Confluent - Principal Engineer

International Business Machines Corporation

Boston (MA)

On-site

USD 192,000 - 358,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

IBM Software is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Traffic team and shape the networking fabric of Confluent Cloud. This remote role spans the United States, focusing on large-scale distributed systems, networking, and cloud infrastructure across AWS, Azure, and GCP.

You will lead architecture, drive roadmaps, mentor engineers, and collaborate with product teams and cloud providers, contributing to open source upstreams. Expertise in C++, Go, Python and Envoy proxy is essential.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field; Master’s preferred.
12+ years of cloud infrastructure or cloud networking experience.
Experience as an architect driving vision and technical roadmaps.

Responsibilities

Build and operate high-performance, scalable network data plane platforms.
Drive architecture, roadmap, and execute software projects with technical team leadership.
Collaborate with product teams and cloud providers to solve complex problems.

Skills

C++

Python

Distributed systems

Architect leadership

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Master's Degree

Tools

Envoy proxy

Kubernetes

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

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

To realize Confluent’s enormous potential, we are looking for a Principal Engineer to join our Traffic team which is responsible for building and managing the networking fabric of Confluent Cloud. Cloud networking is a strategic investment area for Confluent with the potential to impact the company’s top and bottom line. The network platform powers both customer connectivity as well as internal connectivity spanning thousands of Kubernetes clusters across all regions in AWS, Azure, and GCP. We are looking for someone with an interest in building large-scale distributed systems, with a focus on building and managing network data planes for containerized workloads in the cloud. The ideal candidate would be passionate about network data plane performance, scale, cost optimizations, and building robust software. What you will do:

Build the software underpinning the mission-critical Confluent Cloud network data plane platform. You will play a crucial role in architecting, designing, developing and operationalizing high performance, scalable, reliable and resilient systems.
Deliver high impact to the business by driving important technical initiatives in areas comprising (but not limited to) networking, cloud infrastructure, and multi-tenancy.
Independently drive architecture, roadmap, execution of software projects as well as technically lead a team of engineers to deliver impact in production with a focus on quality.
Engage with product and cloud providers to innovate and solve business problems using technical input.
Build upon open source software and engage with the upstream community to deliver business impact.
Troubleshoot issues and improve ops for complex technical stack that spans all the 3 clouds and includes microservices, containers, and virtualization.

This job can be performed from anywhere in the US

Required education

Bachelor's Degree

Preferred education

Master's Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

Required Professional and Technical Expertise

12+ years of relevant cloud infrastructure/cloud networking experience
Strong fundamentals in distributed systems design and development
Experience driving vision and technical roadmap as an architect in a large sized platforms or infrastructure team
Experience building and operating large-scale systems
Experience leading a team of engineers and working cross-team to deliver complex infrastructure projects
Solid understanding of basic systems operations (storage, network, operating systems, etc.)
Proficiency in C++, Go, Python, or other statically typed languages
Experience/knowledge with public clouds (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
Experience building and managing Layer 7 proxies, especially cloud-native proxies such as Envoy

Preferred technical and professional experience

Preferred Professional and Technical Expertise

Open source contributions to CNCF projects
Experience with Kubernetes Networking
Strong networking background combined with your software engineering experience
Education in computer science or a related field, or equivalent work experience

ABOUT BUSINESS UNIT

IBM Software infuses core business operations with intelligence—from machine learning to generative AI—to help make organizations more responsive, productive, and resilient. IBM Software helps clients put AI into action now to create real value with trust, speed, and confidence across digital labor, IT automation, application modernization, security, and sustainability. Critical to this is the ability to make use of all data, because AI is only as good as the data that fuels it. In most organizations data is spread across multiple clouds, on premises, in private datacenters, and at the edge. IBM’s AI and data platform scales and accelerates the impact of AI with trusted data, and provides leading capabilities to train, tune and deploy AI across business. IBM’s hybrid cloud platform is one of the most comprehensive and consistent approach to development, security, and operations across hybrid environments—a flexible foundation for leveraging data, wherever it resides, to extend AI deep into a business.

YOUR LIFE @ IBM

In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMers as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better.

Being an IBMer means you’ll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you’ll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can-do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.

Are you ready to be an IBMer?

ABOUT IBM

IBM’s greatest invention is the IBMer. We believe that through the application of intelligence, reason and science, we can improve business, society and the human condition, bringing the power of an open hybrid cloud and AI strategy to life for our clients and partners around the world.

Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are not only one of the largest corporate organizations in the world, we’re also one of the biggest technology and consulting employers, with many of the Fortune 500 companies relying on the IBM Cloud to run their business.

At IBM, we pride ourselves on being an early adopter of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain. Now it’s time for you to join us on our journey to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

IBM is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

OTHER RELEVANT JOB DETAILS

IBM offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits program. Eligible employees may have access to:

- Healthcare benefits including medical & prescription drug coverage, dental, vision, and mental health & well being

- Financial programs such as 401(k), cash balance pension plan, the IBM Employee Stock Purchase Plan, financial counseling, life insurance, short & long- term disability coverage, and opportunities for performance based salary incentive programs

- Generous paid time off including 12 holidays, minimum 56 hours sick time, 120 hours vacation, 12 weeks parental bonding leave in accordance with IBM Policy, and other Paid Care Leave programs. IBM also offers paid family leave benefits to eligible employees where required by applicable law

- Training and educational resources on our personalized, AI-driven learning platform where IBMers can grow skills and obtain industry-recognized certifications to achieve their career goals

- Diverse and inclusive employee resource groups, giving & volunteer opportunities, and discounts on retail products, services & experiences

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

This position was posted on the date cited in the key job details section and is anticipated to remain posted for 21 days from this date or less if not needed to fill the role.

The compensation range and benefits for this position are based on a full-time schedule for a full calendar year. The salary will vary depending on your job-related skills, experience and location. Pay increment and frequency of pay will be in accordance with employment classification and applicable laws. For part time roles, your compensation and benefits will be adjusted to reflect your hours. Benefits may be pro-rated for those who start working during the calendar year.

Job Title

Principal Software Engineer

Date posted

11-Sep-2026

Job ID

131935

City / Township / Village

Georgia, Minnesota, Texas, New York, North Carolina, Arizona, Washington, Massachusetts, California

Country

United States

Work arrangement

Remote