Senior Software Engineer, Kong Identity

Job Description

<h3>Job Description</h3><p>Job Description<p><p><strong>Are you ready to power the World&#39;s connections?</strong></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><strong>About the role:</strong></p><p>Kong is building the future of API management for developers. We’re a fast-growing, well-funded company with happy customers and motivated employees. Insomnia, acquired in 2019, is a full-lifecycle API development platform that has quickly become an integral part of Kong’s product portfolio.</p><p>As a Senior Software Engineer on the Konnect team at Kong, you’ll architect Kong Identity&#39;s multi-tenant identity platform supporting complex organizational hierarchies, cross-tenant isolation, and enterprise-grade security controls.</p><p></p><p><strong>What you&#39;ll do:</strong></p><p>Build and maintain Kong Identity&#39;s core services including auth servers, token management, and client credential systems supporting OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect flows.</p><p>Implement scalable token generation, validation, and introspection services that handle high-volume authentication requests with sub-millisecond latency.</p><p>Develop Kong Identity&#39;s claims engine supporting dynamic attribute resolution and contextual claim injection at token issuance.</p><p>Build client management features including dynamic client registration, credential lifecycle management, and scope enforcement.</p><p>Implement integration points between Kong Identity and Gateway Manager, supporting OIDC, OAuth2.0 introspection, and Upstream OAuth plugins.</p><p>Develop Kong Identity APIs and work on SDKs to enable customer automation and DevOps workflows.</p><p>Build monitoring, logging, and analytics capabilities to provide visibility into token lifecycle and authentication patterns.</p><p>Work on global infrastructure components including distributed caching, cross-region replication, and edge optimization for authentication services.</p><p>Contribute to Kong Identity&#39;s security posture including implementing rate limiting, anomaly detection, and attack prevention mechanisms.</p><p>Support production services through on-call responsibilities and troubleshooting authentication issues for enterprise customers.</p><p>Write comprehensive automated tests and participate in code reviews to maintain high code quality standards.</p><p>Collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate product requirements into technical implementations.</p><p></p><p><strong>What you&#39;ll bring:</strong></p><p>4+ years of experience building production backend systems and distributed services, with strong fundamentals in system design and scalability.</p><p>Solid understanding of OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect fundamentals, with experience implementing or integrating authentication systems.</p><p>Strong background in building high-performance, low-latency services that handle significant request volumes.</p><p>Experience with JWT tokens, including generation, validation, and understanding of signing algorithms and security best practices.</p><p>Proven ability to build RESTful APIs with focus on developer experience and comprehensive error handling.</p><p>Experience with distributed systems challenges including caching strategies, data consistency, and cross-region architectures.</p><p>Strong coding skills in GoLang.</p><p>Experience working with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and understanding of cloud-native architectures.</p><p>Familiarity with database technologies and data modeling for high-scale applications.</p><p>Understanding of security best practices for credential management and secure authentication flows.</p><p>Experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and modern deployment practices.</p><p>Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills for complex distributed systems.</p><p>Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively in remote/distributed teams.</p><p>Self-motivated with ability to take ownership of features from design through production deployment.</p><p></p><p><strong>Bonus points:</strong></p><p>Deep expertise in identity and access management systems with experience at identity platform companies.</p><p>Experience with advanced OAuth 2.0 extensions (PKCE, mTLS, JWT bearer assertions, token exchange) and OAuth 2.1/GNAP standards.</p><p>Knowledge of enterprise identity integration patterns including SAML federation, LDAP/AD bridges, and SCIM provisioning.</p><p>Experience building multi-tenant platforms with complex isolation requirements and tenant-specific configurations.</p><p>Background in cryptographic protocols, HSM integration, or security-focused system design.</p><p>Experience with compliance frameworks (SOC 2, FedRAMP, GDPR) and implementing security controls.</p><p>Contributions to open source projects, particularly in the identity or API management space.</p><p>Experience with observability platforms, distributed tracing, and building systems with strong operational characteristics.</p><p>Knowledge of service mesh patterns and workload identity systems.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>About Kong:</strong></p><p>Kong Inc., a leading developer of cloud API technologies, is on a mission to enable companies around the world to become “API-first” and securely accelerate AI adoption. Kong helps organizations globally — from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises — unleash developer productivity, build securely, and accelerate time to market. For more information about Kong, please visit www.konghq.com or follow us on X @thekonginc.</p><p></p><p>Compensation Range: CA$144.8K - CA$202.8K</p></p></p>