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Full-Time

Director – Product Marketing

Posted on 5/7/2024

Kong

Kong

501-1,000 employees

API management and connectivity solutions provider

Data & Analytics
Enterprise Software

Compensation Overview

$190k - $250kAnnually

+ Sales Incentives

Expert

Remote in USA

Category
General Marketing
Growth & Marketing
Required Skills
Sales
Management
Marketing
Requirements
  • 10+ years of experience in product marketing and/or product strategy
  • 5+ years of experience leading high-performance product marketing teams in cloud native solutions
  • Past experience in open source software, SaaS platforms, moving from on-premises to cloud managed services, and API management space strongly preferred
Responsibilities
  • Build and lead a high-performing team of product marketers responsible for Kong’s flagship API platform—Kong Konnect
  • Lead positioning and messaging efforts with the team to differentiate Kong’s cloud-based API management platform in the market
  • Be a thought leader in the API Management space and represent Kong in internal and external industry events and conversations
  • Build scalable processes to drive Konnect product marketing activities, including analyst relations, competitive intelligence, product launches and sales enablement
  • Work closely with Product, Marketing and Field teams to build and execute a customer-centric go-to-market strategy for Kong Konnect
  • Collaborate with Field Enablement to coach and train the field teams on the Konnect platform pitch, value proposition, messaging, ROI, competitive positioning, assets, etc.
  • Influence and guide the product roadmap by acting as the voice of the customer and field teams
  • Any additional tasks required by manager

Kong specializes in managing and connecting APIs, which are tools that allow different software applications to communicate. Its main product, the Kong Gateway, is a fast and flexible API gateway that efficiently handles API traffic, supporting up to 50,000 transactions per second per node. Additionally, Kong offers Kong Konnect, a SaaS platform for API management, and Kong Mesh, which helps manage microservices—small services that work together in larger applications. Kong serves a wide range of clients, from startups to large enterprises, across various industries like finance and healthcare. What sets Kong apart from competitors is its combination of open-source technology and enterprise solutions, allowing businesses to access core features for free while offering premium services for those who need more support. The goal of Kong is to enhance developer productivity, improve security, and optimize performance for businesses using cloud-native architectures.

Company Stage

Series D

Total Funding

$170.7M

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Founded

2017

Growth & Insights
Headcount

6 month growth

6%

1 year growth

9%

2 year growth

9%
Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Kong's recent executive hires, including a Chief People Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, and Chief Customer Officer, indicate a strong focus on scaling and enhancing customer and employee experiences.
  • The launch of Kong Konnect Dedicated Cloud Gateways on AWS simplifies API management with zero downtime and one-click deployment, enhancing user experience and operational efficiency.
  • Kong's open-source initiatives, such as the Kong Gateway Operator for Kubernetes, continue to foster community engagement and innovation.

What critics are saying

  • The rapid growth and scaling efforts may lead to operational challenges and integration issues.
  • The competitive landscape in API management is intense, with major players like Google and Amazon posing significant threats.

What makes Kong unique

  • Kong's combination of open-source and enterprise-grade solutions offers flexibility and scalability that many competitors lack.
  • The Kong Gateway's ability to handle up to 50,000 transactions per second per node sets a high-performance benchmark in the API management industry.
  • Kong's focus on cloud-native environments and Kubernetes-native management positions it as a leader in modern API connectivity solutions.

Benefits

Weekly Donut Chats

Home Office Stipend

Flexible Time Off & Dedicated Unplug Days

Virtual Events

INACTIVE