Kong · Posted 1d ago
Staff Solutions Engineer (AI Specialist)
Job relayed by Stapply Data, its source: you apply there.
- Location
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Contract
- Full-time
- Role
- ML engineering
- Source
- Stapply Data
Stack
- LLM
- Kubernetes
- Docker
- CI/CD
The posting
Join Kong, a leading company at the intersection of API management and AI connectivity. As a Staff Solutions Engineer, you will be a trusted technical advisor, helping innovative enterprises architect secure and scalable API ecosystems while navigating the transition into the agentic AI era. You will support field sales, conduct discovery conversations, own technical validation, ensure customer satisfaction, collaborate with support and engineering teams, create technical documentation, lead API management and AI governance evaluations, deliver demonstrations, run technical feasibility workshops, own the technical strategy for complex enterprise deals, mentor junior SEs, drive thought leadership, and influence product direction.
- Support field sales in helping customers understand the value of the Kong API and AI connectivity platform. - Conduct discovery conversations to understand customer requirements and map them to Kong solutions, from initial product reviews through to production. - Lead and support API Management and AI Governance evaluations, including scoping API/AI use cases, LLM traffic management, and governance requirements.
- 7+ years of software engineering and/or solutions engineering experience at a SaaS, open source, or enterprise software company - Working knowledge of AI/LLM architectures, including model routing, rate limiting, semantic caching, and prompt governance - Experience with REST and GraphQL APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and API security patterns (OAuth2, OIDC, mTLS) - Proven track record owning complex, enterprise-level deals with multiple technical and executive stakeholders - Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud-native platforms - Strong listener and communicator — you can confidently lead discussions with engineers, architects, and executives - Familiarity with Model Context Protocol (MCP) and agentic AI patterns - Enthusiasm for working in a high-profile, fast-paced environment at the intersection of API and AI connectivity - Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tooling — Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex, or equivalent is required - Solid understanding of cloud computing trends and open source business models - Experience mentoring or coaching other SEs or technical team members