Principal Engineer: Agentic AI for Developer Productivity

IBM; Armonk (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Software seeks a strategic and hands-on technical leader to define and drive Confluent’s internal agentic AI capabilities, and adoption of smart automated decisioning systems for R&D productivity.

You will partner across Engineering, Security, and IT to scale AI usage, accelerate value for customers and the business, and orchestrate intelligent workflows that unlock new usage patterns.

Qualifications

• 8+ years driving strategic productivity initiatives in SaaS/Cloud platforms or developer tools, with AI initiatives.
• Expert in building distributed systems and the supporting infrastructure.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence senior stakeholders.
• Strong communicator who translates complex technical strategies into business impact.
• Hands-on AI/ML and automation experience with ROI focus.
• Deep understanding of responsible AI practices and governance.
• Ability to tie technical work to business KPIs (adoption, retention, revenue impact).

Responsibilities

• Define and evangelize the AI and agentic flows strategy — aligning business metrics, engineering needs, and platform opportunities.
• Build a roadmap for introducing agentic automation features, smart assistants, and AI-driven workflows across engineering.
• Lead cross-team projects requiring multi-stakeholder alignment.
• Drive AI adoption internally and share use cases externally.
• Balance hands-on contributions with delegation (60% execution, 40% strategy).
• Define success metrics and KPIs for AI initiatives.
• Write internal playbooks for scaling agentic outcomes.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

AI/ML expertise

Distributed systems

Executive communication

Product management

ROI definition

Problem solving

Job description

IBM Software seeks a strategic and hands-on technical leader to define and drive Confluent’s internal agentic AI capabilities, and adoption of smart automated decisioning systems for R&D productivity.

You will partner across Engineering, Security, and IT to scale AI usage, accelerate value for customers and the business, and orchestrate intelligent workflows that unlock new usage patterns.