Staff Solutions Engineer - West

Kong • Sacramento, CA

1d • $220,000 - $250,000

About The Position

Kong is hiring a Staff Solutions Engineer to support enterprise customers adopting its API and AI connectivity platform. The role serves as a trusted technical advisor, helping customers architect secure, scalable API ecosystems and adopt agentic AI capabilities. The engineer partners with field sales, guides customers from product reviews through production, supports technical evaluations and proofs of concept, and owns technical strategy for complex enterprise deals. The position also contributes to customer advocacy, technical thought leadership, mentoring, and product direction.

Requirements

• At least 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 solutions engineers 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 such as OAuth2, OIDC, and mTLS.
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tooling such as 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 listening and communication skills, including confidence leading discussions with engineers, architects, and executives.
• Enthusiasm for working in a high-profile, fast-paced environment at the intersection of API and AI connectivity.

Responsibilities

• Support field sales by helping customers understand the value of Kong’s API and AI connectivity platform.
• Conduct discovery conversations, understand customer requirements, and map them to Kong solutions from initial product reviews through production.
• Support proofs of concept throughout the evaluation process, owning technical validation and stakeholder alignment.
• Ensure customer satisfaction across assigned 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 and AI use cases, LLM traffic management, and governance requirements.
• Deliver demonstrations of Kong’s API and AI governance and agentic connectivity capabilities, including MCP governance, semantic caching, prompt guardrails, and shadow AI detection.
• Run API- and AI-focused Technical Feasibility Workshops to validate Kong’s fit for modern and AI/agentic architectures.
• Own technical strategy for complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise deals from qualification through close.
• Mentor and coach junior solutions engineers on technical skills, discovery methods, and deal strategy.
• Author technical blogs, host webinars, and speak at industry events and conferences.
• Synthesize customer feedback and market signals into actionable input for the product team.
• Perform additional tasks required by the manager.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed