Software Engineer, AI Gateway
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Before you apply
LocationMilan, Italy
Work modehybrid
Typefull-time
SeniorityMid
Experience3+ yrs
DepartmentAll Cost Center
Company size1,001–5,000 people
PostedOct 23, 2026 · 2w ago
Verified live1d ago
At a glanceSummarised by Seekless from the posting.
3+ years of programming in server-side applications and components
Hands on experience with either Golang or Rust
Experience building and debugging applications that are highly scalable, distributed, reliable and resilient
Solid hands-on low-level technical expertise in Linux systems troubleshooting, and profiling
Experience in distributed systems, Linux networking stack and computer systems programming
Comfortable working with a remotely distributed team
Strong sense of ownership and excellent verbal and written communication skills
Familiarity with AI LLM concepts and applications development
Hands on experience with NGINX/OpenResty/Kong/LuaJIT
Hands on experience with Envoy or Istio
Skills
Golang
Rust
Linux
NGINX
OpenResty
Kong
LuaJIT
Envoy
Istio
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 will join the engineering team that builds the Kong AI gateway, empowering companies and developers around the world to govern every step of their AI & LLM based innovation.
As a Software Engineer in the AI Gateway Team, you will be working on core features such as multi-LLM routing and balancing, semantic caching and routing, MCP, and more.
What You’ll Do:
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Responsible for building and maintaining API management software for AI and LLMs and its underlying stack.
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Implement new innovative features including proxying capabilities, load balancing, databases support that extend Kong AI Gateway’s offering.
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Bugs troubleshooting, performance tuning and low-level optimizations.
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Fill the gaps between Kong and third-party deployment platforms and tooling.
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Any additional tasks required by manager.
What You’ll Bring:
•
3+ years of programming in server-side applications and components.
•
Hands on experience with either Golang or Rust
•
Experience building and debugging applications that are highly scalable, distributed, reliable and resilient.
•
Solid hands-on low-level technical expertise in Linux systems troubleshooting, and profiling.
•
Experience in distributed systems, Linux networking stack and computer systems programming, Kong works with APIs on both L7 and L4 transports and protocols, so this expertise and knowledge are required.
•
Comfortable working with a remotely distributed team.
•
Strong sense of ownership and excellent verbal and written communication skills – engineers at Kong write the documentation for their products
•
Familiarity with AI LLM concepts and applications development
Bonus Points:
•
Hands on experience with NGINX/OpenResty/Kong/LuaJIT.
•
Hands on experience with Envoy or Istio.
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.