Confluent - Senior Software Engineer - Cloud Platform

IBM Software develops AI-powered, cloud-native products and solutions that support digital transformation. The Senior Software Engineer will design, implement, and operate complex backend services for Confluent’s cloud-native, multi-tenant compute platform, while driving architecture, reliability, scalability, and technical delivery. The role also includes cross-team collaboration, platform improvements, and mentoring other engineers.

Responsibilities:

• Own and lead the design and implementation of complex backend services and systems in a cloud-native, microservices-based environment
• Make architecture and technical decisions that balance reliability, scalability, performance, and operability, and clearly communicate the tradeoffs
• Drive projects end to end: from requirements and design through implementation, rollout, and ongoing operation in production
• Improve service reliability and operations by defining SLOs/SLAs, strengthening observability, and participating in on call as needed
• Collaborate across teams to define APIs, integration points, and data models that keep the platform coherent and evolvable
• Identify and drive platform and productivity improvements (tooling, automation, process) that raise the bar for the broader engineering organization
• Mentor and support other engineers through code reviews, design reviews, and technical guidance, helping grow the team’s capabilities
• Contribute to a culture of continuous improvement, inclusive collaboration, and high technical standards

Requirements:

• Bachelor's Degree
• 4+ years industry experience designing, building, and supporting backend systems in production with a solid grasp on good software engineering practices such as code reviews, deep focus on quality, and documentation
• Strong knowledge of Python runtime environments (virtual environments, package management, and interpreter configurations)
• Strong programming and algorithmic skills
• Proficiency in a major programming language, e.g. Python, Go, C / C++, Java, etc
• Strong experience running services in a public cloud (AWS, GCP, or Azure), including containers and orchestration (for example, Docker, Kubernetes) and modern cloud native technologies
• A track record of technical leadership: driving projects, influencing architecture, and coordinating work across multiple engineers or teams
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to align stakeholders, explain complex ideas clearly, and drive decisions
• Experience with observability and operational excellence (metrics, logging, tracing, incident response, and postmortems)
• Some travel may be required based on business demand
• IBM will not be providing visa sponsorship for this position now or in the future. Therefore, in order to be considered for this position, you must have the ability to work without a need for current or future visa sponsorship
• Master's Degree
• Expertise in other Language Runtimes / VMs (JVM/WASM, etc.) a big plus