Manager II, Engineering – Secure Compute Platform

Confluent is a company focused on transforming data movement and utilization. They are seeking a hands-on engineering leader to guide a team responsible for the secure compute layer of Confluent Cloud, ensuring world-class quality and security while driving innovation in cloud-native infrastructure.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the strategic vision and multi-year roadmap for the Secure Compute Platform, aligning foundational infrastructure with company growth goals
• Provide hands-on technical leadership in distributed systems, Kubernetes, and container-based runtimes to ensure world-class security and scale
• Partner with Product, Security, and Cloud Infrastructure teams to define architectural standards and deliver seamless, end-to-end solutions
• Cultivate a culture of technical excellence and ownership within a high-performing and inclusive engineering team. Lead, mentor, and scale a team of 6-8 engineers
• Drive the exploration and adoption of AI-driven tools and workflows to accelerate team velocity and enhance operational efficiency
• Own the execution of critical platform building blocks—including isolation, identity, and networking—to meet the needs of a global, multi-tenant customer base
• Champion operational hygiene and observability, maintaining high standards for reliability and performance across thousands of global clusters
• Influence overall domain health by driving platform adoption and ensuring secure compute interfaces meet the needs of developer-centric users

Requirements:

• 10+ years of experience in software development and 3+ years in management
• Experience in building and designing resilient systems at scale using hyperscale CSPs (AWS, Azure, GCP), with a proven track record of 'seeing around corners' to reduce complexity and create critical enduring technical foundations
• Demonstrated expertise in building and scaling secure, high-performance distributed systems, with deep technical proficiency in Kubernetes, container internals, and lower-level systems
• Understanding API governance frameworks and best practices for ensuring API consistency, security, and reliability
• Ability to influence the team, peers, and upper management using effective communication and collaborative techniques
• Ability to hire while ensuring a high hiring bar, motivate engineers, coach/mentor, and manage performance
• An excellent track record of timely shipping features, a sense of urgency, an aggressive mindset toward achieving results, and excellent prioritization skills
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience
• Proven track record in contributing to or maintaining foundational open-source projects within the cloud-native or distributed systems ecosystem (e.g., CNCF, Kubernetes)
• Demonstrated ability to build and foster a strong engineering community while driving the adoption of innovative platform technologies, such as AI-driven infrastructure automation