Lead Architect, Stream Governance & Metadata

IBM; Lowell (MA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Software seeks a Principal Engineer to shape the governance layer of our Data Streaming Platform. You will lead architecture for schema management, metadata governance, and policy enforcement across Confluent-based streaming services.

The role emphasizes autonomy in ambiguous spaces, cross-functional collaboration, and a track record of delivering scalable, reliable cloud-native infrastructure at scale.

Qualifications

• Proven track record delivering large-scale distributed systems with company-wide impact.
• Familiarity with streaming or event-driven architectures and governance systems.
• Ability to influence across executives and multiple teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive company-level technical strategy for governance systems.
• Architect metadata management to support low-latency lookups and strong consistency.
• Design data protection, encryption, access control, and schema validation across the platform.
• Build and maintain scalable, multi-tenant infrastructure for governance services.
• Establish engineering standards and architectural patterns across the org.
• Collaborate with product management and executives to align technical vision with business goals.
• Mentor senior engineers and contribute to open-source initiatives.

Skills

Distributed systems

Streaming architecture

Strategic influence

Leadership presence

Execution

Education

Master's Degree

Job description

IBM Software seeks a Principal Engineer to shape the governance layer of our Data Streaming Platform. You will lead architecture for schema management, metadata governance, and policy enforcement across Confluent-based streaming services.

The role emphasizes autonomy in ambiguous spaces, cross-functional collaboration, and a track record of delivering scalable, reliable cloud-native infrastructure at scale.