Resident Solution Architect - Confluent

IBM

United States

Hybrid

USD 175,000 - 325,000

Full time

4 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401(k) plan

Paid time off

Learning resources

Job summary

IBM is seeking a Resident Solution Architect - Confluent to guide customers in modernizing data platforms using streaming architectures. The role focuses on Kafka, Confluent, Spark, and Kubernetes, with hands-on deployment and strong client collaboration across multiple industries.

You will lead workshops, produce design patterns, and help optimize production deployments while traveling up to 25% to meet with clients and teams across the United States.

Qualifications

Deep experience designing, building, and operating in-production Big Data, stream processing, and/or enterprise data integration solutions, ideally using Apache Kafka
Experience with Linux (RedHat and Debian)
Cloud provider experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) for high-throughput systems
JVM tuning and troubleshooting
Experience with distributed data systems (Snowflake, Databricks), container orchestration (Kubernetes/OpenShift)
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and CI/CD tools like Terraform/Ansible
Proficiency in Java
Excellent communication and consulting skills
Willingness to travel up to 25% of the time

Responsibilities

Consult directly with customers to provide architecture, design, and operations expertise leveraging Kafka, Confluent products, Spark, Flink, Kubernetes, and databases
Develop best practices, gather product feedback, and help customers overcome operational challenges
Build strong customer relationships and deliver exemplary results quickly
Help customers build a state-of-the-art streaming data infrastructure and optimize deployments
Lead hands-on implementation of production-ready deployments
Write or edit documentation and knowledge base articles based on customer experiences
Participate in community and industry events

Skills

Customer engagement

Architectural knowledge

Communication skills

Travel readiness

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Tools

Kafka

Confluent

Spark

Flink

Kubernetes

OpenShift

Terraform

Ansible

Java

Job description

At IBM Global Sales, we bring together innovation, collaboration, and expertise to help clients solve their most complex business challenges. Working across industries and geographies, you’ll partner with colleagues, clients, and partners to co-create solutions that drive digital transformation and lasting impact.Success in Global Sales is built on curiosity, empathy, and collaboration. You’ll connect technical understanding with strong people skills, building trusted relationships and shaping solutions that improve business and society. With world-class onboarding, continuous learning, and a supportive culture, IBM offers the tools and opportunities to grow your career. Join us and be part of a global team that’s passionate about driving innovation and making a difference.

Your role and responsibilities

As a Solutions Architect (SA), you will help customers leverage streaming architectures and applications to achieve their mission outcomes. In this role, you will:

Consult directly with customers to provide software architecture, design, and operations expertise that leverages your deep knowledge of and experience in Apache Kafka, the Confluent’s products, and complementary systems such as Spark, Flink, Kubernetes, and relational and NoSQL databases;
Develop and advocate best practices, gather product feedback, and help customers overcome their operational challenges;
Build a strong relationship with your customer in a very short space of time, ensuring exemplary delivery standards;
In partnership with industry leading colleagues, have the opportunity to help customers build a state-of-the-art streaming data infrastructure, and optimize and debug customers' existing deployments.

What You Will Do:

Guide customers in developing strategies to modernize their data platforms and move toward event-driven architectures through workshops and hands-on collaboration. Such engagements often involve remote preparation, presenting onsite or remotely, investigating (with Engineering and other coworkers) solutions to difficult challenges, and writing a recommendations summary doc
Provide feedback to the Confluent Product and Engineering groups
Build tooling for another team or the wider company to help us push our technical boundaries and improve our ability to deliver consistently with high quality
Test performance and functionality of new components developed by Engineering
Write or edit documentation and knowledge base articles, including reference architecture materials and design patterns based on customer experiences. Hone your skills, building applications, or trying out new product features
Participate in community and industry events
Lead the hands‑on implementation of production-ready deployments, guiding customer teams through the entire lifecycle from initial development to a successful production launch.

Required education

Bachelor's Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

Deep experience designing, building, and operating in-production Big Data, stream processing, and/or enterprise data integration solutions, ideally using Apache Kafka

Demonstrated experience successfully managing multiple B2B infrastructure software development projects, including driving expansion, customer satisfaction, feature adoption, and retention
Experience operating Linux (configure, tune, and troubleshoot both RedHat and Debian-based distributions)
Experience using cloud providers (Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure) for running high-throughput systems
Experience with Java Virtual Machine (JVM) tuning and troubleshooting
Experience with modern distributed data systems, such as cloud data platforms (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks), container orchestration (Kubernetes, OpenShift), and other NoSQL or stream processing technologies.
Hands‑on experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and CI/CD tools, particularly Terraform for cloud automation and Ansible for on-premise deployments.
Proficiency in Java
Excellent communication and consulting skills, with an ability to clearly and concisely explain tricky issues and complex solutions
Ability and willingness to travel up to 25% of the time to meet with customers

ABOUT BUSINESS UNIT

IBM has a global presence, operating in more than 175 countries with a broad-based geographic distribution of revenue. The company’s Global Markets organization is a strategic sales business unit that manages IBM’s global footprint, working closely with dedicated country-based operating units to serve clients locally. These country teams have client relationship managers who lead integrated teams of consultants, solution specialists and delivery professionals to enable clients’ growth and innovation. By complementing local expertise with global experience and digital capabilities, IBM builds deep and broad-based client relationships. This local management focus fosters speed in supporting clients, addressing new markets and making investments in emerging opportunities. Additionally, the Global Markets organization serves clients with expertise in their industry as well as through the products and services that IBM and partners supply. IBM is also expanding its reach to new and existing clients through digital marketplaces.

YOUR LIFE @ IBM

In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMers as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better.

Being an IBMer means you’ll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you’ll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can-do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.

Are you ready to be an IBMer?

ABOUT IBM

IBM’s greatest invention is the IBMer. We believe that through the application of intelligence, reason and science, we can improve business, society and the human condition, bringing the power of an open hybrid cloud and AI strategy to life for our clients and partners around the world.

Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are not only one of the largest corporate organizations in the world, we’re also one of the biggest technology and consulting employers, with many of the Fortune 500 companies relying on the IBM Cloud to run their business.

At IBM, we pride ourselves on being an early adopter of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain. Now it’s time for you to join us on our journey to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

IBM is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

OTHER RELEVANT JOB DETAILS

IBM offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits program. Eligible employees may have access to:

- Healthcare benefits including medical & prescription drug coverage, dental, vision, and mental health & well being

- Financial programs such as 401(k), cash balance pension plan, the IBM Employee Stock Purchase Plan, financial counseling, life insurance, short & long- term disability coverage, and opportunities for performance based salary incentive programs

- Generous paid time off including 12 holidays, minimum 56 hours sick time, 120 hours vacation, 12 weeks parental bonding leave in accordance with IBM Policy, and other Paid Care Leave programs. IBM also offers paid family leave benefits to eligible employees where required by applicable law

- Training and educational resources on our personalized, AI-driven learning platform where IBMers can grow skills and obtain industry-recognized certifications to achieve their career goals

- Diverse and inclusive employee resource groups, giving & volunteer opportunities, and discounts on retail products, services & experiences

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

This position was posted on the date cited in the key job details section and is anticipated to remain posted for 21 days from this date or less if not needed to fill the role.

IBM will not be providing visa sponsorship for this position now or in the future. Therefore, in order to be considered for this position, you must have the ability to work without a need for current or future visa sponsorship.

The compensation range and benefits for this position are based on a full-time schedule for a full calendar year. The salary will vary depending on your job-related skills, experience and location. Pay increment and frequency of pay will be in accordance with employment classification and applicable laws. For part time roles, your compensation and benefits will be adjusted to reflect your hours. Benefits may be pro-rated for those who start working during the calendar year.

Job Title

Resident Solution Architect - Confluent

Date posted

03-Sep-2026

Job ID

131914

City / Township / Village

No City

State / Province

Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Washington, District of Columbia

Country

United States