Distributed Systems Software Engineer - WarpStream

Confluent; Texas; Remote; USD 197,400 - 271,200; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote

Distributed team

Job summary

Confluent is seeking a Senior Engineer for the WarpStream team, a fully remote, distributed group building a Kafka-compatible streaming platform on top of object storage. You will tackle complex distributed systems, work across the stack from network to UI, and contribute to high-performance, scalable services for multiple cloud providers.

You will help ensure operational readiness with strong engineering practices, mentorship, and collaboration across international time zones.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience designing and scaling backend systems.
• Proficiency in Java, Go, C/C++, Python.
• Strong focus on quality, code reviews, and documentation.

Responsibilities

• Independently drive execution of complex technical projects end to end.
• Build mission-critical backend services that deliver value to our customers; architect, design, develop and operationalize high-performance, scalable services.
• Troubleshoot and debug issues inside a deep stack with microservices, containers and virtualization.
• Ensure operational readiness and meet availability and performance SLAs.

Skills

Backend design

Distributed systems

Java

Go

C/C++

Python

On-call

Mentorship

Tools

Containers

Microservices

Virtualization

Job description

We’re not just building better tech. We’re rewriting how data moves and what the world can do with it. With Confluent, data doesn’t sit still. Our platform puts information in motion, streaming in near real‑time so companies can react faster, build smarter, and deliver experiences as dynamic as the world around them.

It takes a certain kind of person to join this team. Those who ask hard questions, give honest feedback, and show up for each other. No egos, no solo acts. Just smart, curious humans pushing toward something bigger, together.

One Confluent. One Team. One Data Streaming Platform.

About The Role

WarpStream is an Apache Kafka compatible data streaming platform built directly on top of object storage with zero local disks. It’s delivered to customers as a BYOC‑style offering. The WarpStream team is responsible for this product offering from top to bottom, and as a Senior Engineer you’ll do everything from working on the storage engine running in the agents, improving the scalability of our multi‑tenant control plane, implementing new features like transactions, active‑active multi‑region clusters, and even writing some HTML/JavaScript for our developer console. We’re a small team of < 15 engineers, so you’ll be expected to work across the entire stack from bashing bits at the network level to making sure our UI provides a great developer experience.

You will have an opportunity to solve complex distributed systems problems at scale. You will build services that can operate across different cloud service providers like AWS, GCP, and Azure. You’ll be on‑call for all of it.

The WarpStream team is fully remote and geographically distributed, currently we have engineers in Spain, France, Canada, Ireland, and the USA.

What You Will Do

• Independently drive execution of complex technical projects end to end.
• Build mission‑critical backend services that deliver value to our customers. You will play a crucial role in architecting, designing, developing and operationalizing high performance, scalable, reliable and resilient services.
• Troubleshoot and debug technical issues inside a deep and complex technical stack that includes microservices, containers, and virtualization.
• Ensure operational readiness of the services and meet the availability and performance SLA commitments to our customers.

What You Will Bring

• 5+ years industry experience designing, building, scaling and supporting backend systems in production with a solid grasp on good software engineering practices such as code reviews, deep focus on quality, and documentation.
• Strong programming and algorithmic skills. Proficiency in a major programming language, e.g. Java, Go, C/C++, Python, etc.
• Deep curiosity and enthusiasm for distributed systems and storage systems.
• Strong focus on project delivery and communication skills.
• Experience in driving operational excellence for large production services.
• A strong sense of customer centricity, teamwork, technical leadership and mentorship and are excited about team and company success.

What Gives You An Edge

• Proven track record of delivering large‑scale, highly available, high quality systems.
• Hands‑on technical expertise in large scale systems engineering or distributed systems.
• On‑call experience handling critical systems.

Ready to build what's next? Let’s get in motion.

Come As You Are

Belonging isn’t a perk here. It’s the baseline. We work across time zones and backgrounds, knowing the best ideas come from different perspectives. And we make space for everyone to lead, grow, and challenge what’s possible.

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. Employment decisions are based on job‑related criteria, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other classification protected by law.

Privacy Statement

Confluent is an IBM subsidiary which has been acquired by IBM and will be integrated into the IBM organization. By proceeding with this application, you understand that Confluent will share your personal information with other IBM affiliates involved in your recruitment process, wherever these are located. More information on how IBM protects your personal information, including the safeguards in case of cross‑border data transfer, are available here.

Compensation Range: $197.4K – $271.2K