📍 Job Overview
Job Title: Engineering Manager ( API ops & UI )
Company: Kong
Location: India-Bangalore
Job Type: Full-time
Category: Engineering Leadership / UI Engineering Management / API Operations
Date Posted: June 12, 2025
Experience Level: 5-10 years (specifically 4+ years in engineering management and 5+ years in SaaS development)
Remote Status: Hybrid
🎨 Role Summary
- Lead and manage high-performing engineering teams focused on API Operations (API Ops), Large Language Model Operations (LLM Ops), and User Interface (UI) development for Kong's API management suite.
- Drive technical excellence, ensuring industry-leading security, quality, performance, and reliability across owned systems, aiming for 99.99% SLA or higher reliability.
- Collaborate closely with product leadership to define and execute the strategic roadmap for API Ops, LLM Ops, and UI initiatives, aligning engineering efforts with business objectives.
- Attract, mentor, and develop engineering talent, fostering growth and contributing to Kong's overall engineering organization strength.
🖼️ Primary Responsibilities
- Build, lead, and mentor engineering teams, fostering a culture of high performance, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Own the technical success of the API Ops, LLM Ops, and UI teams, ensuring the delivery of secure, high-quality, performant, and reliable software systems.
- Architect, design, and operate software systems with a focus on achieving and maintaining 99.99% SLA or higher reliability for critical API infrastructure.
- Define and refine the technical direction and innovation strategy for the API Ops and LLM Ops teams, exploring new technologies and approaches.
- Collaborate with product leadership to translate product strategy into actionable roadmaps and objectives for the managed gateways and SaaS platform UI.
- Oversee and manage multiple agile workstreams across the API Ops, LLM Ops, and UI teams to ensure timely and efficient project execution.
- Engage directly with customers and field teams to gather insights, understand use cases, address pain points, and identify opportunities for product innovation.
- Drive key objectives and initiatives that directly impact business outcomes, focusing on contributions to revenue growth and customer satisfaction.
- Ensure effective collaboration and communication between the API Ops, LLM Ops, and UI teams and other engineering teams, product management, and cross-functional stakeholders.
🎓 Skills & Qualifications
Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field is required. Advanced degrees are a plus, particularly if focused on distributed systems, networking, or software architecture.
Experience: Minimum of 4 years of experience in engineering management, leading and scaling high-performing software development teams. Minimum of 5 years of experience in SaaS development, with a demonstrably successful track record of operating software systems requiring 99.99% reliability or higher. Proven experience bringing new SaaS offerings to market is essential.
Required Skills:
- Engineering Management: Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, and grow engineering teams, including performance management, hiring, and fostering a positive team culture.
- SaaS Development & Operations: Deep understanding of building, deploying, and operating scalable and highly reliable SaaS applications, with experience in achieving stringent SLA targets (e.g., 99.99%).
- Networking Concepts: Strong expertise in networking protocols, particularly OSI Layer 4 (Transport) and Layer 7 (Application) protocols (e.g., TCP, UDP, HTTP, HTTPS), and experience with public cloud network architectures (AWS, GCP, Azure).
- Microservices & Distributed Systems: Hands-on experience designing, building, debugging, and operating microservices architectures and complex distributed systems.
- Monitoring & Observability: Expertise in implementing and leveraging monitoring, logging, and observability practices (e.g., using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, Datadog) to ensure system health, performance, and reliability.
- Technical Architecture: Ability to contribute to and guide technical architecture decisions for scalable and resilient systems.
- Agile Methodologies: Experience overseeing multiple agile workstreams and ensuring efficient project execution.
- Communication & Collaboration: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with engineering teams, product managers, customers, and other stakeholders.
Preferred Skills:
- Experience with API Gateways and API Management platforms (specifically Kong Gateway or similar technologies).
- Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform, particularly in the context of API infrastructure management.
- Experience with containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) and cloud-native development practices.
- Understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs) and experience integrating AI/ML capabilities into software products.
- Experience with command-line interface (CLI) development or managing teams working on CLI tools.
- Background in UI development management, particularly with modern frontend frameworks (e.g., React, Angular, Vue.js).
🎨 Portfolio & Creative Requirements
While this is primarily an engineering management role, a "portfolio" for this position would focus on demonstrating leadership impact, technical depth, and strategic contributions rather than visual design work. Candidates should be prepared to discuss their contributions through structured case studies and examples.
Portfolio Essentials:
- Leadership Case Studies: Present detailed examples of leading engineering teams, highlighting challenges faced, strategies implemented, and measurable outcomes (e.g., team productivity improvements, project delivery success, talent development).
- Technical Problem Solving: Showcase complex technical challenges you've overseen or contributed to solving, particularly related to scalability, reliability (achieving high SLAs), performance optimization, or distributed systems.
- SaaS Operations Excellence: Provide examples demonstrating your experience in operating high-availability SaaS platforms, including incident response, post-mortem analysis, monitoring strategies, and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Strategic Impact: Discuss how you have contributed to defining and executing technical strategy, aligning engineering efforts with product roadmaps, and driving business outcomes.
Process Documentation:
- Team Process Improvement: Detail examples of how you have improved engineering processes, agile methodologies, or development workflows within your teams.
- Technical Decision-Making: Explain your approach to technical decision-making, including how you evaluate trade-offs, manage technical debt, and ensure architectural soundness.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Document your experience collaborating with product management, sales, support, and other teams, highlighting how you facilitated communication and alignment.
💵 Compensation & Benefits
Salary Range: Based on industry research for Engineering Manager roles in Bangalore, India with 5-10 years of relevant experience in the software development and SaaS sector, the estimated annual salary range for this position is approximately ₹35,00,000 to ₹60,00,000 INR. This estimate is based on publicly available salary data for similar roles at technology companies in the region, factoring in experience level, required skills (especially SaaS operations and leadership), and the specific focus areas of the role. The actual salary may vary based on the candidate's specific qualifications, experience, and negotiation.
Benefits:
- Comprehensive Health Insurance coverage.
- Retirement Savings Plan (e.g., Provident Fund).
- Paid Time Off and Company Holidays.
- Opportunities for professional development and training.
- Potential for stock options or equity grants.
- Hybrid work model allowing flexibility between office and remote work.
- Specific benefits may vary and will be detailed upon offer.
Working Hours: This is a full-time position, typically requiring around 40 hours per week. While the company operates on a hybrid model with required office days, flexibility may be provided to accommodate collaboration with global teams and manage workload effectively.
🎯Team & Company Context
🏢 Company & Design Culture
Industry: Software Development, specifically focused on API Management and Cloud-Native technologies. Kong is a leader in the API infrastructure space, enabling businesses to manage and secure their APIs, which are the backbone of modern digital applications. This industry context means that design and engineering at Kong are focused on building robust, developer-friendly, and scalable tools for technical users.
Company Size: 501-1,000 employees globally. This size suggests a mature but still growing organization. For engineering managers, this typically means established processes but also opportunities to shape and improve those processes. Teams are likely specialized, and there's a balance between individual contribution and team collaboration.
Founded: 2017. Founded relatively recently, Kong has achieved significant growth and market adoption, positioning itself as an innovation leader in the API and cloud-native space. This history suggests a dynamic and fast-paced environment.
Team Structure:
- The role manages three distinct but related teams: API Ops, LLM Ops, and UI.
- These teams likely collaborate closely with other engineering teams responsible for the core Kong Gateway, Konnect platform, and other products.
- Reporting structure typically involves reporting to a Director or VP of Engineering.
- Cross-functional collaboration with product management, design, and potentially customer-facing teams (support, solutions engineers) is crucial for success.
Methodology:
- Likely utilizes Agile methodologies (e.g., Scrum, Kanban) for software development and project management.
- Emphasizes iterative development, continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD), and data-driven decision-making.
- Strong focus on reliability engineering practices given the 99.99% SLA requirement.
Company Website: konghq.com
📈 Career & Growth Analysis
Design Career Level: While not a traditional design role, this is an Engineering Manager position, typically considered a mid-to-senior level leadership role within the engineering career path. The role involves managing multiple teams and contributing to strategic direction, indicating a significant level of responsibility and influence.
Reporting Structure: This role likely reports to a higher-level engineering leader, such as a Director or Vice President of Engineering. Success in this role involves managing upwards effectively and contributing to the broader engineering leadership team.
Design Impact: The impact of this role lies in enabling the success of teams that build and operate critical components of Kong's platform – the operational tools for APIs (API Ops), the integration of AI capabilities (LLM Ops), and the user interface for the SaaS platform (UI). The effectiveness, reliability, and user-friendliness of these components directly impact customer experience and the overall success of Kong's products.
Growth Opportunities:
- Advancement to a Director or Senior Director of Engineering role, potentially overseeing a larger portfolio of teams or engineering functions.
- Opportunity to deepen expertise in specific technical areas like API operations, cloud-native infrastructure, or LLM integration.
- Potential to take on more strategic initiatives related to engineering excellence, process improvement, or new technology adoption.
- Mentorship and leadership development opportunities within Kong's engineering organization.
🌐 Work Environment
Studio Type: Hybrid work model, requiring three days per week in the Bangalore office and two days working from home. The office environment is likely a modern workspace designed to facilitate collaboration and focused work for engineering teams.
Office Location(s): Bangalore, India. Specific address details would be provided during the interview process. Candidates should consider commute times and accessibility to the office.
Design Workspace Context:
- The office workspace is likely equipped with necessary infrastructure for software development, including reliable internet, meeting rooms for collaboration, and potentially dedicated areas for team work.
- The hybrid model suggests a balance between in-person team interaction and the flexibility of remote work.
- Collaboration tools and technologies are essential to support both in-office and remote team members.
Work Schedule: Standard business hours are expected, with flexibility potentially needed to coordinate with teams in different time zones, particularly if collaborating with teams based in the US or other global locations. The hybrid model allows for some personal scheduling flexibility on remote days.
📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process
Design Interview Process: (Note: This section is tailored for an engineering management role, focusing on relevant evaluation criteria.)
- Initial Screening: Likely involves a recruiter call to discuss background, experience, and fit for the role and company culture. Be prepared to articulate your engineering leadership experience and motivation for joining Kong.
- Technical/Managerial Screening: This stage may involve interviews with engineering leaders or senior engineers. Expect questions about your experience managing teams, technical depth in relevant areas (SaaS operations, networking, distributed systems), and problem-solving approach.
- Team/Cross-Functional Interviews: Meet with members of the teams you would be managing, product managers, and potentially other stakeholders. These interviews will assess your collaboration style, communication skills, and ability to work effectively across functions.
- Leadership/Executive Interviews: Final rounds with senior engineering leadership or executives. These discussions will focus on your strategic thinking, leadership philosophy, vision for the teams, and overall fit with Kong's leadership principles and company culture.
Portfolio Review Tips: (Note: This is adapted for an engineering management context)
- Prepare Case Studies: Structure your discussion around specific projects or initiatives you led. For each case study, clearly articulate the problem, your approach (including leadership and technical decisions), the outcomes, and your learnings.
- Highlight Impact: Quantify your impact whenever possible (e.g., improvements in reliability, team velocity increases, successful project launches).
- Demonstrate Technical Depth: Be prepared to discuss the technical challenges and architectural considerations of the systems you've managed or built.
- Focus on Team Development: Share examples of how you've mentored team members, fostered growth, and built high-performing teams.
Challenge Preparation: While a traditional "design challenge" isn't typical for this role, you might encounter:
- Technical Discussion: Be prepared for in-depth discussions about system architecture, scalability challenges, reliability engineering, or specific technologies relevant to Kong's platform.
- Behavioral Questions: Expect questions about how you handle conflict, manage performance issues, motivate teams, and navigate challenging situations.
- Situational Questions: Be ready to discuss how you would approach hypothetical scenarios related to team management, project delays, technical debt, or cross-functional conflicts.
ATS Keywords: Engineering Manager, Engineering Leadership, SaaS Development, High Availability, Reliability Engineering, 99.99% SLA, API Operations, LLM Operations, UI Engineering, Cloud-Native, Microservices, Distributed Systems, Networking, OSI Layers, Layer 4, Layer 7, Public Cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure), Monitoring, Observability, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Team Building, Mentoring, Technical Strategy, Product Roadmap, Customer Interaction, Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes, React, Angular, Vue.js, Communication Skills, Problem Solving, Technical Management, Software Development Lifecycle, CI/CD, Bangalore, India.
🛠 Tools & Technology Stack
Primary Design Tools: (Note: Adapted for an engineering management context focusing on tools used by the managed teams and for oversight)
- Project Management & Collaboration Tools: Tools like Jira, Asana, or similar for tracking work, managing sprints, and facilitating team collaboration.
- Communication Platforms: Slack, Microsoft Teams, or similar for internal team communication.
- Code Repositories: Git (likely GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket) for version control and code management.
- CI/CD Platforms: Tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or similar for automated builds, testing, and deployments.
Collaboration & Handoff:
- Documentation Platforms: Confluence, Notion, or similar for documenting technical designs, team processes, and knowledge sharing.
- API Management Tools: Experience with Kong Gateway, Kong Konnect, or similar API management platforms is highly relevant, particularly for the API Ops and UI teams.
- Handoff Tools: Understanding of tools and processes for handing off UI designs to engineering teams (e.g., Figma, Sketch, Zeplin) is relevant for managing the UI team.
Research & Testing:
- Monitoring & Observability Tools: Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, New Relic, ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) for system monitoring, logging, and performance analysis.
- Testing Frameworks & Tools: Familiarity with various testing methodologies and tools used by the engineering teams (unit testing, integration testing, end-to-end testing).
- Cloud Provider Consoles & Tools: Experience with the management consoles and command-line interfaces of AWS, GCP, or Azure for infrastructure management and monitoring.
👥 Team Culture & Values
Design Values: (Note: Adapted for an engineering team culture within Kong)
- Reliability and Excellence: A strong emphasis on building and operating highly reliable and performant systems, given the critical nature of API infrastructure and the 99.99% SLA target.
- Innovation and Adaptability: Valuing continuous learning, exploring new technologies (especially in the LLM space), and adapting to the evolving landscape of cloud-native and API technologies.
- Collaboration and Communication: Fostering a collaborative environment where teams work effectively together and with cross-functional stakeholders, emphasizing clear and open communication.
- Customer Focus: A commitment to understanding customer needs and pain points, and using that feedback to drive product improvements and innovation.
Collaboration Style:
- Likely involves cross-functional collaboration with product management, other engineering teams, and customer-facing teams.
- Emphasizes code reviews, technical discussions, and knowledge sharing within and across teams.
- Encourages a culture of continuous feedback and improvement.
⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities
Design Challenges: (Note: Adapted for an engineering management context)
- Managing Diverse Teams: Leading teams with different technical focuses (API Ops, LLM Ops, UI) requires balancing priorities, expertise, and development methodologies.
- Maintaining High Reliability: Ensuring 99.99% SLA for critical infrastructure requires robust monitoring, incident response, and proactive reliability engineering practices.
- Integrating LLMs: The LLM Ops team is new and in an emerging field, presenting challenges in defining best practices, selecting technologies, and integrating AI capabilities effectively into the product portfolio.
- Scaling Teams and Processes: As Kong continues to grow, scaling engineering teams and processes efficiently while maintaining quality and velocity will be an ongoing challenge.
Learning & Development Opportunities:
- Opportunity to develop expertise in managing teams working on cutting-edge technologies like LLMs.
- Enhance leadership and management skills by leading multiple teams with distinct technical challenges.
- Deepen understanding of API infrastructure, cloud-native technologies, and high-reliability systems.
- Potential to participate in industry conferences, training programs, and internal knowledge-sharing sessions.
💡 Interview Preparation
Design Process Questions: (Note: Adapted for an engineering management context)
- "Describe your approach to building and leading high-performing engineering teams. How do you foster collaboration and manage performance?" Prepare specific examples of teams you've led and the results achieved.
- "How have you ensured the reliability and scalability of software systems you've been responsible for, particularly in a SaaS environment aiming for high availability?" Discuss your experience with monitoring, incident response, and reliability engineering practices.
- "Walk me through a complex technical challenge your team faced and how you guided them to a solution." Focus on your role in facilitating problem-solving and decision-making.
Company Culture Questions:
- "What aspects of Kong's mission and products resonate with you, and how do you see your role contributing to our success?" Research Kong's business, products, and recent announcements.
- "How do you approach cross-functional collaboration with product management, design, and other engineering teams?" Provide examples of successful collaborations and how you navigate potential conflicts.
- "How do you stay updated on the latest trends in API management, cloud-native technologies, and potentially LLMs?" Demonstrate your commitment to continuous learning.
Portfolio Presentation Strategy: (Note: Adapted for an engineering management context)
- Structure your discussion around 2-3 key case studies that showcase your leadership, technical expertise, and impact on reliability, scalability, or team performance.
- For each case study, clearly articulate the problem, your approach, the results (quantify if possible), and your key learnings.
- Be prepared to discuss the technical details of the systems involved, particularly relating to networking, distributed systems, and SaaS operations.
- Highlight your contributions to team growth, process improvement, and strategic initiatives.
📌 Application Steps
To apply for this design position:
- Submit your application through this link
- Customize your resume and cover letter to highlight your experience in engineering management, SaaS development, and leadership, specifically addressing the required skills and experience levels (4+ years management, 5+ years SaaS).
- Prepare to discuss specific examples of your experience building and leading high-performing engineering teams, managing complex technical projects, and ensuring system reliability (aiming for 99.99% SLA).
- Research Kong's products, particularly the Kong Gateway, Konnect, and their initiatives around AI/LLMs, to demonstrate your understanding of the company's space.
- Be ready to articulate your technical depth in networking, distributed systems, and SaaS operations, and how it applies to managing teams in these areas.