Staff Solutions Engineer New York

Are you ready to unlock intelligence

If you dont think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job please apply. Nobody checks every box - were looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas and have some interest and capabilities in others.

About the Role:

Are you ready to sit at the epicenter of the API and AI connectivity revolution As a Staff Solutions Engineer at Kong you wont just be selling a platform youll be a trusted technical advisor helping the worlds 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 youll be the person who makes that story real for customers.

What youll be doing:

• 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 Goverance evaluations including scoping API/AI use cases LLM traffic management and governance requirements.

• Deliver demonstrations of Kongs API & AI governance and agentic connectivity capabilities including Model Context Protocol (MCP) governance semantic caching prompt guardrails and shadow AI detection.

• Run API & AI-focused Technical Feasibility Workshops (TFWs) to validate Kongs 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 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.

• And any additional tasks required by manager.

What youll bring:

• 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 is required.

• 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 you can 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.

#LI-TS1

About Kong:

Kong Inc. a leading developer of API and AI connectivity technologies is building the infrastructure that powers the agentic era. Trusted by the Fortune 500 and startups alike Kongs unified API and AI platform Kong Konnect enables organizations to secure manage accelerate govern and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI models. For more information visit .

Required Experience:

Staff IC