Kong

Senior Software Engineer - Golang

United States · Remote (country restricted) · FullTime

USD 160,000–190,000/year

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About the role

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EmployerKong
LocationUnited States
Work styleRemote (country restricted)
Employment typeFullTime
Employer posted20 days ago
Salary (as stated by the employer)USD 160,000 – 190,000 per year

Are you ready to unlock intelligence?

If 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.

Kong is building the future of API and AI infrastructure. Our platform powers connectivity for thousands of organizations globally across APIs, microservices, Kubernetes and now AI agents and LLM-driven applications.

About The Role:

We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join Kong’s Office of the CTO team and work on special, high-impact projects that influence the direction of our platform and engineering strategy. The Office of the CTO (OCTO) is where Kong’s most ambitious and exploratory engineering work happens, new platforms, foundational systems and high-impact technical bets that shape the company’s future.

Show full description

You’ll work on everything from distributed database provisioning and durable workflow orchestration to LLM fine-tuning and infrastructure for our AI Builder capabilities, helping define a new foundation for how developers build and run AI-driven systems at scale.

This is a rare opportunity to shape a greenfield AI platform from the ground up, with direct input into architecture, tooling, and developer experience.

This is a role for engineers who enjoy deep technical challenges, ambiguity, and building systems that matter.

What You’ll Do:

Design and build highly scalable distributed backend systems

Develop core services in Golang, with a focus on performance and reliability

Work with PostgreSQL and Redis to build robust, data-intensive systems

Architect systems that operate across microservices, networking layers, and cloud platforms

Collaborate closely with the CTO and senior engineers on strategic technical initiatives

Prototype and productionize new platform capabilities and internal tooling

Influence engineering direction and technical standards across Kong

What You'll Bring:

Strong production experience with Golang

Experience designing and operating distributed systems at scale

Solid experience with PostgreSQL and Redis in production environments

Experience building backend systems with high availability, scalability, and reliability

Strong systems thinking, debugging, and performance optimization skills

Bonus points:

Experience with Kubernetes, networking, or API gateways

Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)

Contributions to open source or internal platform tooling

Experience working on platform, infra, or developer tooling products

#LI-BR2

About Kong:

Kong 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.

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