# Senior Staff Forward Deployed Engineer

**Company:** [Kong](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/kong)
**Location:** Remote
**Role:** Solutions Architecture
**Salary:** $192k – $274k/yr
**Experience:** 8+ years
**Skills:** Kubernetes, Api Gateways, Api Management, Cloud Infrastructure, Linux, Networking, DevOps, CI/CD, Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, Terraform, Helm, Ansible
**Posted:** 2026-09-09

> Build and deploy Kong API and AI connectivity solutions for enterprise customers, leading migrations, automation, integrations, and production implementations across cloud-native environments. Requires 8+ years of engineering experience, strong Kubernetes and cloud expertise, and customer-facing technical leadership.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Partner with enterprise customers to design, build, and implement Kong-based solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments.
- Lead hands-on implementation of API gateways, AI gateways, service meshes, developer portals, and related connectivity technologies.
- Build automation frameworks, migration tooling, custom integrations, and reusable accelerators.
- Drive migrations from legacy API management platforms to Kong.
- Collaborate with customer developers, platform teams, architects, security teams, and executives to solve technical and operational challenges.
- Develop production-grade code, scripts, plugins, CI/CD integrations, Kubernetes automation, and infrastructure tooling.
- Work with Product and Engineering teams to influence roadmap priorities using customer feedback.
- Create reusable best practices, technical assets, reference architectures, documentation, and design patterns.
- Support customer initiatives involving AI connectivity, governance, platform modernization, and cloud-native transformation.

## Requirements
- 8+ years of experience in customer-facing engineering, platform engineering, professional services, site reliability engineering, or software engineering.
- 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.
- Proficiency in Linux, networking, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps practices.
- Experience with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
- Programming experience with Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, or Lua.
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code and automation tools such as Terraform, Helm, Ansible, or GitOps frameworks.

## Nice-to-haves
- Experience in API management, open source, middleware, SaaS, or infrastructure software companies.
- Strong builder mindset and ability to solve complex problems with minimal supervision.
- Comfort working in ambiguous, fast-moving enterprise environments.
- Customer-focused approach with excellent communication and collaboration skills across technical and executive audiences.
- Strong organization, prioritization, ownership, and execution skills.
- Passion for APIs, AI, innovation, modern infrastructure, and cloud-native technologies.

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**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/6ea8a445-5524-4a3e-8d41-7789847aaf78
**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/6ea8a445-5524-4a3e-8d41-7789847aaf78