# Senior Security Engineer (Security Champion), Runtimes at Kong

Senior Security Engineer (Security Champion), Runtimes at Kong in Milan, Italy. Hybrid, full-time, paying €77k–€95k. Posted October 14, 2026.

- Company: Kong
- Location: Milan, Italy
- Workplace: Hybrid
- Job type: Full-time
- Pay: €77k–€95k
- Experience: 3+ years
- Posted: 2026-10-14
- Apply: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kong/8fb34850-c2c7-48fe-9f95-b8e114977ddc/application
- Source: https://jobmagic.ai/jobs/senior-security-engineer-security-champion-runtimes-kong-vvmkv2

## Requirements

- 3+ years building production software, with 2+ years in a dedicated security role (AppSec, vulnerability research, or pentesting);
- Solid coding skills in a object oriented language (Rust, Java, Python, Go, or similar);
- Practical threat-modeling experience;
- Working knowledge of cybersecurity (especially L7 security and authentication);
- Basic knowledge of AI attack vectors.

## Description

**Are you ready to unlock intelligence?**
If you don’t think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job, please apply.  Nobody checks every box - we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others.

**About the Role**:
At Kong, our API and AI Gateway sits at the center of how Fortune 500 enterprises and AI-native startups secure and govern the flow of intelligence.
Every request into a company's infrastructure goes through the Gateway first. Security isn't a side concern here, it's the top priority: you're guarding the front door.
You'll be securing AI traffic while the playbook is still being written: prompt injection, agentic authorization, MCP. These are problems nobody has fully solved yet.
We're looking for a Software Engineer with a security specialization to join our Runtimes team as a Security Champion: an engineer who writes real code and makes security a built-in part of how we ship.

**What You'll Do:**

- Run security-focused code audits, threat modeling, and secure design reviews across our AI Gateway and API Gateway capabilities

- Own vulnerability management end-to-end: triage, reproduction, remediation, verification

- Partner with AI Gateway engineering on emerging AI/LLM threat patterns (ie: prompt injection, data leakage, model abuse)

- Coach engineers on secure coding practices, turning security findings into lasting team habits

- Contribute hands-on to Gateway feature work, with security built-in from day one

**What You'll Bring:**

- 3+ years building production software, with 2+ years in a dedicated security role (AppSec, vulnerability research, or pentesting);

- Solid coding skills in a object oriented language (Rust, Java, Python, Go, or similar);

- Practical threat-modeling experience;

- Working knowledge of cybersecurity (especially L7 security and authentication);

- Basic knowledge of AI attack vectors.

**Nice-to-have:**

- Familiarity with L7 proxies/API gateway architecture (Nginx, OpenResty, Envoy, HAProxy or Kong);

- Experience with Lua;

- Open-source contributions;

- Willingness to learn Rust is important for where our platform is heading: we'll help you get there.

**What we offer:**

- A permanent contract under the CCNL Commercio (Quadro)

- Bonus and welfare system

- Hybrid work from our Milan Hub at Talent Garden Isola, and a seat at the table where security decisions actually shape what millions of API calls run through every day.

#LI-EA1

**About Kong:**
Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI-native startups alike, Kong’s unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic — on any model, any cloud. For more information, visit www.konghq.com.