{"id":4176458,"url":"https://alion.io/job/kong-senior-software-engineer-kubernetes","title":"Senior Software Engineer - Kubernetes","company":{"id":4941,"name":"Kong","domain":"konghq.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/kong","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":86,"open_postings":21,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.524,"repost_share":0.048,"time_to_fill_p50_days":44,"computed_at":"2026-11-12T10:38:37Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Milan, Italy"],"countries":["IT"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":75000,"max":85000,"currency":"EUR","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":94341},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"API Gateway","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"GCP","optional":false},{"name":"Go","optional":false},{"name":"Kong","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"Service Mesh","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-12T13:51:49Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-12","last_verified_at":"2026-11-12T16:11:44Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"Are you ready to unlock intelligence?\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.\nAbout the Role\nAs a Senior Software Engineer at Kong, you will play a key role in designing, developing, and optimizing our cutting-edge API gateway and cloud-native connectivity solutions. You’ll work on high-performance, scalable software that empowers organizations to manage APIs and microservices efficiently across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments.\nAt Kong, we are revolutionizing API connectivity with open-source and enterprise-grade solutions that power some of the world’s most demanding applications. The team’s core products, Kong Gateway Operator and Kong Ingress Controller, enable seamless, secure, and intelligent service connectivity for modern architectures, including Kubernetes, multi-cloud, and service mesh deployments. If you're passionate about distributed systems, cloud-native technologies, and high-performance APIs, we’d love to hear from you!\nWhat You’ll Be Doing\nDesigning, developing, and maintaining Kong’s Gateway Operator and Ingress Controller to ensure reliability, performance, and scalability.\n\nContributing to open-source projects and engaging with the community to drive innovation in API connectivity.\n\nCollaborating with cross-functional teams (engineering, product, DevOps) to build new features and enhance existing functionality.\n\nWriting clean, efficient, and well-tested code in Golang while ensuring high code quality through automated testing and peer reviews.\n\nOptimizing performance for high-throughput, low-latency distributed systems.\n\nBuilding and maintaining integrations with Kubernetes and cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure).\n\nParticipating in technical design discussions, architecting solutions, and contributing to technical roadmaps.\n\nTroubleshooting complex system issues and ensuring high availability and resilience.\n\nMentoring junior engineers and fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration.\n\nStaying up to date with emerging trends in cloud computing, Kubernetes, and service meshes.\n\nWhat You’ll Bring\n5+ years of software engineering experience, with a strong focus on backend development.\n\nProficiency in Golang (or strong experience in another modern programming language with the ability to ramp up in Golang).\n\nDeep knowledge of Kubernetes and the wider cloud-native ecosystem.\n\nExperience designing and building high-performance, scalable distributed systems.\n\nFamiliarity with APIs, microservices, and networking (L4/L7 concepts).\n\nStrong understanding of observability, monitoring, and debugging techniques in cloud environments.\n\nExperience working with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.\n\nAbility to contribute to and navigate open-source projects.\n\nStrong problem-solving skills and the ability to work independently in a distributed team.\n\nExcellent communication skills, with a passion for knowledge sharing and mentoring.\n\nThis position is open to candidates located in Milan (Italy).\n\nIf you’re excited about building the future of AI connectivity with cutting-edge cloud-native technologies, apply today!\nAbout Kong:\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.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3689,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Italy","iso":"IT","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Integration & API Management","Developer Tools"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-12T16:11:44Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":44,"reasons":["conf:1","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-11-12T18:08:16Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":94341,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/kong-senior-software-engineer-kubernetes","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/kong-senior-software-engineer-kubernetes.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-12T18:08:16Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":38076,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-13T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":4941},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=4941"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fkong-senior-software-engineer-kubernetes"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fkong-senior-software-engineer-kubernetes"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fkong-senior-software-engineer-kubernetes"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/kong-senior-software-engineer-kubernetes\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fkong-senior-software-engineer-kubernetes"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":4176458}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"konghq.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":4176458},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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