Senior Staff Product Manager, Kong Mesh and K8s

Are you ready to power the World's connections?

We are looking for a Senior Staff level Product Manager to lead our efforts in the Kubernetes world. This role covers our Kubernetes ingress controller, service mesh and growing our Kubernetes operator footprint. 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.

Kong is a fully distributed team with an HQ office in San Francisco. This role is remote and open to EMEA, Canada and US applicants. The role is eligible for work authorization sponsorship.

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?

Kubernetes is a strategic deployment target for Kong, with many customers already utilizing the power that Kubernetes provides. This role involves maintaining and growing the usage of our existing products (Kong Mesh, Kong Ingress Controller, Kong Gateway Operator) in addition to innovating to bring new products to market for Kubernetes users.

Kong is a leader in the Kubernetes ecosystem, with multiple members of the team being key contributors to the Kubernetes Gateway API. Kong is not only standards compliant, we’re the ones driving the ecosystem forward.

Open source is important, but so is business. Kong is a Gartner Magic Quadrant leader (4 years in a row), and recently passed $100M ARR. If you join the team, you’ll be part of the rocket ship that is defining an industry.

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

Customer Fireside Chat with Rabobank | API Summit 2023

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 Do:

• Make Kong the default choice for North/South and East/West traffic on Kubernetes.
• Build a data-informed product roadmap, defining priorities, and overseeing the success of features for our Kubernetes products.
• Work directly with customers to make them successful with our current features and get feedback on proposed roadmap items.
• Craft and implement go-to-market strategies, including field enablement and community feedback.
• Act as a technical advocate, delivering presentations and promoting Kong’s full-lifecycle API management capabilities.

What You'll Bring:

• Empathy, curiosity, and a willingness to try new things.
• 5+ years of software product management (or related) experience.
• The ability to get hands-on with Kubernetes and it’s ecosystem and debug when things don’t quite go to plan.
• A strong knowledge of API design, including breaking changes and how best to manage them with existing customers.
• 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.

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 AD&D insurance, among others. The typical base pay range for this role in USD 177,030 - $230,240.

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.