Software Engineer, AI Gateway
At a glance
Mid-level Software Engineering role at Kong. Milano · full-time · €63,750–€78,750 base.
techroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Build and maintain the software and underlying components that manage APIs for AI and large language models
- Add gateway features for proxying, load distribution and database support
- Track down defects, improve performance and optimize low-level code
- Connect Kong’s gateway with external deployment platforms and tools
What you bring
- At least three years developing server-side software, with practical Go or Rust experience
- You’ve built and debugged scalable, distributed systems designed for reliability and resilience
- Strong Linux troubleshooting and profiling skills, plus expertise in distributed systems, Linux networking and systems programming
- You understand AI and large language model concepts and application development
Who this fits
This mid-level role suits a hands-on server-side engineer who can work with a distributed team and write product documentation. The position is hybrid in Milano, Italy.
From the employer
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:
Responsible for building and maintaining API management software for AI and LLMs and its underlying stack.
Implement new innovative features including proxying capabilities, load balancing, databases support that extend Kong AI Gateway’s offering.
Bugs troubleshooting, performance tuning and low-level optimizations.
Fill the gaps between Kong and third-party deployment platforms and tooling.
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.
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