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Kong is seeking a Senior Security Engineer to join the Runtimes team as a Security Champion. You'll be responsible for securing Kong's API and AI Gateway—a critical infrastructure component that sits at the center of how Fortune 500 enterprises and AI-native startups govern the flow of intelligence through their systems.
In this role, you'll work at the intersection of application security and emerging AI threats. You'll conduct security-focused code audits, threat modeling, and secure design reviews across Kong's Gateway capabilities. You'll own vulnerability management end-to-end, from triage and reproduction through remediation and verification. As AI/LLM security threats evolve—prompt injection, agentic authorization, model abuse—you'll partner with the AI Gateway engineering team to develop solutions to problems that don't yet have established playbooks.
Beyond defensive work, you'll be a hands-on engineer contributing directly to Gateway feature development, ensuring security is built in from day one rather than bolted on later. You'll also coach other engineers on secure coding practices, turning security findings into lasting team habits and cultural shifts.
Kong operates from a hybrid setup at Talent Garden Isola in Milan, offering a permanent contract under CCNL Commercio (Quadro) with bonus and welfare benefits.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 3+ years building production software, with 2+ years in a dedicated security role (AppSec, vulnerability research, or pentesting)
- Solid coding skills in an object-oriented language (Rust, Java, Python, Go, or similar)
- Practical threat-modeling experience
- Working knowledge of cybersecurity, especially L7 security and authentication
- Basic knowledge of AI attack vectors
NICE-TO-HAVE:
- Familiarity with L7 proxies/API gateway architecture (Nginx, OpenResty, Envoy, HAProxy, or Kong)
- Experience with Lua
- Open-source contributions
- Willingness to learn Rust (important for Kong's platform direction; training provided)
