Forward Deployed Engineer
Kong · Remote · New Jersey, United States ·
COMPENSATION
$192k – $274k
Listed on the employer's job board (Ashby)
- 8+ years experience
- Customer-facing engineering
- Kubernetes & Cloud-native
- API & AI Gateway focus
- Fully remote role
As a Forward Deployed Engineer at Kong, you will work directly with Fortune 500 clients to accelerate their adoption of API and AI gateways. You will solve complex technical challenges by building custom automation, migration tooling, and production-grade solutions alongside customer engineering teams.
This strategic role sits at the intersection of software engineering, architecture, and customer delivery. You will collaborate with internal product and engineering teams to influence the roadmap based on real-world implementation feedback while ensuring successful modernization outcomes for large-scale enterprises.
What you'll do
- Design and implement Kong-based solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments
- Lead hands-on deployment of API gateways, service meshes, and developer portals
- Build automation frameworks and migration tooling to simplify customer adoption
- Drive migration initiatives from legacy API management platforms to Kong
- Develop production-grade code, scripts, plugins, and CI/CD integrations
- Collaborate with product teams to influence roadmap based on field experience
- Create reusable reference architectures and best practices for the organization
What you'll need
- 8+ years in customer-facing engineering, SRE, or software engineering roles
- Strong hands-on experience with API gateways and distributed systems
- Expertise in Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure
- Proficiency in Linux, networking, and DevOps practices
- Experience with major cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
- Programming skills in Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, or Lua
- Knowledge of Infrastructure-as-Code tools like Terraform, Helm, or Ansible
Nice to have
- Prior experience in API Management, Middleware, or SaaS companies
- Background in Open Source software communities
- Ability to solve ambiguous problems with minimal supervision
- Strong communication skills for technical and executive audiences
Stack
- Kong
- Kubernetes
- Python
- Go
- Java
- JavaScript
- Lua
- Terraform
- Helm
- Ansible
- AWS
- Azure
- GCP