Software Engineer

Who you are

• 3+ years of professional software engineering experience building backend services and distributed systems
• Strong proficiency in Golang with experience building production microservices
• Strong experience with API development and design (REST, gRPC) and building API-first services
• Experience building and deploying microservices architectures in production environments
• Hands-on experience with AWS services (EKS, ECS, Lambda, DynamoDB, RDS, S3, etc.)
• Experience with Kubernetes including deployment, scaling, and managing containerized applications
• Understanding of distributed systems concepts and building highly available, fault-tolerant services
• Knowledge of security best practices for backend services including secure credential storage and secret management
• Experience with multi-tenancy and building services that serve multiple customers
• Experience with Continuous Integration/Delivery pipelines and tools such as GitHub Actions or Jenkins
• Experience with database systems (SQL and NoSQL) and data modeling
• Solid computer science fundamentals including data structures, algorithms, and system design
• Demonstrated skills using code repositories and collaboration tools (GitHub, JIRA, Confluence, or similar)
• Experience working with globally distributed teams
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to debug complex distributed systems issues
• Eagerness to learn about identity and access management technologies
• Experience with authentication and authorization technologies including OAuth 2.0, OIDC, JWT, SAML, or other IAM standards
• Knowledge of role-based access control (RBAC) and permissions systems
• Experience with API Gateway technologies or building developer portals
• Understanding of identity federation and Single Sign-On (SSO) implementations
• Experience with identity providers (Auth0, Okta, Keycloak, or similar)
• Familiarity with token lifecycle management and session management
• Experience with message queues and event streaming (Kafka, RabbitMQ, NATS)
• Knowledge of zero-trust security architectures and policy-based access control
• Experience with session management and distributed caching (Redis, Memcached)
• Experience with observability and monitoring tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, CloudWatch)
• Knowledge of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform or Pulumi
• Experience with service mesh technologies (Istio, Linkerd) and mTLS
• Familiarity with compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR)
• Contributions to open-source projects or active involvement in engineering communities
• Experience with additional programming languages such as Python, Java, or Rust
• Background in security practices or interest in security engineering

What the job involves

• 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 IAM Team is responsible for building and maintaining the identity and access management systems that secure Kong Konnect and the Developer Portal
• We develop the authentication and authorization services that protect millions of API requests daily, enabling secure access control for enterprise customers and developers worldwide. Our systems power fine-grained permissions, role-based access control, and seamless identity experiences across Kong's platform
• The Software Engineer will be a key contributor to the IAM Team, building scalable backend services for Kong Konnect and the Developer Portal
• You'll develop microservices in Golang that handle identity management, access control, and permissions enforcement for Kong's multi-tenant platform
• This role requires strong platform engineering fundamentals, Golang proficiency, microservices architecture experience, and cloud-native development on AWS and Kubernetes. You'll learn and grow your expertise in IAM technologies while building production systems at scale
• Develop and maintain backend microservices in Golang that power authentication and authorization for Kong Konnect and Developer Portal
• Build scalable APIs that integrate identity and access management capabilities across Kong's product ecosystem
• Deploy and manage services on AWS using Kubernetes for container orchestration and high availability
• Implement secure, performant backend services that handle high-volume traffic and enforce access control policies
• Collaborate with senior engineers and security teams to learn and implement IAM best practices
• Work with product managers and other engineering teams to deliver features that enhance developer and enterprise user experiences
• Write clean, maintainable, well-tested code with comprehensive unit, integration, and end-to-end tests
• Participate in code reviews, design discussions, and architecture planning
• Monitor and optimize service performance, reliability, and security through observability tools and continuous improvement
• Participate in on-call rotation to ensure high availability of platform services
• Contribute to building a culture of engineering excellence and security-first development

Benefits

• Flexible time off: Take time to take care of yourself and the things that matter most
• Stock options: We want you to share in our success. That's why stock options are offered to most Kongers
• U-First Fridays: Get 4 hours a month for continuous learning with a book, podcast, or course of your choice
• Virtual events: Stay connected with Donut chats, trivia, fitness challenges, guided meditations, and more
• Dedicated unplug days: Silence those notifications. Enjoy some well-deserved long weekend where the entire team unplugs
• Home office stipend: Build a home office environment tailored to support your productivity