Kong API Developer / API Gateway Engineer

Kong API Developer / API Gateway Engineer Hawthorn Wds, IL 60047 $34.71

• $60.00 an hour
• Contract $34.71
• $60.00 an hour
• Contract Kong API Developer / API Gateway Engineer Overview We are seeking a highly skilled Kong API Developer to design, develop, and manage our API gateway infrastructure using Kong .

This role is ideal for someone passionate about building secure, scalable, and high‑performance APIs and enabling seamless integrations across enterprise applications. You will play a key role in API lifecycle management, security, traffic control, and observability in a modern microservices environment. Responsibilities Design, implement, and manage API Gateways using Kong (Open Source / Enterprise) Develop and maintain RESTful and/or GraphQL APIs integrated with Kong Implement authentication and authorization (OAuth 2.0, JWT, OpenID Connect, mTLS) Configure rate limiting, throttling, caching, plugins, and load balancing Work with microservices architectures and service mesh concepts Integrate Kong with CI/CD pipelines and automate deployments Monitor API performance, logs, and metrics using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, or ELK Collaborate with application, DevOps, and security teams to ensure API reliability and compliance Troubleshoot API gateway, latency, and integration issues Contribute to API documentation and best practices Required Qualifications Strong experience with Kong API Gateway Hands-on experience with REST APIs and API management platforms Proficiency in Lua , JavaScript , Python , or Java (for plugins or backend services) Experience with API security standards (OAuth 2.0, JWT, mTLS) Knowledge of Docker and Kubernetes Familiarity with NGINX and HTTP concepts Experience working in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP) Understanding of microservices architecture Preferred Qualifications Experience with Kong Enterprise features (Developer Portal, Analytics, Vitals, RBAC) Familiarity with Terraform or Infrastructure as Code API testing experience (Postman, Swagger / OpenAPI) CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI Prior experience in high‑availability or large‑scale API environments Nice to Have Experience with service mesh (Istio, Linkerd) Exposure to GraphQL gateways Kong certification or API management certifications

Pay:

$34.71

• $60.

00 per hour

Work Location:

In person