Senior Manager, Professional Services

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. AI traffic is about to outrun API traffic the same way API traffic outran human traffic. Come lead the team that gets enterprises through that transition. If you don't think you meet every bullet below, apply anyway. Nobody checks every box — we're looking for people who are strong in a few areas and hungry in the rest. About the Role: Kong is the connectivity layer of AI. We're a 6-time Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader and a Forrester Wave Leader, running in production at Fortune 500 scale. Every enterprise moving from “we're piloting AI” to “AI is in production” runs into the same wall: governance, security, and connectivity for a traffic pattern nobody built for. That's the opportunity in front of this team, and it's why Professional Services is one of the fastest-growing parts of this company right now. We're hiring a Professional Services Manager to lead a team of Field Engineers and Engagement Managers across Kong's US Professional Services organization. This is a leadership role, not a delivery role: you're directly responsible for delivery outcomes, staffing, and the growth of the people who sit hands-on with customer engineering teams every day. You own the full engagement lifecycle for your book of business — staffing the right Field Engineers and Engagement Managers on every account, holding the team to go-live dates and technical quality, and driving resolution personally on the highest-risk or highest-value accounts. You're operating at the intersection of people leadership, technical delivery, and enterprise account management, and you're judged on outcomes, not activity. We want leaders who've done the implementation work themselves and now want to multiply that impact through a team: coach the engineers, clear the blockers and build the delivery muscle that lets Kong keep pace with enterprise demand for API and AI connectivity. You'll work daily with Solutions Architects, Sales, Customer Success, Product, and Product Engineering — scoping engagements correctly before they land on your team, and feeding what you learn in the field straight back into how Kong builds and sells. This is a rare seat: AI connectivity is a land grab right now, and the person who builds this team's delivery model in the next 18 months owns a track record that doesn't come around twice. Impact Lead the team that turns Kong's platform into production reality for some of the world's largest enterprises — the ones deciding right now how AI gets governed, secured, and scaled across their business. Growth Build your leadership craft against the fastest-moving category in enterprise software: AI connectivity, cloud-native architecture, and distributed systems at Fortune 500 scale. Prove out this team's model and the case for more scope writes itself. Opportunity Join a Professional Services organization growing as fast as the AI adoption curve it's built to serve — market-leading credibility behind every conversation you walk into, and a direct hand in building the delivery model while it's still being written. What You'll Do: • Manage and grow a team of Field Engineers and Engagement Managers — hiring, coaching, career development, and performance management. • Own delivery outcomes across your book of business: go-live dates, technical quality, and customer satisfaction. Report on them with the same rigor you'd demand from your team. • Staff the right Field Engineer and Engagement Manager to every engagement based on account complexity, te