Are you ready to power the World's connections?
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:
We are looking for a mid-level commercial attorney to join as an early member of Kong’s legal team, responsible for helping support Kong’s sales growth. In this role, you will be a trusted partner to the Americas revenue teams. You will also have the opportunity to support our ANZ sales team. You will draft, structure and negotiate customer contracts with some of the world’s biggest brands in financial services, technology, e-commerce and other industries. You will be called on to assess legal and business risks, make sound decisions, and provide advice on a broad range of issues in areas such as software licensing, SaaS, privacy, security, alliances, open-source software and intellectual property, and assist with other issues as they come up. You will also partner with the wider Kong Legal team to address other corporate, compliance and other legal issues, and help develop scalable, global processes. You will report to Kong’s Director, Legal, Americas.
Why should you want to work at Kong?
Market Opportunity - We are on a quest to build a $10b+ software company over the next few years and need YOUR help!Why APIs Matter? APIs have been enabling innovation for decades!Strong VC team, Series D, strong year over year revenue growth!Technical Leadership - We are recognized as the leader in innovation in the connectivity space.Marco, our CTO/co-founder - “We are the Cisco of L4 and L7” - CUBE Conversation, March 2021We are the leading innovator in the connectivity space!Amazing Team & Culture - Come be a "Konger" and find out what we mean.Great Place to Work Certified in 2020 & 2021Kong employees exemplify our culture at our 2022 Sales Kickoff2022 Forbes Cloud 100 HonoreeBuilding Great Products - Learn why the world's largest companies love our tech!Kong Named in the Leaders Quadrant of the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for API Management for the Fourth Consecutive YearOver 250m+ downloads of our open source API gateway! Over 40k+ stars on Github between Kong API and Kong Insomnia!
What you will be doing:
- Serve as a trusted advisor and business partner to Kong’s Americas sales team
- Support our ANZ sales team as needed
- Lead complex cross-border commercial transactions with sophisticated counterparties located across the Americas and ANZ
- Review, draft, and negotiate a wide variety of other commercial agreements
- Help ensure compliance with a variety of laws and regulations impacting our enterprise software and SaaS offerings, including intellectual property, privacy, security and government contracting
- Partner with Finance, Sales Ops and Deal Ops to support the end-to-end contract negotiation and close process
- Advise internal teams on legal matters and provide general commercial legal advice, as well as providing training and enablement to our growing go-to-market organization
- And any additional challenges and tasks to help support Kong’s growth
What you’ll bring:
- Law degree, and member in good standing of the California state bar or, if remote, a major U.S. state legal jurisdiction
- Minimum 4-5 years of technology transactions experience, either practicing law at a major US law firm and/or in-house (preferably with experience supporting technology companies)
- Demonstrated experience in drafting, negotiating and closing complex software and SaaS contracts with large, sophisticated customers
- Great judgment, and an ability to build and maintain strong professional relationships within the company, with customers, and others
- Working knowledge of intellectual property, data governance and privacy matters
- High professional and personal standards, and a commitment to inclusiveness
- Attention to detail and an ability to view legal issues within the context of business objectives
- Practical yet creative problem–solving approach to address Kong’s business needs while protecting Kong’s interest
- A passion for teamwork and customer success - at Kong we win together and work as One Team
Location:
- US remote
- Preference for Pacific or Mountain time zone
- Some limited work travel will be required
Kong has different base pay ranges for different work locations within the United States, which allows us to pay employees competitively and consistently in different geographic markets. Compensation varies depending on a wide array of factors, including but not limited to specific candidate location, role, skill set and level of experience. Certain roles are eligible for additional rewards including sales incentives depending on the terms of the applicable plan and role. Benefits may vary depending on location.
US based employees are typically offered access to healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan, short and long term disability benefits, basic life and AD&D insurance, among others. The typical base pay range for this role in the US is $114,000 - 160,000.
What is a Konger?
We are a group of makers, thinkers, and doers focused on helping today’s developers build tomorrow’s technology. Our teams work on the bleeding edge of API innovation to provide our users with a central nervous system for data and services.We put design at the heart of everything we do, and we’re relentlessly focused on creating beautiful experiences for our customers. That’s why technology companies, major banks, e-commerce innovators, and government agencies put Kong in front of their most important web applications.We believe in the power of Open Source and everything it stands for.
That’s why developers around the world enthusiastically contribute on top of our open-source platform.We are passionate about solving challenges that will fundamentally shape the future of technology, and we’re looking for the right people to join us on our mission. If you believe in taking ownership of your work, making an impact, and having fun along the way, we would love to talk to you.
Kong Core Values:
We are CUSTOMER CHAMPIONS. Customers are everything, we put them at the center of everything we do. We are all empowered to make an impact.We are OWNERS. We are drivers, not passengers and own the quality and outcomes of our work.We are UNSTOPPABLE. We work with purpose, obsession, and grit. It takes muscle to do hard things and doing hard things builds muscle.We are REAL. We are genuine, principled, and confident without arrogance. Show respect and kindness, especially in tough moments.We Are ACCELERATORS.
We prioritize speed, iteration, and results.We are GLOBAL. We work together from anywhere to achieve our common goals. Our differences make us stronger.We are EXPLORERS. We value ideas over hierarchy. Never accept the status quo. We make bold bets, fail, and learn everyday. There is always a way.
About Kong:
Kong is THE cloud native API platform with the fastest, most adopted API gateway in the world (over 300m downloads!). Loved by developers and trusted with enterprises’ most critical traffic volumes, Kong helps startups and Fortune 500 companies build with confidence – allowing them to bring solutions to market faster with API and service connectivity that scales easily and securely. 83% of web traffic today is API calls! APIs are the connective tissue of the cloud and the underlying technology that allows software to talk and interact with one another. Therefore, we believe that APIs act as the nervous system of the cloud. Our audacious mission is to build the nervous system that will safely and reliably connect all of humankind! For more information about Kong, please visit konghq.com or follow @thekonginc on Twitter.We are an equal opportunity employer.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.Apply for this job
