Principal Engineer: Schema & Metadata Governance

IBM Computing; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Software is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the architecture, scalability, and reliability of Confluent schema and metadata governance systems within the Confluent Platform. You will own company‑level technical domains and shape long‑term architectural strategy for governance at scale.

You will mentor senior engineers, influence executives, and drive open‑source contributions while collaborating across platform teams to ensure reliable, scalable real‑time data governance across

Qualifications

• Proven track record of leading architecture and delivery of large‑scale distributed systems.
• Comprehensive knowledge of fault tolerance, consistency, scalability, and cloud‑native platforms.
• Working depth with streaming or event‑driven architectures, and familiarity with schema management, data catalogs, or metadata/governance systems.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity, reduce systemic complexity, and plan for 3–5 year horizons.
• Strong influence with executives and stakeholders across multiple teams.
• Experience moving from high‑level vision to detailed technical implementation with shipped outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive company‑level technical strategy for governance systems and metadata infrastructure.
• Architect and evolve metadata management systems for low‑latency lookups and strong consistency.
• Design and evolve data protection capabilities including encryption and access control across the platform.
• Build and maintain highly available, multi‑tenant infrastructure for governance services.
• Establish and evangelize engineering standards and architectural patterns.
• Collaborate with executives, product management, and engineering leaders to align technical vision with business objectives.
• Mentor senior engineers and contribute to open‑source projects.

Skills

Deep Expertise

Distributed Systems

Streaming Architecture

Strategic Influence

Leadership Presence

Execution

Metadata Architecture

Job description

IBM Software is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the architecture, scalability, and reliability of Confluent schema and metadata governance systems within the Confluent Platform. You will own company‑level technical domains and shape long‑term architectural strategy for governance at scale.

You will mentor senior engineers, influence executives, and drive open‑source contributions while collaborating across platform teams to ensure reliable, scalable real‑time data governance across