Confluent - Principal Engineer - AI Productivity

IBM; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Software in San Jose seeks a strategic and hands-on technical leader to define and drive agentic AI capabilities and automated workflows for R&D productivity. You will partner across Engineering, Security, and IT to scale AI usage across our platform.

This role balances 60% execution and 40% strategy, leads cross-functional programs, defines success metrics and ROI, and writes internal playbooks for scaling agentic outcomes.

Qualifications

• 8+ years driving strategic productivity initiatives, ideally in SaaS/Cloud platforms or developer tools with some proven experience in AI initiatives.
• Expert in building distributed systems and/or the infrastructure and tools to support it.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence senior stakeholders without direct authority.
• Strong communicator who can translate complex technical strategies into impact-oriented outcomes.
• Execution-focused with a track record delivering products or features that generated measurable business value.
• Hands-on experience with AI or adjacent AI/ML platform experience with LLM integration and workflow automation, with appetite to build toward agentic patterns.
• Deep understanding of responsible AI practices and governance.
• Passion for solving real customer problems with elegant, scalable solutions.
• Ability to tie technical efforts directly to business KPIs (adoption, retention, revenue impact).

Responsibilities

• Define AI strategy and roadmap for agentic automation and smart workflows across the engineering platform.
• Partner with Engineering, Trust and Security to scale AI capabilities responsibly.
• Lead cross-team projects requiring multi-stakeholder alignment and governance.
• Balance 60% execution and 40% strategy setting while driving adoption of AI tooling across internal teams.
• Write internal playbooks for building and scaling agentic outcomes.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Cross-functional leadership

AI & automation

Distributed systems

Communication

ROI & metrics

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

About the Role:

We’re seeking a strategic and hands-on technical leader to define and drive Confluent’s internal agentic AI capabilities, and adoption of smart, automated decisioning systems for R&D productivity. In this role, you will partner across Engineering, Security, and IT to scale AI usage across our platform to accelerate value for customers and the business.

You will operationalize a vision where AI augments developers, automates routine tasks, and orchestrates intelligent workflows that unlock new usage patterns.

What You Will Do:

• Strategy & Vision

• Define and evangelize the AI and agentic flows strategy — aligning business metrics, engineering needs, and platform opportunities.

• Build a roadmap for introducing agentic automation features, smart assistants, and AI-driven workflows across all aspects of engineering.

• Identify and resolve bottlenecks across the entire product and software development life cycle.

• Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner with Engineering, Trust and Security to integrate AI capabilities responsibly and at scale.

• Operationalize AI adoption internally and share use cases externally

• Drive complex cross-team projects requiring multi-stakeholder alignment

• Continuously raise the bar for code/architectural quality across engineering

• Execution & Delivery

• Lead the delivery of core agentic workflows that improves productivity across engineering

• Balance of hands-on contributions with effective delegation to others. Expect 60% execution and 40% strategy setting.

• Drive measurable adoption of AI tooling and flows with internal teams

• Governance & Best Practices

• Ability to adopt industry standards, ethical frameworks, guardrails, and quality metrics for AI behavior and automated flows.

• Define success metrics and KPIs (e.g., AI-driven usage lift, automation ROI, reduction in manual workflows).

• Thought Leadership

• Participate in external forums — conferences, podcasts, customer briefings on occasion

• Evolve as the technology landscape shifts

• Write internal playbooks for building and scaling agentic outcomes.

If you’re someone looking to bring agentic system design to production scale, let’s talk.

Required technical and professional expertise

• Technical and Product Acumen

• 8+ years driving strategic productivity initiatives, ideally in SaaS/Cloud platforms or developer tools with some proven experience in AI initiatives.

• Considered an expert in building distributed systems and/or the infrastructure and tools to support it.

• Leadership & Collaboration

• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence senior stakeholders without direct authority.

• Strong communicator who can translate complex technical strategies into impact-oriented outcomes.

• Execution Focus

• Demonstrated track record delivering products or features that generated measurable business value.

• Comfortable defining success criteria, metrics, and ROI for ambiguous, future-facing domains.

• AI/ML & Automation

• Hands-on experience with AI or adjacent AI/ML platform experience with LLM integration and workflow automation, with demonstrated appetite to build toward agentic patterns

• Deep understanding of responsible AI practices and governance.

• Customer & Business Mindset

• Passion for solving real customer problems with elegant, scalable solutions.

• Ability to tie technical efforts directly to business KPIs (adoption, retention, revenue impact).

Preferred technical and professional experience

• Experience working in cloud-native platforms or developer ecosystems.

• Prior leadership in scaling internal AI platforms or driving AI adoption across large organizations.

• Background in real-time data, event-driven architecture, or platform engineering.

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.