Forward Deployed Engineer

Kong Inc.

Forward Deployed Engineer at Kong improving enterprise connectivity through API and AI solutions. Collaborating closely with customers and team members to deliver production-grade solutions for critical initiatives.

Posted 5/15/2026full-timeRemote • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesSeniorLead💰 $120,960 - $172,800 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AnsibleAWSAzureCloudDistributed SystemsGoGoogle Cloud PlatformJavaJavaScriptKubernetesLinuxLuaOpen SourcePythonTerraform

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Partner directly with enterprise customers to design, build, and implement Kong-based solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments.
Lead hands-on implementation efforts for API gateways, AI gateways, service mesh, developer portals, and related connectivity technologies.
Build automation frameworks, migration tooling, custom integrations, and reusable accelerators to simplify customer adoption and modernization efforts.
Drive migration initiatives from legacy API management platforms to Kong.
Work closely with customer developers, platform teams, architects, security teams, and executives to solve complex technical and operational challenges.
Develop production-grade code, scripts, plugins, CI/CD integrations, Kubernetes automation, and infrastructure tooling as part of customer engagements.
Collaborate with Kong Product and Engineering teams to influence roadmap priorities based on real-world customer feedback and implementation learnings.
Create reusable best practices, technical assets, reference architectures, documentation, and design patterns to scale delivery excellence across the organization.
Support strategic customer initiatives involving AI connectivity, governance, platform modernization, and cloud-native transformation.

Requirements

What you’ll need

8+ years in customer-facing engineering, platform engineering, professional services, site reliability engineering, or software engineering roles.
Strong hands-on software engineering and implementation experience.
Experience with API gateways, API management, integrations, or distributed systems platforms.
Strong Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure expertise.
Experience building automation frameworks, deployment tooling, CI/CD pipelines, or migration tooling.
Strong proficiency in Linux, networking, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps practices.
Experience with major cloud providers including AWS, Azure, or GCP.
Programming experience in languages such as Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, or Lua.
Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code and automation tooling such as Terraform, Helm, Ansible, or GitOps frameworks.
Prior experience working in API Management, Open Source, Middleware, SaaS, or Infrastructure software companies is highly preferred.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Offers Equity
Offers Bonus
Access to healthcare benefits
401(k) plan
Short and long term disability benefits
Basic life and AD&D insurance

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

API gatewaysKubernetescloud-native infrastructureautomation frameworksCI/CD pipelinesLinuxnetworkingDevOps practicesPythonTerraform

Soft Skills

customer-facing engineeringproblem-solvingcollaborationleadershipcommunication