical Account Management)

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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.