--- title: 'Account Executive, Commercial at Kong' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/account-executive-commercial-kong-london-england-127pb72qemfg' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-18' --- # Account Executive, Commercial at Kong - **Company:** [Kong](https://feeny.ai/companies/kong) - **Location:** London England, United Kingdom - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-08-10 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-18 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kong/8cfcb25c-6138-489f-849a-4d0da4158943 ## Job description Are you ready to unlock intelligence? 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: We are looking for an experienced sales professional, ideally with open source experience who will be selling into mid market enterprise accounts. The ideal candidate has been a part of the sales efforts for other early-stage enterprise products in an entrepreneurial setting. The Account Executive will be integral to our growth plan and in acquiring new customers. Kong’s Account Executive will be the primary point of contact and the face of Kong for our prospects. What You'll be doing: - Sell Kong Konnect Platform on Kong’s Commercial sales team. - Meet and/or exceed individual quota, objectives and KPIs. - Take ownership to build and manage your book of business, which includes understanding and documenting the buying criteria and process, determining the appropriate motion and patterns, ensuring pipeline accuracy based on evidence, and working the leads to closure. - Collaborate and leverage an ecosystem of resources including pre sales, post sales, channel partners, customer success and leadership to promote Kong and drive new business. What You'll bring: - A true desire to see customers benefit from the investment they make with Kong. - 2+ years of experience in direct sales experience selling enterprise software to small to mid-size organisations ideally with open source, APIs, and/or infrastructure software. - Effective communicator and strong interpersonal skills. - Excellent negotiation, presentation and closing skills. - Experience with fast growing startups is a plus. - Strong background in territory planning and revenue generated from outbound pipeline. - You have a measurable track record in new business development and over achieving sales targets. - Knowledge of MEDDIC and Challenger methodologies is a plus. Preferred: - A top performer with experience hunting and closing net new logos. - Experienced with creatively sourcing companies outside of your CRM. - You have previously worked in an early-stage company and you know how to navigate and be successful in a fast-growing organization. - Motivated, collaborative, driven and results oriented. ## #LI-JM3 About Kong: Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI-native startups alike, Kong’s unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic — on any model, any cloud. For more information, visit [www.konghq.com](http://www.konghq.com). ## About Kong ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Kong provides a unified API and AI platform that connects, secures, and manages APIs, events, and AI agents for modern architectures. - **Entity Type**: Private – Series E, post‑money valuation $2B (2023) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States - **Founded**: 2017 (company formalized; roots as Mashape go back to 2009) - **Founders**: Augusto “Aghi” Marietti (CEO) and Marco Palladino (CTO) ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: API management, AI connectivity, cloud infrastructure - **Target customers**: B2B – enterprises, platform engineering teams, developers, and product managers building API‑driven or AI‑agent applications - **Mission / Purpose**: To be the AI connectivity company – enabling organizations to connect, govern, and monetize APIs, events, and AI workloads at scale. ## Products & Services - **[Kong Konnect](https://konghq.com/)**: Managed, unified API and AI platform covering the full lifecycle – design, test, publish, govern, monetize – across any cloud or environment. SaaS. - **[Kong Gateway](https://konghq.com/)**: Open‑source (and enterprise) API gateway, the world’s most adopted, used for traffic management, security, and observability. Open‑source hybrid. - **[Kong AI Gateway](https://konghq.com/)**: Extension for managing and securing AI traffic – token consumption, cost control, and agent governance. SaaS / add‑on. - **[Kong Mesh](https://konghq.com/)**: Enterprise service mesh for Kubernetes and VMs (based on Kuma, donated to CNCF). Infrastructure. - **[Insomnia](https://konghq.com/)**: API design and testing tool (acquired and integrated into the Kong ecosystem). Desktop / CLI. - **[OpenMeter](https://konghq.com/)**: Usage‑based billing, entitlements, and invoicing for APIs, events, and AI (acquired 2025). SaaS. ## Market Standing - **Valuation / Market Cap**: $2 billion (as of late 2023 Series E round) – not publicly traded. - **Key Metric**: Surpassed **$100M ARR** in late 2023; processes **+1 trillion API/AI requests per day**; **600+ employees** in 25+ countries (LinkedIn reports 738 employees with +23.5% YoY growth). - **Total Funding**: **$344.1M** across 6 rounds (including Series D $100M at $1.4B, and Series E $175M led by new investors). - **Notable Investors / Partners**: Include large institutional investors; partners include cloud providers and enterprises such as United Airlines (cited as customer). Open‑source community with 182K+ community users. ## Competitive Advantages - **Most adopted open‑source API gateway** – strong developer mindshare and large community. - **Unified platform** covering the entire API lifecycle plus AI agent management, reducing fragmentation for enterprises. - **High‑performance, low‑latency** – proven at hyper‑volume (+1T requests/day), 99.99% availability SLA. - **Strategic acquisitions** (Kuma, Insomnia, OpenMeter) that plug gaps in service mesh, developer tooling, and usage‑based billing. - **Strong enterprise DNA** – trusted by global brands for mission‑critical applications. ## Strategic Focus - **AI connectivity** – building the layer to manage LLM traffic, agent security, token cost, and real‑time data streams. - **Monetization** – enabling customers to monetize APIs and AI consumption (chargeback, entitlements, pricing). - **Developer productivity** – accelerating onboarding and reducing costs (claims 15% faster development, 57% operational cost reduction). - **Global scale** – growing remote workforce and entering new geographic markets (e.g., Italy, ANZ roles posted). ## Why Work Here - **Remote‑first culture** – 600+ employees across 25+ countries; strong emphasis on global collaboration. - **Perks & benefits** (from [careers page](https://konghq.com/company/careers)): - Stock options for most employees - 4‑week paid sabbatical every 5 years - Flexible time off - Home office stipend - Regular “unplug days” (company‑wide long weekends) - Virtual events (Donut chats, trivia, fitness challenges) - **Engineering culture** – values “owners, explorers, real, unstoppable” and encourages individual innovation. Focus on shipping fast and high trust. - **Growth trajectory** – company is scaling (+23.5% headcount YoY) and is a unicorn with clear product‑market fit in a hot market (AI + API management). - **Open roles** – 93 open positions across engineering, sales, solutions, customer success, and marketing. ## Sources 1. [konghq.com](https://konghq.com/) 2. [konghq.com/company/careers](https://konghq.com/company/careers) 3. [konghq.com/company/about-us](https://konghq.com/company/about-us) 4. [linkedin.com/company/konghq](https://www.linkedin.com/company/konghq) 5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/kong](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kong) ## Other roles at Kong - [Enterprise Account Executive, Benelux](https://feeny.ai/job/enterprise-account-executive-benelux-kong-netherlands-6wryhky0p9zb) — Netherlands - [Senior Staff Engagement Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-engagement-manager-kong-pennsylvania-gecm08fx3hm5) — Pennsylvania, United States - [Staff Product Manager, AI Management](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-product-manager-ai-management-kong-milan-93kjk9g4d28y) — Milan, Italy - [Account Development Representative (Fed)](https://feeny.ai/job/account-development-representative-fed-kong-virginia-jvnqf2w0b8va) — Virginia, United States - [Enterprise Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/enterprise-account-executive-kong-dubai-wvw2m92nzs89) — Dubai, United Arab Emirates - [Administrative Assistant-EMEA & APJ](https://feeny.ai/job/administrative-assistant-emea-apj-kong-bengaluru-h3tg3zw5wzxc) — Bengaluru, India - [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-kong-new-jersey-qypbems1c371) — New Jersey, United States - [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-kong-new-jersey-zr6w5gj0e69e) — New Jersey, United States - [Account Development Representative](https://feeny.ai/job/account-development-representative-kong-bengaluru-c348p6gctfpp) — Bengaluru, India - [Senior Technical Support Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-technical-support-engineer-kong-bengaluru-6hp870bj0b73) — Bengaluru, India