Staff Technical Support Engineer

Kong; Sacramento (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 145,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, seeks a hands-on Technical Support Engineer to resolve critical issues across production and pre-production environments. You will collaborate with developers, champion the customer's voice, and influence product roadmaps.

This role offers high-impact work, true ownership, and the chance to mentor teammates while leveraging cutting-edge technologies in cloud and container stacks.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in a high-touch, customer-facing technical role.
• Strong foundation in API management, HTTP protocols, and modern architectures.
• Experience implementing secure authentication and authorization flows (OpenID Connect, OAuth).
• Proficient with cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP) and containers.
• Ability to use AI tools (Claude, Gemini, etc.) to streamline technical workflows and diagnostics.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with top developers to implement Kong products and technologies, including API Gateway and AI Gateway solutions.
• Lead the investigation of complex technical puzzles and troubleshoot customer issues via live calls and emails in an enterprise environment.
• Create knowledge articles to complement documentation and help customers understand use cases.
• Provide real-time feedback to engineering and product about performance and customer needs.
• Collaborate with Education, Technical Account Managers, CSMs, and PS for customer issues.
• Push for innovation within the support team, tooling, and processes to raise the bar for Global 5000 customers.
• Mentor team members and participate in ad hoc projects.

Skills

API management

HTTP protocols

Cloud platforms

OAuth/OpenID Connect

Docker

Kubernetes

Serverless

Git/GitHub

CI/CD

AI tooling

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

GitHub

Job description

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)

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.

Compensation Range: $120K - $145K