Engineering Manager, Kong

• This role requires deep expertise in distributed systems, platform engineering, and identity management, combined with proven people management experience and the ability to deliver mission-critical services at scale
• 3+ years of engineering management experience leading teams of 5+ engineers
• 8+ years of total software engineering experience with strong technical background in distributed systems, platform engineering, or backend services
• Demonstrated success building and scaling high-performing engineering teams
• Deep expertise in at least one area: identity and access management (IAM), distributed systems architecture, or platform infrastructure
• Strong experience with authentication and authorization technologies (OAuth 2.0, OIDC, JWT, SAML, RBAC)
• Proven ability to drive execution on complex, mission-critical systems with high availability requirements
• Strong technical credibility with ability to engage in architecture discussions, code reviews, and technical decision-making
• Experience hiring, onboarding, and developing engineers at different seniority levels
• Strong communication skills with ability to influence across technical and non-technical audiences
• Experience working in fast-paced environments and balancing competing priorities
• Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS preferred) and container orchestration (Kubernetes)
• Understanding of microservices architecture and API design best practices
• Experience with high-throughput, low-latency systems and performance optimization
• Track record of fostering inclusive and collaborative team environments
• Ability to provide technical guidance while empowering teams to make decisions
• Experience managing globally distributed teams across multiple time zones
• 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

Desirable

• The Engineering Manager for the Platform Services team will lead a team of backend and platform engineers responsible for Kong's core infrastructure services including authentication, authorization, search, notifications, and audit logging
• You'll be responsible for building and scaling a high-performing team, driving technical execution, and ensuring the reliability and security of services that underpin Kong's entire product portfolio
• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of 8-12 platform and backend engineers across multiple service domains
• Build a strong engineering culture focused on reliability, security, operational excellence, and continuous improvement
• Drive technical execution across authentication, authorization, search, notifications, and audit logging services
• Partner with product managers to define roadmaps, prioritize work, and align team efforts with business objectives
• Conduct regular 1:1s, provide coaching and feedback, and support career development for all team members
• Lead hiring efforts to scale the team, including defining role requirements, conducting interviews, and making hiring decisions
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Gateway, Dev Portal, Analytics and other product teams on platform integration
• Establish engineering best practices for distributed systems, security, observability, and incident response
• Drive technical strategy and architectural decisions for platform services and infrastructure
• Manage team performance through goal setting, performance reviews, and fostering accountability
• Own incident response, on-call rotations, and operational excellence for critical platform services
• Ensure compliance with security standards and regulatory requirements for authentication and audit systems
• Communicate technical progress, system health, and strategic recommendations to senior leadership
• Balance platform reliability and stability with delivering new features and capabilities
• Advocate for the team's needs in terms of resources, tooling, and organizational support