Staff Software Engineer I - Confluent

IBM; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 5,000,000 - 9,000,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Software in Bengaluru is seeking a seasoned Staff Engineer to lead the Hybrid Observability pillar within Confluent Platform initiatives. You will shape architecture, review designs, and own critical components across cloud and on-prem deployments.

You will mentor engineers, drive the roadmap, and collaborate with product leadership to deliver scalable, enterprise-grade streaming and observability solutions, ensuring performance and security in global environments.

Qualifications

• 13+ years of hands-on software development experience.
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Responsibilities

• Lead the Hybrid Observability pillar for Confluent Platform initiatives.
• Provide technical leadership across large-scale CP clusters and on-call improvements.
• Mentor engineers and shape governance, design reviews and rollout plans.
• Collaborate with product leadership to drive the roadmap and security posture.

Skills

Distributed systems

Multithreading

Cloud infrastructure

Technical leadership

Code review & debugging

Education

Master's degree in CS or related field

Tools

Confluent Platform

Apache Kafka

Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Job description

Introduction

At IBM Software, we transform client challenges into solutions. Building the world’s leading AI-powered, cloud-native products that shape the future of business and society. Our legacy of innovation creates endless opportunities for IBMers to learn, grow, and make an impact on a global scale. Working in Software means joining a team fueled by curiosity and collaboration. You’ll work with diverse technologies, partners, and industries to design, develop, and deliver solutions that power digital transformation. With a culture that values innovation, growth, and continuous learning, IBM Software places you at the heart of IBM’s product and technology landscape. Here, you’ll have the tools and opportunities to advance your career while creating software that changes the world.

Introduction

At IBM Software, we transform client challenges into solutions. Building the world’s leading AI-powered, cloud-native products that shape the future of business and society. Our legacy of innovation creates endless opportunities for IBMers to learn, grow, and make an impact on a global scale. Working in Software means joining a team fueled by curiosity and collaboration. You’ll work with diverse technologies, partners, and industries to design, develop, and deliver solutions that power digital transformation. With a culture that values innovation, growth, and continuous learning, IBM Software places you at the heart of IBM’s product and technology landscape. Here, you’ll have the tools and opportunities to advance your career while creating software that changes the world.

Your Role And Responsibilities

Confluent Platform

The Confluent Platform team is dedicated to delivering an industry-leading, enterprise-grade data streaming platform for any BYOI (Bring Your Own Infrastructure) environment ranging from local developer setups to private cloud infrastructure.

CP Charter

To make rapid, data-driven decisions at scale, modern enterprises depend on real-time streaming infrastructure. Confluent stands as the leader in data-in-motion, powered by the Confluent Platform. Our mission is to extend this streaming platform and domain expertise to every environment and audience from private cloud deployments to the broader open-source developer community.

• Deliver the "Confluent" Experience in Private Cloud: CP accounts for 45% of total Confluent revenue. We empower customers to maximize their private data center investments across all data-in-motion initiatives by offering an ambitious product roadmap, prompt security patches, and reliable support.
• Bridge Hybrid Environments: We build connected cloud capabilities that allow customers to seamlessly integrate Confluent Cloud innovations into their existing private cloud infrastructure.
• Expand Tech Community Engagement: We actively capture mindshare within the technical community through the reach and adoption of Confluent Platform.
• Elevate Developer Experience: We continuously refine and improve the end-to-end developer experience for Apache Kafka and Confluent products.

Confluent Platform Team

CP Team is fully based out of India - started in 2023. CP team consists of the following sub teams

Hybrid Observability and Management Pillar

This pillar addresses the Confluent Platform’s observability and management needs. The products support fully air-gapped enterprise deployments and provide centralized, Confluent Cloud-based monitoring and management across multiple environments.

• Confluent Control Center (C3) — C3 is a control plane for monitoring fully air-gapped Confluent Platform deployments. Designed for enterprise teams that provide Kafka as a service, it helps operators assess deployment health, configure cluster alerts and notifications, and maintain data-plane SLAs. It also supports security and access management, along with developer debugging and troubleshooting.
• Unified Stream Manager (USM) — A hybrid monitoring and management solution that enables Confluent Platform customers to use Confluent Cloud capabilities, including data governance, stream lineage, and cost-effective monitoring and management. It provides centralized monitoring for multiple edge deployments, creating a single control plane for stream products across cloud and self-hosted data centers.

About The Role

You will serve as the lead Staff Engineer for the Hybrid Observability pillar.

The CP team’s charter has continued to expand since its inception. In this role, you will provide technical leadership across emerging priorities including managing and monitoring large geographically distributed CP clusters, strengthening security to address evolving global data-protection regulations, and improving tools and processes that help on-call engineers resolve customer issues within committed SLAs. Success requires navigating open-ended strategy, exploring and testing customer-focused ideas, and shaping solutions beyond a predefined list of requirements.

As a leading technologist in the Hybrid Observability pillar, you will apply deep expertise in Confluent Platform and Confluent Cloud to deliver hybrid observability capabilities to customers. You will design solutions, review architecture and code, and implement complex system components by yourself. You will also diagnose customer escalations, recommend mitigations, and work across the full Confluent Platform technology stack.

This role requires you to drive operational and engineering excellence, help shape the roadmap, and evolve the team’s vision and direction. You will collaborate across the organization to advance the roadmap and turn that vision into reality.

What You Will Do

• Collaborate with engineers and architects to advance Confluent Platform’s hybrid observability products, C3 and USM.
• Partner with product management, engineering leadership, and key stakeholders across Confluent and Confluent Cloud to shape and drive the roadmap, while serving as a strong technical voice for CP across the company.
• Champion C3/USM health and operational excellence by influencing technical direction and reviewing code, designs, and proposed improvements.
• Architect and design hybrid USM solutions, applying strong expertise in building and operating distributed systems across cloud and on-premises environments.
• Mentor high-performing engineers and technical leads, helping them grow their skills through hands-on guidance and experience.

Preferred Education

Master's Degree

Required Technical And Professional Expertise

What We’re Looking For

• At least 13+years of hands-on software development experience, with a proven ability to anticipate future product needs, create technical plans, and deliver ideas into production.
• Experience building and operating large-scale systems, with a strong understanding of core infrastructure—including storage, networking, and operating systems and running production services in the cloud.
• Strong foundations in distributed systems design and development, concurrent programming, and multithreading.
• A proactive, collaborative self-starter who can identify signs of technical issues, determine the causes, and implement lasting fixes.
• A track record of delivering on time while balancing short-term technical choices with long-term goals. Able to move quickly, build incrementally, iterate, prioritize effectively, and maintain a strong results-oriented sense of urgency.
• Ability to influence technical decisions across the team, peers, and senior leadership through clear communication and effective collaboration.
• A degree in computer science or engineering, or equivalent experience, with knowledge of diverse technologies, programming paradigms, and frameworks. The ability to evaluate trade-offs and apply them pragmatically in production is essential.
• Ability to handle critical production issues while on call by methodically analyzing logs and metrics, identifying root causes, and implementing effective mitigations.

What is a deal breaker for us

• Architecture and design expertise alone is insufficient for success on the CP team. Because this role involves building a platform product, candidates must have a strong engineering foundation, enthusiasm for technology, and the ability to implement solutions hands-on.
• Candidates must collaborate effectively and prioritize Confluent Platform’s goals over individual interests. We value a mindset that measures personal success by the success of CP and Confluent.
• Ability to help shape the team’s vision and strategy, clearly communicate the path forward, and build support for its evolution. Delivering assigned features is a baseline expectation, not the ultimate goal.
• Candidates whose experience is limited to using LLM-based tools such as Claude, Codex, or equivalents to analyze code and relay generated output will not be considered. This role requires demonstrated hands-on engineering expertise beyond AI-assisted analysis and implementation.
• We offer flexibility to manage personal needs rather than adhering to rigid 9-to-6 working hours. In return, candidates must demonstrate ownership and accountability, deliver commitments, step up when needed without repeated follow-ups, communicate promptly through asynchronous channels such as Slack, and participate actively in meetings.