HN Who's Hiring💵 paid workby lucastetreaultscored by google/gemini-2.5-flash

Kong | Senior Software Engineer, Kong Identity | Toronto, Canada | CA$145K–215K I'm a Staff Engineer on Kong's Identity

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💵 Funded work— see “Deliver it” below for how to respond.

Opportunity

AI-buildable

Traction

Creativity

The take

effort: ~3+ months

This is a job posting for a Senior Software Engineer at Kong, focusing on their Identity platform. The role involves building core authentication and authorization services, token management, and developer-facing APIs, primarily using Go, Kubernetes, and cloud-native infrastructure. The salary range is CA$145K-215K for a role in Toronto, Canada.

Demand & gap

Painkillerdemand 88

Demand

Will. to pay

100

Gap

Buyer

Enterprise / orgs

The gap in what exists: The gap is in finding highly skilled engineers for complex, high-value enterprise identity infrastructure, which is a constant challenge for companies like Kong.
Wedge to win: The wedge is to be the skilled engineer Kong is willing to pay top dollar for, demonstrating expertise in Go, Kubernetes, and distributed systems, with a strong emphasis on security and reliability.
Reputation value (worth doing free for proof) — 100/100: Securing a senior engineer role at a high-profile company like Kong for a salary of CA$145K-215K is definitive proof of high-value engineering skill and market demand.
Likely monetization: salary (CA$145K-215K)
Incumbents to beat: OktaAuth0Keycloak

Deliver it

A starter prompt for Claude Code, what you'll need, and how to reach them.

You are a Staff Engineer at Kong's Identity team. I am applying for the Senior Software Engineer, Kong Identity role. Please help me draft a compelling cover letter and tailor my resume, focusing on my experience with Go, Kubernetes, and distributed systems. Highlight any experience with authentication/authorization, OAuth/OIDC, JWTs, multi-tenant systems, and building low-latency, globally distributed services. Emphasize my ability to design and implement secure, reliable, and observable critical infrastructure. Use the job description provided as the primary source for keywords and requirements. Provide specific examples of past projects where I've tackled similar problems, even if in a different domain. Structure the cover letter to address their key challenges and my fit.

Prerequisites — cost & what to learn

Go language proficiencyFree · Free✓ in your stack
Standard for backend development in this domain.
Kubernetes experienceFree tier · Free tier available; production usage can be ~$50-$1000+/mo depending on scale.

How you'd build it

1This is a job, not a product to build. However, if one were to build a simplified identity service, they could start by implementing an OAuth 2.0 / OIDC provider.
2Develop a Go-based microservice for token issuance and validation, using a PostgreSQL database for client and user data.
3Implement core OAuth 2.0 flows (e.g., Authorization Code, Client Credentials) and OpenID Connect for user authentication.
4Containerize the service with Docker and deploy to a Kubernetes cluster on a cloud provider like GCP or AWS.
5Build a simple web frontend (Next.js/React) for client registration and basic user management.
6Add observability via Prometheus/Grafana and implement basic caching for low-latency token validation.

Risks & moats

Building a production-grade identity platform is extremely complex, requiring deep expertise in security, cryptography, and distributed systems.
Achieving the necessary reliability, scalability, and low latency for a globally distributed service is a significant engineering challenge.
Security vulnerabilities in identity systems can have catastrophic consequences, demanding rigorous testing and auditing.
Compliance with various standards (e.g., OAuth, OIDC) requires meticulous implementation and ongoing maintenance.

Original context

Kong | Senior Software Engineer, Kong Identity | Toronto, Canada | CA$145K–215K I'm a Staff Engineer on Kong's Identity team. We're hiring a Senior Software Engineer to help build the identity platform behind Konnect. The team owns authentication and authorization services, OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect infrastructure, token issuance and validation, client credential management, claims generation, and the APIs that let customers automate identity workflows. Some of the problems we work on: - Building low-latency token generation, validation, and introspection services - Designing multi-tenant identity systems with strong tenant isolation - Implementing OAuth 2.0 and OIDC flows across Kong products - Developing dynamic claims engines and authorization capabilities - Operating globally distributed authentication services with caching, replication, and edge optimization - Building developer-facing APIs and SDKs - Improving observability, security, and reliability of critical auth infrastructure Our stack is primarily Go, Kubernetes, and cloud-native infrastructure. We're looking for engineers with experience building backend and distributed systems. Experience with identity systems, OAut