Staff Software Engineer, Konnect Core Platform

The role

You will architect Kong Identity's multi-tenant identity platform. This includes designing token management systems, global identity infrastructure, and enterprise identity federation capabilities.

What you will do

• Design and implement advanced token management systems.
• Lead development of Kong Identity's extensible claims engine.
• Architect global identity infrastructure with edge optimization and cross-region replication.
• Design rate limiting, anomaly detection, and fraud prevention systems.
• Build enterprise identity federation capabilities.
• Lead technical strategy for Kong Identity's developer experience.
• Architect advanced client management systems.
• Design Kong Identity's plugin architecture.
• Drive implementation of compliance frameworks.
• Lead technical initiatives for Kong Identity's integration with observability platforms.

Required qualifications

• 7+ years of experience building production identity platforms at leading identity providers or enterprise software companies.
• Proven track record of handling millions of authentication requests daily.
• Deep expertise in advanced OAuth 2.0 extensions (PKCE, mTLS, JWT bearer assertions, token exchange), OpenID Connect profiles, and emerging standards like OAuth 2.1 and GNAP.
• Proven experience architecting multi-tenant identity platforms with complex isolation requirements, tenant-specific configurations, and enterprise feature sets.
• Strong background in cryptographic protocols including advanced JWT patterns, key rotation strategies, Hardware Security Module (HSM) integration, and post-quantum cryptography considerations.
• Experience building identity platforms with sophisticated analytics, real-time monitoring, and security event detection capabilities at enterprise scale.
• Expertise in global identity infrastructure including edge deployment strategies, geo-distributed token validation, and cross-region data consistency patterns.
• Deep understanding of enterprise identity integration patterns including SAML federation, LDAP/AD bridges, SCIM provisioning, and custom protocol adapters.
• Proven track record building developer-first identity platforms including comprehensive SDKs, webhook systems, and extensible API designs.
• Experience with identity platform security including threat modeling, penetration testing coordination, and implementation of advanced attack prevention mechanisms.
• Strong background in compliance and regulatory requirements for identity systems including audit trail design, data residency controls, and privacy engineering.
• Experience building identity platforms supporting complex organizational structures, delegated administration, and fine-grained permission models.

About the company

Kong Inc. is the AI Connectivity Company building the connectivity layer of AI. Their unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic.