Software Engineer - Kubernetes

Are you ready to power the World's connections?

If you don’t think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box - we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others.

About the Role

As a Software Engineer at Kong, you will play a key role in developing and maintaining our cutting-edge API gateway and cloud-native connectivity solutions. You’ll work on high-performance software that empowers organizations to manage APIs and microservices efficiently across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments.

At Kong, we are revolutionizing API connectivity with open-source and enterprise-grade solutions that power some of the world’s most demanding applications. The team’s core products, Kong Gateway Operator and Kong Ingress Controller, enable seamless, secure, and intelligent service connectivity for modern architectures, including Kubernetes, multi-cloud, and service mesh deployments. If you're passionate about distributed systems, cloud-native technologies, and growing your skills in high-performance APIs, we’d love to hear from you!

What You’ll Be Doing

• Contributing to the development and maintenance of Kong’s Gateway Operator and Ingress Controller to ensure reliability and performance.
• Delivering assigned tasks that meet acceptance criteria, working on problems of moderate scope where analysis requires a review of a variety of factors.
• Writing readable, maintainable, and adequately tested code in Golang while ensuring code quality through automated testing and participating in peer reviews.
• Collaborating with cross-functional teams (engineering, product, DevOps) to build new features and build productive internal working relationships.
• Contributing to the design of components within a larger system, understanding the trade-offs of different approaches and articulating your reasoning.
• Debugging and solving problems within your area of the codebase, exercising judgment within defined procedures and practices.

• Engaging with the open-source community under the guidance of senior team members.

What You’ll Bring

• 1-2+ years of professional software engineering experience (or comparable).
• Proficiency in Golang (or strong proficiency in C/C++/Java/Python with a willingness to learn Go rapidly).
• Familiarity with Kubernetes architecture and concepts (e.g., Pods, Deployments, Services, CRDs).
• Ability to deliver routine work with general instructions and tackle new projects or assignments with detailed instructions.
• Experience writing unit and integration tests.
• A strong learning mindset, self-awareness to acknowledge strengths and weaknesses, and a drive to actively manage your growth.

• Good communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively in a distributed, remote-first team.

Bonus Points

• Contributions to open-source projects, particularly in the cloud-native ecosystem (e.g., Kubernetes, Envoy).
• Basic understanding of API Gateways, Service Meshes, or the Kubernetes Gateway API.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.

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, Kong's 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 www.konghq.com.