Full-Time
Manager – Sales Development
Updated on 3/14/2025
Kong
501-1,000 employees
API management and connectivity solutions provider
Compensation Overview
$170k - $230kAnnually
Senior
Chicago, IL, USA
Hybrid role requiring in-office presence.
- 5+ years of experience in B2B SaaS
- 2+ years of experience building and managing a high-performing Sales or Sales Development Org in B2B SaaS
- Exceptional communication skills with an ability to give and receive feedback thoughtfully
- Experience in high-growth, fast-paced startup environments, preferably with hybrid remote and in-office teams
- Experience building and leading high-performance sales teams, selling a complex technical product
- Subject matter expert in building pipeline programs and efforts to drive revenue
- Lead and develop a high-performing team of SDRs
- Hire the best talent in the industry
- Shape development programs for career progression to keep talent engagement and doing great work at Kong
- Maintain operational rigor across all elements of the business
- Drive a positive and collaborative culture that inspires teamwork and professional growth
- Find a successful balance in a hybrid in-office environment
- Create a reporting and feedback loop with stakeholders on team performance, KPIs, customer insights, roadblocks, and pipeline forecasts
- Work within an ecosystem of leaders across Sales, Revenue Operations, Marketing, Customer Success, and Partnership teams to design and execute a go-to-market plan for pipeline generation
- Excel in change management as the company strives to meet critical and aggressive revenue milestones
- Maintain a strong pulse on the market
- Facilitate a feedback loop between Sales and other departments
- Identify opportunities to innovate and be a catalyst to positive change
Kong specializes in API management and connectivity, providing tools that help businesses manage, secure, and optimize their APIs, which are crucial for software applications to communicate. The main product, Kong Gateway, is a fast and flexible API gateway capable of handling up to 50,000 transactions per second per node, ensuring efficient API traffic management. Additionally, Kong offers Kong Konnect, a SaaS platform for API management, and Kong Mesh, which manages microservices that work together in larger applications. Unlike many competitors, Kong combines open-source technology with enterprise solutions, allowing clients to access core features for free while offering premium services for businesses. The goal of Kong is to enhance developer productivity, improve security, and optimize performance for a wide range of clients, from startups to large enterprises, in a rapidly growing market.
Company Size
501-1,000
Company Stage
Series E
Total Funding
$334.7M
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
Founded
2017
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Kong raised $175M to enhance AI connectivity and expand its solutions.
- Kong Insomnia surpassed 1 million users, indicating strong demand for its tools.
- Kong's Premium Technology Partner Program fosters innovation and collaboration.
What critics are saying
- AI-enhanced security threats pose significant risks to API security.
- Low adoption of zero-trust architecture leaves APIs vulnerable to breaches.
- Intensifying competition in AI API platforms may draw customers away from Kong.
What makes Kong unique
- Kong's API Gateway supports 50,000 transactions per second, ensuring high performance.
- Kong offers a unique combination of open-source and enterprise-grade API solutions.
- Kong Insomnia is the fastest-growing platform for building, testing, and debugging APIs.
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Benefits
Weekly Donut Chats
Home Office Stipend
Flexible Time Off & Dedicated Unplug Days
Virtual Events
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↑ 0%1 year growth
↓ -2%2 year growth
↓ -4%Kong Inc., a leading developer of cloud API technologies, recently released findings from their API Security Perspectives 2025: AI-Enhanced Threats and API Security Report which highlights today’s API security landscape and how new developments in AI will impact it. Most notably, 25% of respondents have encountered AI-enhanced security threats related to APIs or LLMs, with 75% of respondents expressing serious concern about AI-enhanced attacks in the future. And while 85% say they’re confident in their organisation’s security capabilities, 55% of respondents cited they’ve experienced an API security incident in the past year, highlighting a notable disconnect.The findings also put into perspective the importance of having a strong security strategy noting that 1 in 5 respondents cited their organisation has experienced an API security incident costing more than $500,000 in the past 12 months.While 92% of respondents say they are taking measures to counter AI-enhanced attacks and 88% of respondents citing API security as a top priority, it is clear that many organisations lack the comprehensive security measures needed to protect their API infrastructure in the AI era.“Organisations cannot afford to underestimate their own security risks — especially in the age of AI,” said Marco Palladino, CTO and Co-Founder of Kong, Inc. “The report showcases that API security is being taken seriously as part of overall cybersecurity strategy, but there are still some blind spots that can open an organisation up to threats. As AI continues to advance, not only will companies create more vulnerabilities within their own organisations, but attacks will become more sophisticated. Understanding the full threat landscape is crucial to maintaining a strong API security posture.”As might be expected 84% of respondents feel AI and LLMs will make securing APIs more difficult, but surprisingly, the research finds many basic API security tactics being left out of overall strategy.Only 35% of organisations are adopting zero-trust architecture in order to mitigate API security risks and only 3% of respondents cite shadow APIs as a significant security threat to their organisation
API management company Kong Inc. has raised $175 million in a Series E funding round, bringing its total funding to over $346 million and valuing the company at more than $2 billion. The round was led by Tiger Global and Balderton, with participation from new and existing investors. Kong aims to enhance API management for next-gen AI applications with its Kong AI Gateway, facilitating faster development and centralized security.
Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More. Cohere has announced the release of updated versions of its application programming interfaces (APIs) for its AI models Chat, Embed, Rerank, and Classify.Collectively, the new API updates are known as API V2, and Cohere is being transparent about the fact that the updates are meant to more closely align with AI industry standards to make it easier for developers to switch their applications over to be powered by Cohere’s models in lieu of the competition: namely, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral, and Meta.Earlier this month, Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) general partner Martin Casado posted on X an image of a graph showing the results of a survey from AI API platform Kong of 800 enterprise leaders revealing the large language models (LLMs) they were using. OpenAI’s ChatGPT dominated the chart with 27% market share compared to 18% using Microsoft’s Azure AI cloud service and 17% for Google Gemini. Cohere was second-to-last with a distant 5%, showing how the Toronto-based startup — co-founded by some of the former Google researchers behind the original 2017 Transformer paper that ushered in the generative AI era — has a lot of ground to make up to win over the enterprise customers it’s courting. Enhanced reliability with more precise settingsOne of the most significant changes in the V2 API release is the requirement for developers to specify the model version in their API calls
Insomnia 10 Introduces Semantic GenAI Infrastructure for Developers, Unlimited Collection Runs, and Secure Enterprise Collaboration to Further Elevate the Developer ExperienceSAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Kong Inc ., a leading developer of cloud API technologies, today announced the release of Kong Insomnia 10, the latest version of its rapidly growing API development solution. Unveiled at API Summit 2024 , Insomnia 10 introduces groundbreaking features that not only enhance developer productivity but also help ensure the highest levels of API quality, security and governance. With over 1 million users, Insomnia continues to establish itself as the go-to tool for building, testing and debugging APIs."Insomnia 10 is a major milestone in our mission to empower developers with what we believe is the most efficient, secure, and cost-effective API development tool on the market," said Marco Palladino, co-founder and chief technology officer of Kong Inc. "With the introduction of GenAI acceleration capabilities, unlimited collection runs and advanced collaboration features, Insomnia 10 sets a new standard for API tools, offering everything developers need out-of-the-box."Elevate Developer Productivity & ExperienceInsomnia 10 is designed to streamline the development process, making it easier and faster for developers to build and test APIs. The new Collection Runner feature allows developers to run an unlimited number of collection runs, schedule the order of execution for requests and manage multiple requests simultaneously
Kong Inc., a leading developer of cloud API technologies, today announced the launch of the latest version of Kong Konnect, the API platform for the AI era, at API Summit 2024.