Design Technologist

About The Role

Kong is building the future of AI connectivity and API management. We're hiring a Staff Design Technologist to sit at the intersection of product design, design systems, and frontend implementation — shaping how design and engineering work together more effectively 'll join our ~20‑person Product Design team, reporting to the VP of Design, as the second specialist focused on design systems.

Our design systems practice is already strong — you'll contribute across all of it while helping us push into new territory: AI‑enabled design workflows, deeper design‑engineering convergence, and how we design for emerging agent‑driven experiences.

Lead AI‑enabled design workflows

• Build and maintain our AI prototyping starter kits, repos, and conventions
• Write internal scripts, tools, and workflows that accelerate how the Product Design team works
• Experiment with MCP Apps (ext‑apps) and emerging agent UI patterns — helping establish how Kong designs for AI‑native and agent‑driven experiences
• Stay close to what's emerging in AI tooling and enable the team on the latest best practices

Be a bridge between design and engineering

• Build trusted, ongoing relationships with frontend engineers
• Help reduce drift between design and implementation systems, in service of both teams

Drive platform UI cohesion

• Collaborate with design systems colleagues, designers, and engineers to identify or revamp reusable patterns
• Audit and identify opportunities to reduce one‑off patterns and improve cross‑product cohesion
• Contribute to documentation, usage guidance, and governance — and enable the team effectively on changes

Raise the bar on craft

• Help establish a high standard for visual quality, interaction design, and usability across technical product experiences
• Bring strong judgment around when to follow conventions versus when to push forward
• Partner with designers to improve consistency, polish, and accessibility

• 8+ years of experience in Design Engineering, Product Design, Design Systems, or similar hybrid roles — rooted in design
• Strong product and visual design instincts, especially for technical or developer‑focused products
• Technical fluency with modern frontend systems – enough to collaborate deeply with engineers, contribute meaningfully to shared systems, and build internal tooling
• Hands‑on experience with AI tooling, prototyping workflows, or building design‑adjacent scripts and automations
• Familiarity with Figma  code workflows – Code Connect, design tokens, component APIs, Storybook, or similar
• Experience working closely with both designers and frontend engineers as a collaborative partner
• Genuine excitement about where AI is taking product development — and the initiative to help your team get there
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to build trust across disciplines
• Strong systems thinking and ability to balance short‑term pragmatism with long‑term scalability

• Strong visual and interaction design craft
• AI Prototyping, tooling, and technical experimentation
• Design systems and frontend collaboration work
• Multiple examples of driving meaningful impact backed by an effective process

Compensation Range: $140K – $205K