{"id":1658213,"url":"https://alion.io/job/kong-staff-solutions-engineer-3","title":"Staff Solutions Engineer","company":{"id":4941,"name":"Kong","domain":"konghq.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/kong","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":90,"open_postings":10,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.4,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":57,"computed_at":"2026-10-08T05:49:30Z"}},"role":"Solutions","role_family":"Solutions","seniority":"staff","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":[],"countries":[],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":220000,"max":260000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":260000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":7,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Claude Code","optional":false},{"name":"Copilot","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"GraphQL","optional":false},{"name":"Kong","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"LLM Guardrails","optional":false},{"name":"Model Context Protocol","optional":false},{"name":"OpenAI Codex","optional":false},{"name":"Rest API","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-01T13:07:27Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-01","last_verified_at":"2026-10-08T23:36:56Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":7,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":7},"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:\nAre you ready to sit at the epicenter of the API and AI connectivity revolution? As a Staff Solutions Engineer at Kong, you won’t just be selling a platform - you’ll be a trusted technical advisor helping the world’s most innovative enterprises architect secure, scalable API ecosystems while navigating the transition into the agentic AI era. Kong sits at the intersection of API management and AI connectivity, and you’ll be the person who makes that story real for customers.\nWhat You’ll Do:\nSupport field sales in helping customers understand the value of the Kong API and AI connectivity platform.\n\nConduct discovery conversations to understand customer requirements and map them to Kong solutions, from initial product reviews through to production.\n\nSupport POCs throughout the entire evaluation process, owning technical validation and stakeholder alignment.\n\nEnsure customer satisfaction across your assigned set of accounts.\n\nCollaborate with support, product, and engineering teams to advocate for customer needs.\n\nCreate technical documentation for DevOps, implementations, and services engagements.\n\nLead and support API Management and AI Goverance evaluations, including scoping API/AI use cases, LLM traffic management, and governance requirements.\n\nDeliver demonstrations of Kong’s API & AI governance and agentic connectivity capabilities, including Model Context Protocol (MCP) governance, semantic caching, prompt guardrails, and shadow AI detection.\n\nRun API & AI-focused Technical Feasibility Workshops (TFWs) to validate Kong’s fit for modern and/or AI/agentic architectures.\n\nOwn the technical strategy for complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise deals from qualification through close.\n\nMentor and coach junior SEs on technical skills, discovery methods, and deal strategy.\n\nDrive thought leadership by authoring technical blogs, hosting webinars, speaking at industry events and conferences such as AWS re:Invent, Google Next, API & AI summit, and regional events\n\nInfluence product direction by synthesizing customer feedback and market signals into actionable input for the product team.\n\nAnd any additional tasks required by manager.\n\nWhat You’ll Bring:\n7+ years of software engineering and/or solutions engineering experience at a SaaS, open source, or enterprise software company.\n\nProven track record owning complex, enterprise-level deals with multiple technical and executive stakeholders.\n\nExperience mentoring or coaching other SEs or technical team members.\n\nExperience with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud-native platforms.\n\nExperience with REST and GraphQL APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and API security patterns (OAuth2, OIDC, mTLS).\n\nHands-on experience with AI-assisted development tooling - Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex, or equivalent is required.\n\nWorking knowledge of AI/LLM architectures, including model routing, rate limiting, semantic caching, and prompt governance.\n\nFamiliarity with Model Context Protocol (MCP) and agentic AI patterns.\n\nSolid understanding of cloud computing trends and open source business models.\n\nStrong listener and communicator - you can confidently lead discussions with engineers, architects, and executives.\n\nEnthusiasm for working in a high-profile, fast-paced environment at the intersection of API and AI connectivity.\n\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":3994,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":7,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Artificial Intelligence","Professional Services","LLM & Generative AI","Integration & API Management"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-02T02:35:07Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":6,"expected_fill_days":57,"reasons":["conf:1","velocity","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-08T05:49:30Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":260000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/kong-staff-solutions-engineer-3","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/kong-staff-solutions-engineer-3.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-09T00:44:37Z","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","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":1066,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":3934,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-10-10T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"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-staff-solutions-engineer-3"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"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-staff-solutions-engineer-3"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"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-staff-solutions-engineer-3"},{"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-staff-solutions-engineer-3\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fkong-staff-solutions-engineer-3"}]}