Confluent Staff Software Engineer - Kafka

IBM; City of Poughkeepsie (NY, AR); On-site; USD 130,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Software is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to advance storage and query systems for Kora's data layer, enabling streaming data as both table and stream with fast analytics. You will contribute to a scalable, multi-tenant compute platform essential for reliable background tasks and query serving across Confluent Cloud.

Join a team of engineers passionate about solving complex distributed storage and query challenges, collaborating across product, design, and other engineering groups to

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in computer science or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills to influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Experience with large-scale storage and query systems.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement storage schema, materialization, and maintenance for large-scale data.
• Develop and optimize the query engine for analytical workloads.
• Build and maintain multi-tenant, highly available infrastructure for storage and query tasks.
• Collaborate with product, design, and other engineering teams to integrate features with the broader organization.

Skills

Storage engine development

Query engine development

Platform engineering

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Education

Master's degree in computer science

BS/MS/PhD in computer science or related field

Tools

Apache Kafka

Apache Iceberg

Apache Flink

Apache Fluss

Presto/Trino

Spark SQL

DuckDB

ClickHouse

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

IntroductionAt 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.

IntroductionAt 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.

IntroductionAt 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 ResponsibilitiesAbout the Role:We are a team of passionate engineers who love solving complex distributed storage and query engine problems. Through the Tableflow and Lightning Tables project, we are building the next generation of storage and query solutions for Kora to enable streaming data to be consumed both as a table and as a stream seamlessly, and queried with the performance of a purpose-built analytical engine. As a Staff Software Engineer on the team, you will focus on advancing key layers of our system, including multi-tenant, highly available compute infrastructure, the core components responsible for table materialization and background maintenance, and the query engine that serves analytical workloads over that data. You will tackle challenges such as developing strategies for efficient table materialization and maintenance at massive scale across all of Confluent Cloud, building a fast and scalable query engine, and ensuring high availability and scalability for background storage tasks and query serving.What You Will Do

• Storage Engine Development: Design and implement innovative strategies for table schematization, materialization, and compaction at massive scale.
• Query Engine Development: Design and implement components for query planning, execution, and optimization for fast analytical queries.
• Platform Engineering: Build and maintain multi-tenant, highly available infrastructure that powers background computational tasks for Kora's long-term storage and query serving. Ensure that the platform is optimized for scalability, reliability, and resilience, in alignment with organizational objectives.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate with product management, design, and other engineering teams to ensure seamless integration of storage and query features and infrastructure with the broader organization.

Preferred EducationMaster's DegreeRequired Technical And Professional ExpertiseWhat You Will Bring:

• BS, MS, or PhD in computer science or a related field, or equivalent work experience
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to influence and guide stakeholders at all levels.

Preferred Technical And Professional ExperienceWhat Gives You an Edge:

• Familiarity with or has experience contributing to the following open-source technologies: Apache Kafka, Apache Iceberg, Apache Flink, Apache Fluss
• Experience with query engines or distributed SQL systems (e.g. Presto/Trino, Spark SQL, DuckDB, ClickHouse)
• Experience/knowledge with public clouds (AWS, Azure or GCP)