API Developer Lead

Role Overview

• Provide Kong platform engineering expertise
• Administer Kong (routes, services, consumers, upstreams, certificates, rate limiting, logging)
• Design, implement, and maintain Kong plugins (custom or extended), including policy enforcement and transformations
• Operate Kong in Kubernetes (Helm/operator patterns as applicable), upgrades, config promotion across environments
• Provide API design & contract management expertise
• Define API standards and review APIs for consistency, usability, and backward compatibility
• Author and maintain OpenAPI Specification (OAS) contracts; implement versioning and deprecation practices
• Enable hosting and lifecycle workflows for OpenAPI docs/specs (publishing, validation, governance checks)
• Provide Security & authentication expertise
• Implement/maintain authN/authZ patterns: JSON Web Tokens (JWT) issuance/validation/claims mapping, token modification, key rotation
• Integrate with directory/identity services (e.g., Active Directory (AD) / LDAP-style patterns) and common gateway security controls
• Provide Cloud + DevOps / platform expertise
• Experience Building Kubernetes resources (Deployments, Services, Ingress/Gateway API objects as relevant, ConfigMaps/Secrets, NetworkPolicies)
• Provision and manage Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources needed for the platform (networking, compute, load balancing, DNS, certificates, secrets)
• Implement DevOps processes: CI/CD, GitOps patterns, automated testing/validation of configs/specs, environment promotion, rollback
• Experience with Observability, metering, and reporting
• Implement API metering/usage analytics, dashboards, and operational reporting (SLIs/SLOs, error rates, latency, top consumers/routes)
• Instrument logs/metrics/traces; build actionable dashboards and extract periodic reports for stakeholders
• Systems administration (practical ops)
• Troubleshoot Linux/container runtime issues; manage certs, TLS, networking, DNS, and performance tuning
• Participate in on-call/escalations as needed; produce runbooks and operational documentation

Requirements

• Hands-on experience with Kong Gateway (open-source) administration in real environments (not just POC)
• Experience building/extending Kong plugins and/or deep Kong policy configuration patterns
• API gateway concerns (auth, routing, rate limiting, basic transforms, logging)
• Strong API design background + strong working knowledge of OpenAPI (OAS)
• API governance: linting/validation pipelines for OpenAPI, contract testing, semantic versioning strategies
• Kubernetes experience (deploying, operating, troubleshooting)
• DevOps delivery practices (gitOps, CI/CD, config promotion, automation)
• Auth experience: JWT validation/claims, key management/rotation; familiarity integrating with enterprise identity (e.g., AD-style ecosystems)
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust security clearance; US Citizenship required due to clearance requirement.

Tech Stack

• AWS
• Cloud
• DNS
• Kubernetes
• Linux

Benefits

• comprehensive medical, dental, and vision care
• matching 401K and profit sharing
• paid time off
• training time for personal development
• flexible spending accounts
• employer-paid life insurance
• employer-paid short and long term disability coverage
• education assistance program with potential merit increases for obtaining a work-related certification
• employee recognition and referral programs
• spot bonuses and other benefits that help provide financial protection for the employee and their family