Account Development Representative (Chicago, IL) (Hybrid)

Kong•Springfield, IL

23h•$56,000 - $67,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Account Development Representative (ADR) at Kong will be one of the first voices prospects hear about the next generation of API and AI Agent management. This role utilizes AI-native tooling and signal-based workflows to identify and engage with potential customers. The ADR will operate within a signal-based pipeline, leveraging tools to identify accounts showing real buying intent, such as competitor churn signals, funding events, tech-stack shifts, and hiring patterns, and converting this intelligence into personalized conversations. This position is crucial for fueling a company at the forefront of a significant infrastructure shift in software.

Requirements

1-2+ years of SDR/ADR experience in high-growth B2B SaaS, ideally selling a technical or infrastructure product.
Genuine AI curiosity - experience with (or eagerness to master) modern AI-native prospecting tools.
Growth mindset - belief that skill is built through reps, feedback, and iteration.
Comfortable on the phone and unafraid of cold outreach; ability to track and improve personal conversion rates.
Resilient and self-driven.
Coachable - actively seeks feedback and adapts quickly to new plays and tooling.

Nice To Haves

Exposure to APIs, cloud-native platforms, or AI/agent tooling.

Responsibilities

Run signal-based prospecting across defined intent categories like competitive displacement, infrastructure investment, and AI/agent initiatives, rather than blanket outbound.
Partner with Marketing and RevOps to build AI-assisted, auto-personalized outbound sequences across email, LinkedIn, and phone.
Use AI-enabled prospecting and enrichment platforms to research accounts, tailor messaging, and engage with CFO, CTO, and CISO personas.
Qualify and convert inbound interest quickly, applying a modern qualification framework built for fast-moving AI buying cycles.
Continuously test messaging, sequencing, and calling approaches, treating the pipeline as an experiment for optimization.
Build a point of view and public presence in the API/AI infrastructure space, becoming a trusted resource for prospects.
Feed market and competitive intelligence back to GTM leadership to sharpen targeting and messaging.
Deepen product fluency by partnering closely with Sales and Product, focusing on how enterprises approach AI Gateway and token governance.