Senior Software Engineer II - Confluent Cloud Platform (Remote)

IBM; Rochester (MN); On-site; USD 130,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM is seeking an experienced Site Reliability/Platform Engineer to design, build, and evolve internal infrastructure services powering cloud-native platforms. You will own scalable cloud infrastructure, emphasizing reliability and observability, and collaborate with distributed teams to ensure smooth deployments.

The role requires strong knowledge of Go/Java/Python, Kubernetes, GitOps, and public clouds (AWS, GCP, Azure), with a master’s degree and on-call readiness.

Qualifications

• Master's degree or higher in a relevant field.
• Strong programming skills in Go, Java, or Python with deep systems knowledge.
• Proven experience with Kubernetes in production and cloud-native ecosystems.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and evolve internal infrastructure services behind Confluent Cloud.
• Own systems for secure, scalable, observable, and reliable cloud infrastructure.
• Collaborate with engineers to enable safe deployment of services via platform tooling.
• Manage full lifecycle of infrastructure including availability, performance, and incident response.
• Operate at scale across regions and thousands of instances with focus on reliability.

Skills

Go

Java

Python

Public cloud

Linux

Networking

Education

Master's Degree

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

GitOps

CI/CD

Prometheus

Grafana

AWS

GCP

Azure

Job description

Introduction

At IBM Software, we transform client challenges into solutions. Building the world's leading AI‑powered, cloud‑native products that shape the future of business and society. Our legacy of innovation creates endless opportunities for IBMers to learn, grow, and make an impact on a global scale. Working in Software means joining a team fueled by curiosity and collaboration. You'll work with diverse technologies, partners, and industries to design, develop, and deliver solutions that power digital transformation. With a culture that values innovation, growth, and continuous learning, IBM Software places you at the heart of IBM's product and technology landscape. Here, you'll have the tools and opportunities to advance your career while creating software that changes the world. With Confluent, data doesn't sit still. We put information in motion, streaming in near real time so organizations can react faster, build smarter, and deliver experiences as dynamic as the world around them.

Your Role And Responsibilities

With Confluent, organizations can harness the full power of continuously flowing data to innovate and win in the modern digital world. We have a purpose that drives us to do better every day – we're creating an entirely new category within data infrastructure - data streaming. This technology will allow every organization to create experiences and use the power of data in ways that profoundly impact the way we all live. This impact is our purpose and drives us to do better every day. One Confluent. One team. One Data Streaming Platform. Data Connects Us.

The Confluent Cloud Platform based on Apache Kafka is the leading Cloud Native Platform as a Service for streaming data infrastructure, but this is just the beginning. We are building a PaaS, enabling customers around the globe to deliver streaming applications.

What You Will Do

• Design, build, and evolve internal infrastructure services written in Go, often as Kubernetes operators, that power the core platform behind Confluent Cloud
• Own the systems that make cloud infrastructure secure, scalable, observable, and reliable, using GitOps, Terraform, Prometheus, Grafana, and a strong foundation in Linux, networking, and public cloud
• Collaborate with engineers across Confluent to enable fast, safe, and autonomous deployment of services through shared platform tooling and best practices
• Take shared responsibility for the full lifecycle of our infrastructure: availability, performance, monitoring, incident response, and capacity planning
• Work on systems at scale, across tens of thousands of instances and multiple regions, with a focus on smooth, fast, and safe operations
• Influence the architecture and operational strategy behind the critical infrastructure that supports all of Confluent’s cloud services
• Participate in a 8‑hour, follow‑the‑sun on‑call rotation.

Preferred Education

Master's Degree

Required Technical And Professional Expertise

• Strong programming skills with the ability to read, debug, and evolve existing code (Go, Java, or Python) Deep understanding of systems internals (filesystems, memory, networking, kernel behavior) and large‑scale system performance
• Hands‑on experience with Kubernetes in production and modern cloud‑native ecosystems, including containers and public cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Expertise in automation and reliability practices—GitOps, Terraform, CI/CD, observability—and experience diagnosing and improving complex systems
• Strong collaboration, communication, and ownership mindset, with the ability to operate independently in a distributed team