Role overview
Kong is building the connectivity layer for artificial intelligence, and you will join the engineering team developing the Kong AI Gateway. This platform empowers companies and developers worldwide to govern every stage of their AI and large language model-based innovation. As a Software Engineer on the AI Gateway Team, you will contribute to core features that manage and optimize AI workloads at scale.
Key responsibilities
- Build and maintain API management software specifically designed for AI and LLMs, including the underlying technical infrastructure.
- Implement innovative features such as multi-LLM routing and balancing, semantic caching, routing mechanisms, and MCP support to expand the gateway’s capabilities.
- Investigate and resolve bugs, perform performance tuning, and execute low-level optimizations to ensure reliability and speed.
- Develop proxying capabilities, load balancing functionality, and database support that extend Kong AI Gateway’s feature set.
- Bridge gaps between Kong and third-party deployment platforms and tools to improve integration and user experience.
- Complete additional engineering tasks as assigned by your manager.
Requirements
- Three or more years of professional experience programming server-side applications and components.
- Hands-on experience with either Golang or Rust programming languages.
- Demonstrated ability to build, debug, and maintain applications that are highly scalable, distributed, reliable, and resilient.
- Solid technical expertise in Linux systems troubleshooting and profiling at a low level.
- Strong knowledge of distributed systems, Linux networking stack, and computer systems programming, with particular understanding of both Layer 7 and Layer 4 transports and protocols.
- Familiarity with AI, LLM concepts, and applications development.
- Comfort collaborating with a remotely distributed engineering team and strong written and verbal communication skills.
What makes this role worth considering
You will work on fundamental infrastructure that governs how organizations manage artificial intelligence at scale, contributing to a platform trusted by Fortune 500 companies and AI-native startups. This role offers the opportunity to shape how the world’s most advanced systems communicate and manage intelligence flows across diverse models and cloud environments.
How to apply
Use the Apply button to view the official job posting and submit your application on Kong's careers site.
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