---
title: 'Site Reliability Engineer 2 at Kong'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/site-reliability-engineer-2-kong-washington-cfh68zkgy6tx'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-06'
---

# Site Reliability Engineer 2 at Kong

- **Company:** [Kong](https://feeny.ai/companies/kong)
- **Location:** Washington, DC
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-10-01
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-06
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kong/7ae8b357-a8f0-4c3d-868d-add1789de7ff

## 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.

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: As a Site Reliability Engineer, you’ll join the global Platform SRE team responsible for building, operating, and scaling Kong’s multi-region SaaS platform that powers the world’s API connectivity. You’ll design, automate, and run production systems serving thousands of customers across AWS, GCP, and Azure. You’ll work on everything from multi-region Kubernetes clusters to service mesh and gateway architectures, ensuring the reliability, scalability, and security of Kong’s SaaS offerings. This is a hands-on role ideal for engineers who thrive on running production SaaS systems at scale, automating operations, and continuously improving performance, resilience, and deployment pipelines.

What You’ll Do:

- Operate and scale Kong’s global SaaS platform (Konnect), ensuring reliability, availability, and performance across regions and clouds.
- Build, automate, and maintain Kubernetes-based infrastructure and deployment workflows using Terraform/Terragrunt, Helm, and ArgoCD.
- Design, maintain, and optimize multi-region data and caching layers — including PostgreSQL, Redis, ClickHouse, and Druid — for high availability and low latency.
- Operate and improve Kong Gateway and Kong Mesh environments supporting hybrid and distributed architectures.
- Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines and GitOps workflows to automate service delivery and ensure consistent infrastructure changes.
- Enhance observability and incident response readiness through systems like Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, and Thanos, defining and tracking SLOs.
- Collaborate closely with development and security teams to ensure smooth operation of SaaS services in compliance with reliability, security, and regulatory standards.
- Participate in a global 24/7 on-call rotation and drive continuous improvement of operational playbooks and postmortem practices.
- Lead and contribute to scaling initiatives that improve elasticity, reliability, and cost-efficiency across the SaaS platform.

What You’ll Bring:

- BS in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience.
- Proven experience managing SaaS or PaaS systems at enterprise scale (multi-region, multi-tenant, secure environments).
- Deep expertise in Kubernetes, including debugging cluster/networking issues and designing for fault tolerance and scalability.
- Strong proficiency with Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform or Terragrunt.
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines and GitOps workflows (ArgoCD, Atlantis, Helm).
- Proficiency in one or more programming languages (Go, Python, Bash) for automation and tooling.
- Solid understanding of Linux/Unix systems, networking (DNS, TLS/SSL, HTTP), load balancers and distributed systems.
- Experiencing working with API gateway and service mesh technologies
- Familiarity with streaming systems like Kafka and observability platforms (Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana).
- Experience working in a 24/7/365 production support environment.

Bonus Points:

- Hands-on experience with Kong Gateway, Kong Mesh, or similar service connectivity technologies.
- Experience operating ClickHouse, Druid, or other time-series and analytics databases.
- Experience managing PostgreSQL and Redis in multi-region configurations.
- Working knowledge of AWS networking (PrivateLink, Transit Gateway, VPC Peering, Firewalls), Azure VNet, or GCP NCC.
- Strong understanding of disaster recovery, resiliency testing, and compliance-driven reliability practices.

## #LI-KC1

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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