Job Title: Kong API Architect / API Management Architect Experience: 12–15+ Years Location: Remote/ EST candidates Preferred Duration: 12+ Months Job Summary We are seeking an experienced Kong API Architect to lead the design, architecture, implementation, and governance of enterprise API management platforms using Kong Gateway and Kong Konnect. The ideal candidate should have extensive experience in API management strategy, enterprise integration architecture, microservices, API security, cloud-native platforms, and distributed systems. Required Skills 10+ years of experience in IT, software engineering, and enterprise integration. 5+ years of experience in API Management and API Gateway architecture. Strong expertise in Kong Gateway, Kong Enterprise, and Kong Konnect. Experience designing enterprise-scale API management platforms. Strong understanding of REST APIs, microservices, and distributed architecture. Expertise in API security: OAuth 2.0, OIDC, JWT, mTLS, and API keys. Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and container orchestration. Strong knowledge of AWS, Azure, or GCP. Experience with high availability, scalability, disaster recovery, and performance optimization. Experience with API governance, standards, and lifecycle management. Knowledge of DevOps, CI/CD, Terraform, and Infrastructure as Code.

Key Responsibilities

Define enterprise API management architecture and strategy using Kong Gateway. Design scalable, highly available, and secure API gateway solutions. Lead Kong Gateway / Kong Enterprise platform implementation. Design API traffic management, routing, load balancing, and rate-limiting strategies. Define API security architecture using OAuth 2.0, OIDC, JWT, mTLS, and API keys. Design Kong Gateway deployments across Kubernetes, containers, and cloud environments. Establish API standards, governance, versioning, lifecycle management, and reusable patterns. Design hybrid and multi-cloud API management solutions. Lead API modernization and migration from legacy API gateways to Kong. Define platform monitoring, logging, tracing, and observability strategies. Establish CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code standards for API deployments. Provide technical leadership and architectural guidance to development and DevOps teams. Work with enterprise architects, security teams, engineering leaders, and business stakeholders. Preferred Skills Experience migrating from Apigee, MuleSoft, IBM DataPower, or AWS API Gateway to Kong. Experience with Kong custom plugin architecture and Lua. Experience with Kong Control Plane and Data Plane architecture. Experience with service mesh technologies. Knowledge of Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, Splunk, and ELK. Experience with enterprise security, compliance, and zero-trust architecture.