Join Kong as a Senior Software Engineer to design and build API management software with a focus on innovative features and community engagement.
Posted by employer 1 day ago
First seen on Joblaze 1 hour ago
Last verified on the company career page 1 hour ago
What you'll build
- Design, build and maintain API management software
- Implement new features including proxying and load balancing
- Troubleshoot bugs and optimize performance
- Engage with the open source community
- Fill gaps between Kong and third-party platforms
Must have
- 8+ years of programming in server-side applications
- Experience in designing and debugging scalable applications
- Hands-on expertise in Linux systems troubleshooting
- Experience in distributed systems and Linux networking
- Strong communication skills
Nice to have
- Hands-on experience with NGINX/OpenResty/Kong/LuaJIT
- Hands-on experience with Envoy or Istio
- Hands-on experience with Rust
AI in the day-to-day
Kong is building the connectivity layer of AI, enabling organizations to manage AI traffic across APIs.
Requirements
- Experience
- 8+ years
Not disclosed in this posting: compensation, visa sponsorship.
Joblaze summary
In this role, the Senior Software Engineer focuses on designing and maintaining API management software, specifically enhancing features like proxying, load balancing, and database support. The position requires extensive experience in server-side programming, distributed systems, and Linux systems troubleshooting, with a strong emphasis on scalability and reliability. Ideal candidates will have over eight years of relevant experience and a solid understanding of networking protocols, making this role suitable for seasoned engineers looking to contribute to an open-source project. The team operates in a collaborative environment, engaging with the open-source community to drive innovation.
Joblaze insights
- Listed today — first seen on Joblaze October 24, 2026. Last confirmed on Kong's careers page October 24, 2026.
- This exact title is also open at 2 other locations at Kong: Shanghai, China, Shanghai, China.
Quick facts
- Is the Senior Software Engineer, AI Gateway - Shanghai role remote?
- It's hybrid — Kong expects some on-site time in Shanghai, China.
- How much experience is required?
- At least 8 years of relevant experience for this Senior Software Engineer, AI Gateway - Shanghai role.
- Where is the role based?
- Kong is hiring for this position in Shanghai, China.
- What's the tech stack?
- Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: Envoy, Istio, Kong, Linux, LuaJIT, Nginx.
- What seniority level is this role?
- Kong targets senior candidates for this position.
- Is this full-time or contract?
- Full-time for this Senior Software Engineer, AI Gateway - Shanghai role at Kong.
From the original posting
About the Role:
Kong is an open-source project with a global adoption around the world. Developers and architects are adopting Kong in production among a large variety of use-cases, and actively help make Kong a better product with their feedback and contributions.
As a Systems Engineer in the Core Team, you will be working on core features such as proxying capabilities, load balancing, and database support with forward-thinking. You will be responsible for building foundations for other teams and customers, discovering and producing cutting edge industry trends and use-cases.
What You'll Do:
Responsible for designing, building and maintaining API management software and its underlying stack.
Architecture, design, and implement new innovative features including proxying capabilities, load balancing, databases support that extend Kong’s offering.
Bugs troubleshooting, performance tuning and low-level optimizations. Engage with open source community and extend Kong core to support the latest industry trends.
Fill the gaps between Kong and third-party deployment platforms and tooling.
And any additional tasks required by manager.
What You'll Bring:
8+ years of programming in server-side applications and components.
Experience designing, prototyping, building and debugging applications that are highly scalable, distributed, reliable and resilient.
Solid hands-on low-level technical expertise in Linux systems troubleshooting, and profiling.
Experience in distributed systems, Linux networking stack and computer systems programming, Kong works with APIs on both L7 and L4 transports and protocols, so this expertise and knowledge are required.
Comfortable working with a remotely distributed team.
Strong sense of ownership and excellent verbal and written communication skills -- engineers at Kong write the documentation for their products
Familiarity with AI LLM concepts and applications development
Bonus Points:
Hands on experience with NGINX/OpenResty/Kong/LuaJIT.
Hands on experience with Envoy or Istio.
Hands on experience with Rust
Standard company text repeated across Kong's postings is omitted here.