Staff Solutions Engineer

Overview

Staff Solutions Engineer at Kong, a technical advisor helping enterprises architect secure, scalable API and AI connectivity ecosystems and supporting field sales through discovery, POCs and demonstrations.

What you'll do

• 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.
• Support POCs throughout the entire evaluation process, owning technical validation and stakeholder alignment.
• Ensure customer satisfaction across your assigned set of accounts.
• Collaborate with support, product, and engineering teams to advocate for customer needs.
• Create technical documentation for DevOps, implementations, and services engagements.
• Lead and support API Management and AI Governance evaluations, including scoping API/AI use cases, LLM traffic management, and governance requirements.
• Deliver demonstrations of Kong's API and AI governance and agentic connectivity capabilities, including Model Context Protocol (MCP) governance, semantic caching, prompt guardrails, and shadow AI detection.
• Run API and AI-focused Technical Feasibility Workshops (TFWs) to validate Kong's fit for modern and/or AI/agentic architectures.
• Own the technical strategy for complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise deals from qualification through close.
• Mentor and coach junior SEs on technical skills, discovery methods, and deal strategy.
• Drive thought leadership by authoring technical blogs, hosting webinars, and speaking at industry events and conferences such as AWS re:Invent, Google Next, API & AI Summit, and regional events.
• Influence product direction by synthesizing customer feedback and market signals into actionable input for the product team.
• Perform any additional tasks required by your manager.

What you'll need

• 7+ years of software engineering and/or solutions engineering experience at a SaaS, open source, or enterprise software company.
• Proven track record owning complex, enterprise-level deals with multiple technical and executive stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring or coaching other SEs or technical team members.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud-native platforms.
• Experience with REST and GraphQL APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and API security patterns (OAuth2, OIDC, mTLS).
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tooling: Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex, or equivalent.
• Working knowledge of AI/LLM architectures, including model routing, rate limiting, semantic caching, and prompt governance.
• Familiarity with Model Context Protocol (MCP) and agentic AI patterns.
• Solid understanding of cloud computing trends and open source business models.
• Strong listener and communicator, able to confidently lead discussions with engineers, architects, and executives.
• Enthusiasm for working in a high-profile, fast-paced environment at the intersection of API and AI connectivity.

Details

• Location: New York, United States.