--- title: 'Partner Sales Manager at Kong' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/partner-sales-manager-kong-maharashtra-0e65t9g0m28c' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-11' --- # Partner Sales Manager at Kong - **Company:** [Kong](https://feeny.ai/companies/kong) - **Location:** Maharashtra, India - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-06-02 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kong/ccfb0043-3566-4794-a8cb-6345c25bfee5/application **Skills:** Partner sales, Channel sales, Alliances sales, Go-to-market strategy, Infrastructure sales, Developer platforms, API technology, AI technology, Hyperscaler co-sell, AWS ISV Accelerate, Azure IP Co-sell, GCP Partner Advantage > Own Kong's partner business in India by recruiting partners, building go-to-market motions, and driving sourced incremental revenue. Act as the single point of contact for partners and internal sales teams across channel resellers, GSIs, and hyperscalers. ## 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: You'll own Kong's partner business in India. That means recruiting the right partners, building real go-to-market motion with them, and driving sourced incremental revenue — not slideware pipeline. You'll be the single point of contact for anything partner-related: for our field sellers who need partner help on a deal, for partners who need a path into Kong, and for leadership setting the regional strategy. The ecosystem spans channel resellers, technology partners, GSIs, and hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, GCP). You'll work across all four. This is a senior individual contributor role. You'll run India as your own business, in close partnership with the India sales leader. What You'll Do: - Own the India partner number. Sell Kong's full portfolio — products, renewals, professional services, support — through and with focus partners. - Build the joint GTM plan with the India sales team. Identify and sign new partners where there are gaps. - Drive partner-sourced pipeline. Set targets, run the cadence, hold partners (and yourself) to them. - Build joint assets with focus partners — reference architectures, blueprints, solution briefs that field teams on both sides actually use. - Run joint marketing events that generate pipeline, not just logos on a banner. - Get inside your partners' business. Understand how they make money, where Kong fits, and what it takes to win together. Then pull in the right cross-functional support — enablement, CX, marketing, ops — to make the projects land. - Build a focus partner plan for India and execute it with sales engineering, SDRs, customer success, and marketing alongside you. What You'll Bring: - 8+ years in partner, channel, or alliances sales, with a track record of driving GTM across channel, GSI, and hyperscaler partners. - Existing relationships with India's regional and national system integrators. You can name the partners you'd start with on day one. - A bias toward net-new, sourced business — not just tagging partners onto deals you'd close anyway. - Comfort running many partners and many activities in parallel without losing the thread on any of them. - Experience selling infrastructure, developer platforms, or API/AI technology to enterprise buyers in India. Nice to have: - Prior PSM or partner leadership experience at an API, integration, or open-source-led company. - Hyperscaler co-sell experience (AWS ISV Accelerate, Azure IP Co-sell, GCP Partner Advantage). - Network across India's GCC / capability-center buyer base. ## #LI-SP1 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 - [Senior Technical Customer Success Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-technical-customer-success-manager-kong-texas-ytqxg9d6sqp1) — Texas, United States - [Staff Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-forward-deployed-engineer-kong-california-r06a36wa37mh) — California, United States - [Senior Staff Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-forward-deployed-engineer-kong-california-fz66z8w2anb4) — California, United States - [Renewal Account Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/renewal-account-manager-kong-singapore-syrs38z7qw9z) — Singapore - [Staff Technical Customer Success Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-technical-customer-success-manager-kong-california-g18831yc2z0p) — California, United States - [Site Reliability Engineer 2, Managed Gateways](https://feeny.ai/job/site-reliability-engineer-2-managed-gateways-kong-bengaluru-b9a6d345xvrw) — Bengaluru, India - [Senior Field Sales Enablement Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-field-sales-enablement-manager-kong-singapore-tjt4kh96a7dy) — Singapore - [Strategic Account Director – PSU/Government](https://feeny.ai/job/strategic-account-director-psu-government-kong-delhi-p8rer2gf3ha9) — Delhi, India - [GTM Sourcing Recruiter (Contract)](https://feeny.ai/job/gtm-sourcing-recruiter-contract-kong-united-states-kq45jbkatvsa) — United States - [GTM Technical Sourcing Recruiter (Contract)](https://feeny.ai/job/gtm-technical-sourcing-recruiter-contract-kong-united-states-svmx5vae8mje) — United States