Director, Cloud-Scale Kafka & Streaming Platform

IBM; Boston (KY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM is building a massively scalable streaming infrastructure and leading the strategic vision for our Kafka-based cloud platform. You will direct engineering, operations, and cross-functional partnerships to advance the Confluent Kafka platform at scale.

You will mentor global teams, maintain high hiring standards, and ensure timely delivery of high-impact features in cloud environments, while shaping long-term technical strategy and evolving operational maturity.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of second-level engineering management experience leading productive, high-functioning teams.
• Maintain a high hiring bar while recruiting, motivating engineers, coaching/mentoring, and managing performance.
• Experience with running large stateful data systems in the cloud.
• Strong fundamentals in distributed systems design and development.
• A great track record of shipping features and hitting deadlines consistently.
• Sense of urgency, an aggressive mindset towards achieving results, and excellent prioritization skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead a highly productive, global team of software engineers and engineering leaders.
• Drive the long-term direction and strategy of Confluent and Kafka, while partnering with internal stakeholders to drive the team’s mission forward
• Create competitive advantages for Confluent and Kafka by driving technical innovation
• Work closely with peer engineering leaders to prioritize improvements in all these areas – from a culture of continuous improvement to prioritizing large and high‑impact initiatives that will fundamentally change Kafka.
• Continue a strong growth trajectory by hiring top tier engineers, and establish quality standards, design principles, and operational maturity for the team

Skills

Engineering management

Distributed systems

Cloud infrastructure

Hiring & mentoring

Communication

Feature delivery

Education

Master's Degree

Job description

IBM is building a massively scalable streaming infrastructure and leading the strategic vision for our Kafka-based cloud platform. You will direct engineering, operations, and cross-functional partnerships to advance the Confluent Kafka platform at scale.

You will mentor global teams, maintain high hiring standards, and ensure timely delivery of high-impact features in cloud environments, while shaping long-term technical strategy and evolving operational maturity.