Job Overview
Location
USA
Job Type
Full-time
Category
Product Marketing Manager
Date Posted
February 27, 2026
Full Job Description
đź“‹ Description
- • Are you a visionary leader ready to define and dominate the burgeoning field of AI connectivity? Kong Inc. is seeking a Senior Technical Product Marketing Manager, AI, to spearhead our efforts in establishing Kong as the undisputed leader in this critical and rapidly evolving market.
- • In this pivotal role, you will be instrumental in crafting and evangelizing the technical narrative for Kong's cutting-edge AI connectivity platform. This includes our innovative AI Gateway, Agent Gateway, and the groundbreaking Context Mesh. Your mission will be to translate the intricate complexities of AI infrastructure and agentic workflows into clear, compelling, and persuasive stories that resonate deeply with both highly technical practitioners and strategic business decision-makers.
- • You will serve as a crucial strategic partner, collaborating closely with our Product Management, Field Sales, Partnerships, and Solutions Engineering teams. Your insights and expertise will empower these teams to achieve significant success in a dynamic market where agentic connectivity is rapidly emerging as the new frontier and a key battleground for enterprise innovation.
- • A deep and genuine familiarity with the AI/ML infrastructure landscape is essential. You must understand the nuances of how enterprises approach the governance, operationalization, and scaling of artificial intelligence initiatives. Crucially, you will connect the powerful capabilities of the Kong platform directly to the pressing, real-world challenges faced by AI builders, developers, and operators.
- • Your responsibilities will span the entire product lifecycle, from ideation to market leadership. You will help shape the technical vision and messaging for Kong's AI connectivity products, including AI Gateway, Agent Gateway, Context Mesh, and MCP Registry. This involves developing and refining positioning, messaging, and content strategies that capture the attention and imagination of AI platform engineers, architects, and enterprise buyers.
- • To excel, you will become a hands-on, deeply knowledgeable product expert across Kong’s entire AI connectivity portfolio. This means actively using the products, dissecting the underlying technology, and building profound fluency in essential protocols such as REST, MCP (Model Context Protocol), and event streaming. You will also gain mastery of critical AI patterns including agentic workflows, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), tool calling, and multi-agent systems.
- • A significant part of your role will involve developing and maintaining a robust library of technical content. This includes crafting impactful solution briefs, insightful white papers, engaging demo narratives, essential battlecards for sales teams, and compelling keynote stories that clearly articulate Kong’s unique differentiation and competitive advantages in the rapidly expanding AI connectivity space.
- • You will act as a prominent thought leader, representing Kong at the forefront of the AI infrastructure and API management industries. This involves engaging in analyst briefings, presenting at prestigious industry events, participating in customer advisory boards, and delivering keynote presentations that shape market perception and drive adoption.
- • Collaboration is key. You will work hand-in-hand with the Product Management team to influence and shape the AI roadmap. This requires bringing invaluable market intelligence, direct customer feedback, and sharp competitive insights to the table, ensuring that our product prioritization aligns with market needs and strategic opportunities.
- • Partnering with our Field Enablement team, you will develop and deliver essential sales plays, effective pitch frameworks, and robust competitive positioning strategies. This will equip our Account Executives (AEs) and Solutions Engineers (SEs) with the knowledge and tools they need to confidently and successfully win AI-related deals.
- • You will be a driving force behind Kong’s category creation narrative, championing the concepts of “AI Connectivity” and the “full AI data path.” Your efforts will educate the market on why a unified, integrated platform offers a superior solution compared to fragmented, point-solution approaches.
- • Working closely with our Demand Generation and Content Marketing teams, you will help develop and execute integrated marketing campaigns designed to generate qualified pipeline within AI-focused accounts and among key target personas.
- • Continuous monitoring of the competitive landscape is crucial. You will track vendors across AI gateway, API management, and agentic AI tooling, developing proactive counter-positioning strategies and conducting thorough win/loss analysis to maintain our competitive edge.
- • This role is for someone who thrives on technical challenges, possesses exceptional communication skills, and is passionate about shaping the future of AI infrastructure.
🎯 Requirements
- • Minimum of 5 years of experience in technical product marketing, technical product management, or solutions engineering, with a strong preference for experience at an AI/ML platform company.
- • Genuine, hands-on interest and deep understanding of AI infrastructure, including current developments in LLM deployment, agentic frameworks, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and AI governance. You must be able to engage credibly with AI platform engineers without relying on superficial knowledge.
- • Proven ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, concise, and impactful narratives that effectively resonate with both highly technical practitioners and C-suite executives.
- • Demonstrated track record of successfully developing and executing product launches, creating effective sales enablement materials, and implementing competitive intelligence programs that demonstrably move pipeline and accelerate deal cycles.
- • Exceptional collaboration skills; you thrive in cross-functional environments, working effectively with Product, Marketing, Sales, and Developer Relations teams. You can influence stakeholders without direct authority, building trust through demonstrated expertise and consistent follow-through.
- • Confidence and comfort in presenting to diverse audiences; keynote presentations, analyst briefings, customer roundtables, and demo-heavy sessions should be energizing rather than intimidating.
- • Experience with open-source software, SaaS platforms, and enterprise go-to-market motions is strongly preferred.
- • Familiarity with the broader AI connectivity landscape, including awareness of competing and complementary vendors across API gateways, AI observability, vector databases, IPaaS, and agentic orchestration frameworks, is a significant plus.
🏖️ Benefits
- • Competitive salary and equity package.
- • Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.
- • Generous paid time off and holidays.
- • Opportunities for professional development and continuous learning.
- • Collaborative and innovative work environment.
- • The chance to be at the forefront of AI innovation and shape a new market category.
Skills & Technologies
REST
Senior
Onsite
About Kong Inc.
Kong Inc. is a San Francisco-based software company that develops an open-source API gateway and service connectivity platform. The company offers Kong Gateway, Kong Mesh, and Konnect cloud services to manage, secure, and observe microservices and APIs across clouds and data centers. Founded in 2007 as Mashape, it rebranded to Kong in 2017. Kong’s technology provides traffic control, authentication, rate limiting, and analytics for modern distributed architectures, supporting organizations in digital transformation and cloud-native adoption.
