---
title: 'Senior Director, Finance Systems & Applications at Kong'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-director-finance-systems-applications-kong-pune-ab1h167vgp8t'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# Senior Director, Finance Systems & Applications at Kong

- **Company:** [Kong](https://feeny.ai/companies/kong)
- **Location:** Pune, India
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-30
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kong/87afb4bd-152d-48b4-9849-3932b562fc51

## 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.

The Mission: As Kong accelerates toward an IPO and the next stage of enterprise growth, finance systems must evolve from operational tools into strategic business enablers. We are seeking a visionary Finance Systems leader to define the strategy, architecture, and execution of our financial technology ecosystem. In this role, you will build a scalable, resilient, and AI-powered finance platform that delivers trusted data, streamlined operations, and the controls required to support a world-class public company.

What You'll Do:

- Own the strategy, administration, and long-term roadmap for our core finance systems, including NetSuite, Celigo, Brex, Pigment, and Zip, ensuring reliability, scalability, and operational excellence.
- Design, build, and govern mission-critical integrations across the enterprise ecosystem—including Salesforce, Workday, Ashby, and other business applications—to ensure accurate, timely, and seamless data flow.
- Establish best-in-class governance, controls, and monitoring to maintain data integrity, strengthen audit readiness, and ensure SOX-compliant financial processes.
- Champion AI-driven transformation within Finance by designing intelligent automations that eliminate manual work, improve reporting accuracy, and accelerate business decision-making.
- Partner closely with Accounting, FP&A, Revenue Operations, HR, and IT to translate evolving business requirements into scalable systems and process solutions.
- Lead enterprise-wide finance systems initiatives—including implementations, upgrades, migrations, and vendor evaluations—from strategy through successful deployment and adoption.
- Drive operational excellence by managing a robust support model with defined SLAs, proactive issue resolution, and strong strategic partnerships with key technology vendors.
- Continuously optimize the finance technology landscape by identifying opportunities to simplify processes, improve user experience, and enable business growth.

What You'll Bring:

## Experience

- 12+ years of progressive experience leading Finance Systems in high-growth SaaS organizations, with demonstrated ownership of enterprise financial platforms.
- Proven success scaling finance systems through rapid growth, ideally supporting organizations from $100M to $750M+ ARR, including both pre-IPO and public company environments.
- Deep hands-on expertise administering NetSuite and modern integration platforms such as Celigo, Workato, or Boomi.
- Strong experience implementing and integrating finance applications across ERP, FP&A, spend management, procurement, CRM, and HRIS platforms, including tools such as Brex, Pigment (or Anaplan), Zip, Salesforce, and Workday.
- Demonstrated success designing and delivering AI-powered automation solutions that drive measurable improvements in finance operations, rather than simply adopting AI tools.
- Strong SQL and analytical skills, with the ability to independently investigate data issues, validate system outputs, and ensure financial data accuracy.
- A strategic mindset combined with hands-on technical expertise, capable of balancing long-term architecture with day-to-day operational excellence.
- Excellent cross-functional communication and stakeholder management skills, with a proven ability to influence executives and collaborate across Finance, IT, and business teams.

## #LI-NS1

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