Confluent - Technical Support Professional

IBM; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Software seeks a Technical Support Engineer on the Platform, Security & Cloud (PSC) team. You will help customers solve security, networking and infrastructure challenges in Confluent Cloud and Confluent Platform, collaborating with their engineering teams to diagnose incidents and drive resolutions.

In this role you will lead live troubleshooting sessions, reproduce issues, and provide product feedback to engineering while expanding your knowledge of Apache Kafka and the Confluent ecosystem.

Qualifications

• Streaming data and Apache Kafka expertise.
• Diagnosing, reproducing and resolving customer issues in unfamiliar environments.
• Comfortable on live calls during production-impacting issues.
• Able to read logs and stack traces to find root cause.
• Experience with TLS/certificates, authentication (SASL, OAuth, mTLS) and authorization (RBAC).
• Cloud networking and infrastructure experience on Kubernetes or with Ansible/Terraform.
• Experience with SSO and identity providers is not required but beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Troubleshoot and resolve customer issues across Confluent Cloud and Confluent Platform, focusing on security, cloud networking and Kubernetes deployments.
• Lead live troubleshooting sessions with customer engineering, network and security teams on production-impacting issues.
• Reproduce problems, analyze logs and configuration, and escalate clearly to engineering when a product bug or platform limit.
• Provide real-time product feedback to engineering and write knowledge base articles and documentation.
• Help improve team processes as the team grows and expand knowledge of Apache Kafka and the Confluent ecosystem.

Skills

Streaming data & Kafka

Diagnosing & resolving issues

Live troubleshooting on calls

Linux command line & logs

TLS/certificates authentication

Cloud networking concepts

Kubernetes / Ansible / Terraform

Education

Master's Degree

Tools

Kubernetes

Ansible

Terraform

TLS/Certificates

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'l 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'l have the tools and opportunities to advance your career while creating software that changes the world.

Your Role And Responsibilities

As a Technical Support Engineer on the Platform, Security & Cloud (PSC) team, you'll help customers solve their hardest problems with security, networking and infrastructure in Confluent Cloud and Confluent Platform. You'll work directly with customers' engineering, network and security teams to diagnose and resolve issues, including production-impacting incidents. You'll also be the link that brings what you see in the field back to our engineering teams.

What You Will Do

• Troubleshoot and resolve customer issues across Confluent Cloud and Confluent Platform, with a focus on security, cloud networking and Kubernetes deployments
• Lead live troubleshooting sessions with customer engineering, network and security teams on production-impacting issues
• Reproduce problems, analyze logs and configuration, and *escalate* clearly to engineering when an issue is a product bug or platform limit
• Give our engineering teams real-time product feedback from the field, and write knowledge base articles and documentation
• Help improve team processes as the team grows, and keep building your knowledge of Apache Kafka and the Confluent ecosystem

Preferred Education

Master's Degree

Required

Required technical and professional expertise

• Excitement about streaming data and becoming an expert in Apache Kafka
• A track record of diagnosing, reproducing and resolving technical issues for customers or users, in environments you don't directly own
• Comfortable on live calls during production-impacting issues, and able to explain findings clearly to both customers and engineersConfident on the Linux command line, reading logs and stack traces to find root cause
• Two of these three:
• Security: TLS/certificates, authentication (SASL, OAuth, mTLS) and authorization (ACLs, RBAC)
• Cloud networking: DNS, routing, firewalls and proxies, and private connectivity (PrivateLink, VPC peering) on at least one cloud provider
• Infrastructure: running applications on Kubernetes, or deploying with Ansible or Terraform

Preferred Technical And Professional Experience

• Experience with SSO and identity providers (Microsoft Entra ID, Okta)
• Hands-on experience with Apache Kafka or Confluent Platform, including upgrades or KRaft migrations