Forward Deployed Engineer
Forward Deployed Engineer partnering with enterprise customers to implement Kong’s API and AI gateway platform, build automation and migration tooling, and deliver production solutions across cloud-native environments. Requires 8+ years in platform/SRE/software engineering and deep expertise in Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, and scripting languages.
About the job
What You’ll Do
- 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
What You’ll Bring
Experience
- 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
Preferred Attributes
- Strong builder mindset with the ability to solve complex technical problems with minimal supervision
- Comfortable operating in ambiguous, fast-moving enterprise environments
- Passion for working directly with customers and delivering measurable business outcomes
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills across technical and executive audiences
- Highly organized with strong prioritization and execution skills
- Passion for innovation, modern infrastructure, APIs, AI, and cloud-native technologies
- Team-oriented with a strong sense of ownership and accountability
Skills
Kubernetes, Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, Lua, Terraform, Helm, Ansible, AWS, Azure, GCP, CI/CD, Linux, Networking
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