Director of Engineering — Kafka & Cloud Platform Leader

HITEC; City of Poughkeepsie (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Software is seeking an engineering leader to guide strategic vision, engineering, and operations for core teams building the Kafka-based platform. You will oversee Confluent's cloud brokers, networking, and security, ensuring scale and reliability.

The role demands strong leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and a track record of delivering high-impact features on time in a cloud environment.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of engineering management experience leading productive, high-functioning teams.
• Maintain a high hiring bar while coaching and managing performance.
• Experience with running large stateful data systems in the cloud.
• Strong fundamentals in distributed systems design and development.
• Track record of shipping features and meeting deadlines.
• Sense of urgency and prioritization skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead a global team of software engineers and engineering leaders.
• Drive long-term strategy for Confluent and Kafka, partnering with stakeholders.
• Create competitive advantages through technical innovation.
• Prioritize improvements across culture, large initiatives, and quality standards.
• Grow the team by hiring top engineers and maturing operational practices.

Skills

Engineering management

Distributed systems

Cloud data systems

Hiring & mentoring

Technical leadership

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Master's Degree

Tools

Confluent Kafka

Cloud platforms

Job description

IBM Software is seeking an engineering leader to guide strategic vision, engineering, and operations for core teams building the Kafka-based platform. You will oversee Confluent's cloud brokers, networking, and security, ensuring scale and reliability.

The role demands strong leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and a track record of delivering high-impact features on time in a cloud environment.