Confluent - Principal Engineer

IBM Computing; Seattle (WA); Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Software is seeking a Principal Engineer to join the Traffic team responsible for building and managing the networking fabric of Confluent Cloud. This role focuses on large-scale distributed systems across AWS, Azure, and GCP, enabling customer and internal connectivity.

You will architect, design, and deliver high-performance systems, lead a team of engineers, collaborate with product and cloud providers, and contribute to open source while optimizing for scale, cost, and reliability.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of 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.

Responsibilities

• Build the software underpinning the mission-critical Confluent Cloud network data plane platform.
• Deliver high impact to the business by driving important technical initiatives in networking, cloud infrastructure, and multi-tenancy.
• Independently drive architecture, roadmap, execution of software projects and 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 spanning three clouds, microservices, containers, and virtualization.

Skills

Distributed systems

Architectural leadership

Team leadership

Cross-team collaboration

Statically typed languages

Public clouds (AWS/Azure/GCP)

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Master's Degree

Tools

Envoy Proxy

Kubernetes Networking

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.

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 Technical and Professional 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

• 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

Required Education

Bachelor's Degree

Preferred Education

Master's Degree

IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and 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, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.