---
title: 'Forward Deployed Engineer AI Gateway EMEA at Kong'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-ai-gateway-emea-kong-england-ztwe1dvm3mhd'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-06'
---

# Forward Deployed Engineer AI Gateway EMEA at Kong

- **Company:** [Kong](https://feeny.ai/companies/kong)
- **Location:** England, United Kingdom
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-11-04
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-06
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kong/3e5ef5b8-686d-4915-b436-26bcd2140951

## 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: 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. You'll make our customers' first strategic AI use case work securely, in production, in their real environment. Not a demo. Not a proof-of-concept that quietly dies. Real traffic, real identity, real policy. As a Forward-Deployed Engineer in EMEA, you'll sit with platform, security and engineering teams at some of the region's most important enterprises, and own the technical path from first discovery call to a workload that's actually running. You're a builder with enterprise architecture instincts, credible with staff engineers and security architects, and comfortable owning ambiguity across APIs, AI Gateway, agents, MCP, identity and policy. This is not a demo-only SE role, and it's not a ticket-based implementation consultancy. You own technical success for strategic AI opportunities end to end, then take what you learn back into Kong's own engineering team to make the next deal faster.

What You'll Do:

- Lead AI, API and agentic technical discovery with customer platform, security and engineering teams.
- Design runtime architecture across models, APIs, MCP and tool access, identity and policy.
- Build prototypes, integrations, evaluation flows and reference implementations that prove Kong governs real production traffic.
- Remove blockers in pilot and production: auth, network, observability, latency and cost.
- Own the technical path from pilot to paid, and stay on it until the workload is running.
- Turn what you build into reusable patterns, so the next AI Gateway deal is faster and cheaper to win.
- Spend regular time embedded with Kong's internal engineering team, pairing on AI Gateway and agentic roadmap work.
- Feed field patterns and roadmap-critical requirements straight back to Product, before competitors define the narrative.
- Partner with Sales, Solutions Engineering and Customer Success across EMEA on strategic AI opportunities.

What You'll Bring:

- Strong hands-on engineering background, with experience building and shipping production software (Go, Python, TypeScript or similar).
- Experience in a customer-facing technical role such as forward-deployed, solutions architecture, staff or principal engineering, or technical consulting.
- Enterprise architecture instincts: you can design for identity, network, security and observability constraints in complex environments.
- Working knowledge of LLM and agentic patterns: model APIs, tool calling, MCP, evaluation and cost and latency trade-offs.
- Experience with API gateways or infrastructure: Kubernetes, service mesh, OAuth/OIDC, mTLS, policy enforcement.
- Credibility with staff engineers and security architects. You can lead a technical discussion from whiteboard to working code.
- You own outcomes, not tickets. You're comfortable with ambiguity and drive work to done.
- Strong written and verbal communication in English; additional European languages are a plus.
- Willingness to travel to customer sites across EMEA as needed.

Bonus points

- Prior experience at an AI-native, developer-platform or infrastructure company.
- Experience with Kong Gateway, Konnect or other API management platforms.
- Open source contributions, or a track record of publishing reference architectures or patterns.

## #LI-JF1

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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