---
title: 'Deal Desk Director - International at Kong'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/deal-desk-director-international-kong-united-arab-emirates-wt6svewez6d6'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-06'
---

# Deal Desk Director - International at Kong

- **Company:** [Kong](https://feeny.ai/companies/kong)
- **Location:** United Arab Emirates
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-10-26
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-06
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kong/3c7e277f-fb51-4a2f-87aa-9088633c84ae

## 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: Kong is seeking an experienced and strategic International Director of Deal Desk to help build, scale, and lead a best-in-class deal desk and deal operations function supporting our international markets, including EMEA and AP. In this critical role, you’ll drive optimal deal structuring, pricing strategy, and operational efficiency to accelerate revenue growth, ensure compliance, and maximize deal value globally. Your expertise in managing complex deal negotiations, optimizing the quote-to-cash technology stack, and aligning cross-functional teams will be pivotal in delivering a seamless customer experience. As the International Deal Desk Director you will be a player-coach, partnering closely with Sales Leaders and Field Sellers. This is an exciting opportunity to make a global impact by shaping Kong’s go-to-market strategy and deal desk operations across international markets. As an International Deal Desk Director, you’ll work closely with executive leaders and cross-functional teams, gaining high visibility while driving innovative solutions at a fast-growing, industry-leading company. You’ll have the chance to build and mentor a high-performing team, tackle complex enterprise deals, and contribute to a collaborative, people-first culture. We offer competitive compensation, equity, flexible work arrangements, and a comprehensive benefits package, all within an award-winning, growth-focused workplace. Key Responsibilities: Team Leadership:

- Take action, provide innovative solutions, and drive consistent improvement
- Manage, recruit, mentor, and develop a high-performing international deal desk team focused on customer-centricity, collaboration, and operational rigor
- Foster a culture of accountability, efficiency, and continuous improvement
- Align with AMER Deal Desk team to ensure global consistency and foster collaboration

Deal Strategy:

- Lead the execution of strategic pricing policies, discount guidelines, and approval frameworks across all international regions (EMEA and APJ)
- Elevate pricing acumen within team and across Sales teams
- Partner with Sales leaders, managers and sellers to align on Regional goals and strategies to close deals
- Collaborate cross-functionally with Finance, Legal and Product teams to structure complex enterprise deals ensuring competitive positioning and maximizing profitability
- Develop KPI’s to track team engagement and deal influence
- Work closely with Product and GTM teams during new product introductions to help define optimal pricing, packaging, and deal structures that maximize market adoption and profitability
- Develop and deliver regular training and enablement programs for sales and related teams on pricing, deal structures, quoting tools, and deal processes

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

- Collaborate with Sales, Sales Operations, Finance, Legal, Product, and Customer Success teams to improve deal velocity, transparency, and adherence to company policies
- Act as a trusted advisor to sales teams, providing expertise on deal structuring, negotiations, pricing, and risk assessment

Operational Excellence:

- Establish and enforce global deal desk policies and governance to ensure compliance and minimize operational risks
- Regularly analyze deal desk performance metrics, identifying bottlenecks and implementing solutions to drive continuous improvement and scalability
- Lead initiatives to continuously streamline processes and automate manual activities within the Deal Desk to scale operations

Reporting and Analytics:

- Develop comprehensive analytics and reporting frameworks to monitor deal performance, trends, pricing dynamics, and compliance
- Provide strategic insights and recommendations to senior leadership based on data-driven analysis

Qualifications:

- Strategic thinker and problem solver who can thrive in high-growth, fast-paced environments.
- Exceptional communicator capable of clearly articulating complex issues to diverse stakeholders.
- Experienced, collaborative leader who empowers teams and fosters a culture of continuous improvement and excellence.
- Extensive experience in Deal Desk, Revenue Operations, Sales Operations, or related roles
- Relevant experience supporting EMEA and APJ regions
- Deep expertise in quote-to-cash technologies and processes
- Proven ability to design, implement, and optimize pricing and deal management strategies
- Strong cross-functional collaboration and communication skills; adept at influencing Sales teams at all organizational levels and engaging with Executive leaders
- Strong understanding of financial modeling, profitability analysis, and commercial terms negotiation
- Demonstrated leadership experience, with a passion for building and developing teams.
- Experience scaling operational processes in fast-growing, global technology or SaaS companies.
- Demonstrated expertise in consumption-based pricing models and strategies.

## #LI-RL2

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)

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