United States onlyAre you ready to power the World's connections?
We are exploring candidates coming from different backgrounds of varying expertise at either the Staff or Senior Staff Product Management level. In particular, as this is a highly technical product, we are open to considering seasoned candidates interested in moving to product management from SRE, product engineering, or field engineering disciplines.
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.
Why will you enjoy this new opportunity?
Kong is seeking an experienced and visionary technical Senior Staff Product Manager to spearhead the development and public release of Kong Konnect's Cloud Gateways. This role involves launching and enhancing our fully hosted, multi-cloud, and multi-region API gateway service, ensuring top-notch performance, scalability, and security.
Kong Konnect is an end-to-end SaaS API lifecycle management platform that is designed for the cloud-native era and provides the easiest way to operate Kong Gateway. Kong Konnect empowers developers to efficiently publish, consume, secure, analyze, and manage APIs and services across modern and legacy applications on any cloud, platform, protocol, or architecture.
Cloud Gateways was one of the most exciting announcements from API Summit 2023 and it was prominently featured in the Founder CTO Keynote, Marco Palladino. You will be working closely with Marco and other executives as we bring this critical customer capability to market. To learn more about Konnect and this innovative new capability, you can review:
You can also try out Kong Konnect (but not Cloud Gateways, yet!) by registering for a free trial: https://konghq.com/products/kong-konnect/register.
Why should you want to work at Kong?
Market Opportunity
We are on a quest to build a $10b+ software company over the next few years and need YOUR help!
Why APIs Matter? APIs have been enabling innovation for decades!
Strong VC team, Series D, strong year-over-year revenue growth!
Technical Leadership - We are recognized as the leader in innovation in the connectivity space.
Marco, our CTO/co-founder - “We are the Cisco of L4 and L7” - CUBE Conversation, March 2021
We are the leading innovator in the connectivity space!
Amazing Team Culture - Come be a "Konger" and find out what we mean.
Great Place to Work Certified in 2020 2021 Best Workplaces in 2022
Building Great Products - Learn why the world's largest companies love our tech!
Kong Named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant
Over 250m+ downloads of our open-source API gateway! Over 60k+ stars on GitHub between Kong API and Kong Insomnia!
What You'll Be Doing:
- Lead the strategic development of Konnect Cloud Gateways, aligning with Kong’s vision of offering a fully dedicated multi-cloud and multi-region API Gateway service.
- Craft a data-informed product roadmap, defining priorities, and overseeing the success of features for our cloud API gateway product.
- Collaborate closely with engineering, design, marketing, and sales teams to bring the product to market and expand our customer base.
- Craft and implement go-to-market strategies, including pricing, packaging, and field enablement.
- Work closely with our design partners to gather feedback, requirements, and use cases to drive our long-term roadmap.
- Act as a technical advocate, delivering presentations and promoting Kong Konnect’s full-lifecycle API management capabilities.
What You'll Bring:
- 8+ years of software product management experience, preferably with a strong background in SaaS and cloud-based products.
- Proven expertise in public cloud networking with platforms such as Azure, AWS, and GCP, demonstrating a deep understanding of cloud infrastructure, scalability, and security.
- In-depth knowledge of DNS management and strategies, ensuring optimal performance and reliability of global API infrastructure.
- Strong understanding of network security principles and best practices, with experience in implementing secure and compliant API solutions in a cloud environment.
- Exceptional communication skills, capable of articulating complex technical concepts to a diverse range of stakeholders.
- Adaptability and agility in a fast-paced and evolving technology landscape, with a keen eye for emerging trends and technologies
- Experience bringing zero-to-one products to the market including enterprise GTM, pricing packaging, and hands-on enablement of technical non-technical sales leadership.
Leadership and Team Culture
- You will be working under Ross Kukulinski, Senior Director of Product Management, who leads a dynamic and diverse team committed to delivering innovative SaaS API management offerings. Our culture thrives on creativity, inclusivity, and the passion to drive the future of API connectivity.
Kong has different base pay ranges for different work locations globally, which allows us to pay employees competitively and consistently in different geographic markets. The compensation varies depending on a wide array of factors, including but not limited to specific candidate location, role, skill set, and level of experience. Certain roles are eligible for additional rewards including sales incentives depending on the terms of the applicable plan and role. Benefits may vary depending on location. US-based employees are typically offered access to healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan, short and long-term disability benefits, and basic life and ADD insurance, among others. The typical base pay range for this role in the USD is $175,100 - $218,900 USD.
What is a Konger?
We are a group of makers, thinkers, and doers focused on helping today’s developers build tomorrow’s technology. Our teams work on the bleeding edge of API innovation to provide our users with a central nervous system for data and services.
We put design at the heart of everything we do, and we’re relentlessly focused on creating beautiful experiences for our customers. That’s why technology companies, major banks, e-commerce innovators, and government agencies put Kong in front of their most important web applications.
We believe in the power of Open Source and everything it stands for. That’s why developers around the world enthusiastically contribute on top of our open-source platform.
We are passionate about solving challenges that will fundamentally shape the future of technology, and we’re looking for the right people to join us on our mission. If you believe in taking ownership of your work, making an impact, and having fun along the way, we would love to talk to you.
Kong Core Values:
Be Inclusive. We work together from anywhere to achieve our common goals. Our differences make us stronger.
Be Authentic. We are genuine, principled and confident without arrogance. Show respect and kindness, especially in tough moments.
Be Relentlessly Resourceful. We work with purpose, obsession and grit. It takes muscle to do hard things and doing hard things build muscle.
Be Customer Obsessed. We care. Customers are everything, we put them at the center of everything you do. We are all empowered to make an impact.
Be Curious. We value ideas over hierarchy. Never accept the status quo. We make bold bets, fail, and learn everyday. There is always a way.
Be an Owner. We are drivers not passengers and own the quality and outcomes of our work.
About Kong:
Kong is THE cloud native API platform with the fastest, most adopted API gateway in the world (over 300m downloads!). Loved by developers and trusted with enterprises’ most critical traffic volumes, Kong helps startups and Fortune 500 companies build with confidence – allowing them to bring solutions to market faster with API and service connectivity that scales easily and securely.
83% of web traffic today is API calls! APIs are the connective tissue of the cloud and the underlying technology that allows software to talk and interact with one another. Therefore, we believe that APIs act as the nervous system of the cloud. Our audacious mission is to build the nervous system that will safely and reliably connect all of humankind!
For more information about Kong, please visit konghq.com or follow @thekonginc on Twitter.
We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.
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