Lead Kong API Gateway engineering, including administration of routes, services, consumers, certificates, and policies.
Design and maintain custom Kong plugins and advanced policy configurations for API transformations and enforcement.
Define API standards and manage OpenAPI (OAS) contracts, including versioning, validation, and governance.
Implement secure authentication and authorization mechanisms, including JWT validation, token management, and key rotation.
Build and operate cloud-native infrastructure using Kubernetes and AWS, including deployments, networking, and secure configurations.
Establish DevOps practices including CI/CD pipelines, GitOps workflows, and automated configuration validation and promotion.
Develop and maintain observability solutions, including logging, monitoring, SLIs/SLOs, and API usage analytics.
Troubleshoot system, container, and network issues while supporting operational readiness through documentation and runbooks.
Take on additional tasks and responsibilities as needed to support team objectives and ensure the success of the project.

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
8+ years of experience in API engineering, platform engineering, or related roles.
Hands-on experience with Kong Gateway administration in production environments.
Strong API design experience using OpenAPI (OAS), including governance and contract testing.
Experience with Kubernetes for deploying and managing containerized applications.
Proficiency in DevOps practices including CI/CD pipelines, GitOps, and automation.
Experience implementing API security, including authentication, authorization, JWT handling, and key management.
Strong communication skills with experience leading or mentoring technical teams.

Senior API Engineer

Key skills