Engineering Manager, Konnect Core Platform

Are you ready to power the Worlds connections

If you dont think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job please apply. Nobody checks every box - were looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas and have some interest and capabilities in others.

About the role:

The Engineering Manager for the AI Platform team will lead a team of AI/ML engineers applied scientists and platform engineers building Kongs next-generation AI capabilities. Youll be responsible for building and scaling a high-performing team driving technical execution and collaborating with product and leadership to define the roadmap for AI features across Kongs platform. This role requires a strong technical background in either AI/ML or platform engineering proven people management experience and the ability to navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape while delivering production-ready systems at scale.

What youll do:

Lead mentor and grow a team of 6-10 engineers including AI/ML engineers applied scientists and platform engineers.

Build a strong engineering culture focused on innovation quality collaboration and continuous learning in the AI domain.

Drive technical execution across multiple parallel initiatives ensuring timely delivery of high-quality AI features.

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 and other product teams to integrate AI capabilities.

Establish engineering best practices for AI/ML development including evaluation frameworks safety guardrails and responsible AI principles.

Drive technical strategy and architectural decisions for AI platform services and infrastructure.

Manage team performance through goal setting performance reviews and fostering accountability.

Balance innovation and experimentation with pragmatic delivery of production systems.

Communicate technical progress challenges and strategic recommendations to senior leadership.

Own incident response and operational excellence for AI platform services.

Advocate for the teams needs in terms of resources tooling and organizational support.

What youll bring:

3 years of engineering management experience leading teams of 5 engineers.

8 years of total software engineering experience with a strong technical background in one or more of AI/ML engineering distributed systems or platform engineering.

Demonstrated success building and scaling high-performing engineering teams.

Experience managing teams working on AI/ML systems large language models or ML infrastructure (strongly preferred).

Strong technical credibility with the ability to engage in architecture discussions code reviews and technical decision-making.

Experience hiring onboarding and developing engineers at different seniority levels.

Proven ability to drive execution on complex ambiguous projects with multiple stakeholders.

Strong communication skills with the ability to influence across technical and non-technical audiences.

Experience working in fast-paced environments and balancing competing priorities.

Understanding of modern AI/ML technologies including LLMs vector databases and ML infrastructure.

Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS preferred) and container orchestration (Kubernetes).

Experience with agile development methodologies and iterative delivery practices.

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.

Bonus Points:

Experience managing teams building production AI/ML applications or ML platforms.

Background as an AI/ML engineer data scientist or ML platform engineer.

Experience with AWS AI/ML services (Bedrock SageMaker) or similar platforms.

Knowledge of LLM application development prompt engineering or agentic workflows.

Experience in API Gateway developer tools or platform engineering domains.

Understanding of responsible AI practices AI safety and alignment principles.

Experience managing teams through 0-to-1 product development.

Track record of technical writing conference speaking or thought leadership in AI/ML.

Experience with performance management and difficult conversations.

Background in building MLOps infrastructure or ML engineering platforms.

Familiarity with Kongs products or the API management ecosystem.

Experience managing teams supporting high-availability SaaS or PaaS offerings.

Knowledge of compliance frameworks and building audit-ready AI systems.

Experience collaborating with research teams or applied scientists.

Active involvement in AI/ML communities or open-source contributions.

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About Kong:

Kong Inc. a leading developer of API and AI connectivity technologies is building the infrastructure that powers the agentic era. trusted by the Fortune 500 and startups alike Kongs unified API and AI platform Kong Konnect enables organizations to secure manage accelerate govern and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI models. For more information visit .

Required Experience:

Manager