Senior Staff Product Manager, AI Gateway at Kong

United States

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Not SpecifiedCompensation

Senior (5 to 8 years), Expert & Leadership (9+ years)Experience Level

Full TimeJob Type

UnknownVisa

Technology, AIIndustries

Requirements

8+ years of product management experience, including ownership of technical infrastructure or developer products at scale
Proven success launching and growing enterprise-facing products — particularly those involving platform or middleware technologies
Comfort working across sales, marketing, and solution engineering to align roadmap with commercial goals
Solid understanding of APIs, networking, middleware, or developer infrastructure
Familiarity with AI/ML concepts (e.g. LLMs, embeddings, prompt chaining) is preferred, though deep AI expertise is not required
Cross-Functional Leadership: Confidence engaging with diverse stakeholders — from field engineers to enterprise customers to the CTO — and translating their inputs into clear requirements

Responsibilities

Define and Drive Product Vision: Own and evolve the product vision for Kong’s AI Gateway — a critical infrastructure layer for governing and accelerating GenAI workloads. Collaborate with engineering, design, field teams, and Kong’s CTO to ensure strategic clarity and technical feasibility across agentic AI use cases
Lead Execution: Work closely with engineering and design leads to define and deliver high-impact capabilities across caching, routing, security, and observability for LLM-powered applications. Ensure each release delivers meaningful value to enterprise customers and reinforces Kong’s differentiated position in the AI ecosystem
Shape Customer-Driven Strategy: Develop a deep understanding of how enterprises are adopting LLMs, agents, and GenAI workflows. Use insights from strategic customers, market trends, and internal usage to guide prioritization and product-market fit. Validate concepts through design partners and MVP iterations
Ensure Cross-Functional Alignment: Align engineering, GTM, and platform stakeholders on priority use cases, customer deliverables, and field enablement. Drive alignment across core platform teams when AI Gateway intersects with Konnect, Kong Gateway, or new runtime capabilities like MCP
Build Roadmaps and Launch Plans: Own and maintain a public-facing roadmap and internal planning artifacts. Partner with Product Marketing and Enablement to ensure field readiness and a clear narrative around product capabilities, roadmap, and competitive differentiation
Drive Communication and Leadership Visibility: Proactively communicate progress, decisions, and risks to executive stakeholders — including Kong’s CTO and product leadership. Translate technical details into strategic implications, ensuring the broader organization understands the “why” behind roadmap bets

Skills

Key technologies and capabilities for this role

Product ManagementAI GatewayGenerative AILLM ApplicationsAPI InfrastructureCachingRoutingSecurityObservabilityRoadmap PlanningCross-functional LeadershipEnterprise GTMCustomer Success

Questions & Answers

Common questions about this position

What is the employment type for this role?

This is a full-time position.

Is this role remote or does it require office presence?

This information is not specified in the job description.

What are the key responsibilities for the Senior Staff Product Manager role?

You will define and drive product vision for the AI Gateway, lead execution with engineering and design, shape customer-driven strategy, ensure cross-functional alignment, build roadmaps and launch plans, and drive communication with executive stakeholders.

What is the company culture like at Kong?

Kong has a fast-growing, well-funded environment with innovative products, happy customers, and a strong values-driven culture, operating in a small and high-impact setting.

What makes a strong candidate for this product manager role?

Strong candidates will have experience leading strategic product bets end-to-end, working closely with engineering and executives like the CTO, and driving cross-functional execution in a high-impact environment focused on AI infrastructure.

Kong

API management and connectivity solutions provider

About Kong

Kong focuses on API management and connectivity, providing tools that help businesses manage, secure, and optimize their APIs for software communication. Its main product, Kong Gateway, is a fast API gateway that can handle up to 50,000 transactions per second, while Kong Konnect offers a SaaS platform for API management and Kong Mesh manages microservices. Kong stands out by combining open-source technology with enterprise solutions, allowing free access to core features and offering premium services for businesses. The company's goal is to enhance developer productivity, security, and performance for a diverse range of clients in a rapidly growing market.

San Francisco, CaliforniaHeadquarters

2017Year Founded

$334.7MTotal Funding

SERIES_ECompany Stage

Data & Analytics, Enterprise SoftwareIndustries

501-1,000Employees

Benefits

Weekly Donut Chats

Home Office Stipend

Flexible Time Off & Dedicated Unplug Days

Virtual Events

Risks

AI-enhanced security threats pose significant risks to API security.

Low adoption of zero-trust architecture leaves APIs vulnerable to breaches.

Intensifying competition in AI API platforms may draw customers away from Kong.

Differentiation

Kong's API Gateway supports 50,000 transactions per second, ensuring high performance.

Kong offers a unique combination of open-source and enterprise-grade API solutions.

Kong Insomnia is the fastest-growing platform for building, testing, and debugging APIs.

Upsides

Kong raised $175M to enhance AI connectivity and expand its solutions.

Kong Insomnia surpassed 1 million users, indicating strong demand for its tools.

Kong's Premium Technology Partner Program fosters innovation and collaboration.

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