{"schemaVersion":"jobsearcher.job.v1","id":"fffa478b4b7dffd9b48ebfc8","url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/fffa478b4b7dffd9b48ebfc8","canonicalUrl":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/fffa478b4b7dffd9b48ebfc8","title":"Staff Forward Deployed Engineer","description":"Are you ready to unlock intelligence?\n\nIf you don’t think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box - we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others.\n\nAbout the Role:\n\nJoin the global leader in API and AI governance in the era of Artificial Intelligence!\n\nAPI traffic now outnumbers human traffic online, and a significant portion of that traffic is powered by the Kong platform, the world’s most popular API gateway. As organizations modernize for AI-driven connectivity, Kong is uniquely positioned at the center of enterprise transformation.\n\nWe are seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to join Kong’s growing Professional Services organization. This is a highly strategic, customer-facing engineering role focused on helping enterprise customers accelerate adoption of Kong’s API and AI Connectivity platform through hands-on implementation, automation, migration tooling, and solution engineering.\n\nAs an FDE, you will work directly alongside customer engineering teams to solve complex technical challenges, accelerate migrations, build reusable automation, and deliver production-grade solutions in real-world enterprise environments. You will operate at the intersection of software engineering, architecture, platform engineering, and customer delivery.\n\nThis role is ideal for engineers who enjoy building, coding, solving ambiguous problems, and working directly with customers on mission-critical initiatives involving APIs, AI gateways, service connectivity, modernization, and cloud-native platforms.\n\nYou will collaborate closely with Solutions Architects, Engagement Managers, Product Engineering, Customer Success, and Product teams to ensure successful customer outcomes while also influencing Kong’s product direction based on field experience.\n\nWorking at Kong is a unique opportunity to make a massive impact on Fortune 50/500 customers as they modernize mission-critical systems for the AI era.\n\nImpact\n\nWork directly with some of the world’s largest enterprises to modernize API infrastructure and accelerate AI adoption through Kong’s connectivity platform.\n\nGrowth\n\nAccelerate your technical and professional growth through exposure to cutting-edge cloud-native technologies, distributed systems, AI connectivity, automation frameworks, and large-scale enterprise architectures.\n\nOpportunity\n\nBe part of a rapidly growing Professional Services organization that is shaping how enterprises adopt APIs, AI gateways, and modern connectivity platforms globally.\n\nWhat You’ll Do:\n\nPartner directly with enterprise customers to design, build, and implement Kong-based solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments.\n\nLead hands-on implementation efforts for API gateways, AI gateways, service mesh, developer portals, and related connectivity technologies.\n\nBuild automation frameworks, migration tooling, custom integrations, and reusable accelerators to simplify customer adoption and modernization efforts.\n\nDrive migration initiatives from legacy API management platforms to Kong.\n\nWork closely with customer developers, platform teams, architects, security teams, and executives to solve complex technical and operational challenges.\n\nDevelop production-grade code, scripts, plugins, CI/CD integrations, Kubernetes automation, and infrastructure tooling as part of customer engagements.\n\nCollaborate with Kong Product and Engineering teams to influence roadmap priorities based on real-world customer feedback and implementation learnings.\n\nCreate reusable best practices, technical assets, reference architectures, documentation, and design patterns to scale delivery excellence across the organization.\n\nSupport strategic customer initiatives involving AI connectivity, governance, platform modernization, and cloud-native transformation.\n\nWhat You’ll Bring:\n\nExperience\n\n8+ years in customer-facing engineering, platform engineering, professional services, site reliability engineering, or software engineering roles.\n\nStrong hands-on software engineering and implementation experience.\n\nExperience with API gateways, API management, integrations, or distributed systems platforms.\n\nStrong Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure expertise.\n\nExperience building automation frameworks, deployment tooling, CI/CD pipelines, or migration tooling.\n\nStrong proficiency in Linux, networking, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps practices.\n\nExperience with major cloud providers including AWS, Azure, or GCP.\n\nProgramming experience in languages such as Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, or Lua.\n\nExperience with Infrastructure-as-Code and automation tooling such as Terraform, Helm, Ansible, or GitOps frameworks.\n\nPrior experience working in API Management, Open Source, Middleware, SaaS, or Infrastructure software companies is highly preferred.\n\nPreferred Attributes:\n\nStrong builder mindset with the ability to solve complex technical problems with minimal supervision.\n\nComfortable operating in ambiguous, fast-moving enterprise environments.\n\nPassion for working directly with customers and delivering measurable business outcomes.\n\nExcellent communication and collaboration skills across technical and executive audiences.\n\nHighly organized with strong prioritization and execution skills.\n\nPassion for innovation, modern infrastructure, APIs, AI, and cloud-native technologies.\n\nTeam-oriented with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.\n\nAbout Kong:\n\nKong 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.\n\nCompensation Range: $192,010 - $274,300","company":"Kong","rawCompany":"kong","city":"Phoenix","state":"AZ","isRemote":false,"isActive":false,"createdAt":"2026-09-14T07:58:09.706Z","occupations":[{"code":"15-1299.08","title":"Computer Systems Engineers/Architects","slug":"computer-systems-engineers-architects"},{"code":"15-1252.00","title":"Software Developers","slug":"software-developers"},{"code":"41-9031.00","title":"Sales Engineers","slug":"sales-engineers"}],"industries":[{"code":"541512","title":"Computer Systems Design Services","slug":"computer-systems-design-services"},{"code":"541511","title":"Custom Computer Programming Services","slug":"custom-computer-programming-services"},{"code":"513210","title":"Software Publishers","slug":"software-publishers"}],"jobPosting":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"JobPosting","title":"Staff Forward Deployed Engineer","description":"Are you ready to unlock intelligence?\n\nIf you don’t think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box - we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others.\n\nAbout the Role:\n\nJoin the global leader in API and AI governance in the era of Artificial Intelligence!\n\nAPI traffic now outnumbers human traffic online, and a significant portion of that traffic is powered by the Kong platform, the world’s most popular API gateway. As organizations modernize for AI-driven connectivity, Kong is uniquely positioned at the center of enterprise transformation.\n\nWe are seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to join Kong’s growing Professional Services organization. This is a highly strategic, customer-facing engineering role focused on helping enterprise customers accelerate adoption of Kong’s API and AI Connectivity platform through hands-on implementation, automation, migration tooling, and solution engineering.\n\nAs an FDE, you will work directly alongside customer engineering teams to solve complex technical challenges, accelerate migrations, build reusable automation, and deliver production-grade solutions in real-world enterprise environments. You will operate at the intersection of software engineering, architecture, platform engineering, and customer delivery.\n\nThis role is ideal for engineers who enjoy building, coding, solving ambiguous problems, and working directly with customers on mission-critical initiatives involving APIs, AI gateways, service connectivity, modernization, and cloud-native platforms.\n\nYou will collaborate closely with Solutions Architects, Engagement Managers, Product Engineering, Customer Success, and Product teams to ensure successful customer outcomes while also influencing Kong’s product direction based on field experience.\n\nWorking at Kong is a unique opportunity to make a massive impact on Fortune 50/500 customers as they modernize mission-critical systems for the AI era.\n\nImpact\n\nWork directly with some of the world’s largest enterprises to modernize API infrastructure and accelerate AI adoption through Kong’s connectivity platform.\n\nGrowth\n\nAccelerate your technical and professional growth through exposure to cutting-edge cloud-native technologies, distributed systems, AI connectivity, automation frameworks, and large-scale enterprise architectures.\n\nOpportunity\n\nBe part of a rapidly growing Professional Services organization that is shaping how enterprises adopt APIs, AI gateways, and modern connectivity platforms globally.\n\nWhat You’ll Do:\n\nPartner directly with enterprise customers to design, build, and implement Kong-based solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments.\n\nLead hands-on implementation efforts for API gateways, AI gateways, service mesh, developer portals, and related connectivity technologies.\n\nBuild automation frameworks, migration tooling, custom integrations, and reusable accelerators to simplify customer adoption and modernization efforts.\n\nDrive migration initiatives from legacy API management platforms to Kong.\n\nWork closely with customer developers, platform teams, architects, security teams, and executives to solve complex technical and operational challenges.\n\nDevelop production-grade code, scripts, plugins, CI/CD integrations, Kubernetes automation, and infrastructure tooling as part of customer engagements.\n\nCollaborate with Kong Product and Engineering teams to influence roadmap priorities based on real-world customer feedback and implementation learnings.\n\nCreate reusable best practices, technical assets, reference architectures, documentation, and design patterns to scale delivery excellence across the organization.\n\nSupport strategic customer initiatives involving AI connectivity, governance, platform modernization, and cloud-native transformation.\n\nWhat You’ll Bring:\n\nExperience\n\n8+ years in customer-facing engineering, platform engineering, professional services, site reliability engineering, or software engineering roles.\n\nStrong hands-on software engineering and implementation experience.\n\nExperience with API gateways, API management, integrations, or distributed systems platforms.\n\nStrong Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure expertise.\n\nExperience building automation frameworks, deployment tooling, CI/CD pipelines, or migration tooling.\n\nStrong proficiency in Linux, networking, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps practices.\n\nExperience with major cloud providers including AWS, Azure, or GCP.\n\nProgramming experience in languages such as Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, or Lua.\n\nExperience with Infrastructure-as-Code and automation tooling such as Terraform, Helm, Ansible, or GitOps frameworks.\n\nPrior experience working in API Management, Open Source, Middleware, SaaS, or Infrastructure software companies is highly preferred.\n\nPreferred Attributes:\n\nStrong builder mindset with the ability to solve complex technical problems with minimal supervision.\n\nComfortable operating in ambiguous, fast-moving enterprise environments.\n\nPassion for working directly with customers and delivering measurable business outcomes.\n\nExcellent communication and collaboration skills across technical and executive audiences.\n\nHighly organized with strong prioritization and execution skills.\n\nPassion for innovation, modern infrastructure, APIs, AI, and cloud-native technologies.\n\nTeam-oriented with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.\n\nAbout Kong:\n\nKong 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.\n\nCompensation Range: $192,010 - $274,300","datePosted":"2026-09-14T07:58:09.706Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:58:09.706Z","hiringOrganization":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Kong","sameAs":"https://jobsearcher.com"},"jobLocation":{"@type":"Place","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","addressLocality":"Phoenix","addressRegion":"AZ","addressCountry":"US"}},"identifier":{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"JobSearcher","value":"fffa478b4b7dffd9b48ebfc8"},"url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/fffa478b4b7dffd9b48ebfc8"}}