Staff Solution Sales Engineer - Confluent

IBM Computing; North Carolina; On-site; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Global Sales is seeking an experienced Staff Solutions Engineer to partner with Account Executives, surface customer needs, and craft impactful technical designs that drive value realization. You will lead proofs of concept, run discovery sessions, and mentor teams to maturity in deployment practices.

The role emphasizes collaboration with Product and Engineering, strong customer relationships, and clear communication to diverse stakeholders, from developers to C-level executives.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience as a Solutions Engineer or similar role.
• Experience with event-driven architecture, data integration and processing.
• Cloud architecture, migrations, deployment and application development exposure.
• Experience with automation.
• Proficiency in Java, Python or SQL.
• Cloud/Data engineering certifications.
• Strong self-starter mindset and willingness to learn.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills.
• Ability to present to audiences from developers to executives.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical proofs of concept and execute on new data-streaming use-cases.
• Conduct discovery and whiteboard sessions to design new use-cases.
• Provide thought leadership via technical talks and workshops.
• Guide customers with hands-on help to mature deployment practices.
• Analyze consumption trends and coordinate with Product and Engineering teams.
• Build trusted relationships with customer stakeholders and act as a product advocate.

Skills

Solutions engineering experience

Event-driven architecture

Data integration & processing

Database & data warehousing

Cloud architecture & migrations

Automation, GitOps & Kubernetes

Java, Python or SQL

Self-starter & quick learner

Presentation & communication

Executive-level communication

Tools

Kubernetes

GitOps tooling

Job description

Introduction

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

Staff Solution Sales Engineers at Confluent drive not only the early-stage evaluation within the sales process, but also play a crucial role in enabling ongoing value-realization for customers, all while helping them move up the adoption maturity curve. In this role you'll partner with Account Executives to be the key technical advisor in service of the customers. You'll be instrumental in surfacing the customers' stated or implicit Business Needs, and coming up with Technical Designs to best meet these needs. You may find yourself at times facilitating art of the possible discussions and storytelling to inspire customers in adopting new patterns with confidence, and at other times driving creative solutioning to help get past difficult technical roadblocks. Overall, we look upon Solutions Engineers to be a key cog within the Customer Success Team that help foster an environment of sustained success for the customer and incremental adoption of Confluent's Technology.

What You Will Do:

• Help advance new & innovative Data Streaming use-cases from conception to Go-LiveExecute on and lead Technical Proofs of Concept
• Conduct Discovery & Whiteboard Sessions to develop new use-casesProvide Thought Leadership by delivering Technical Talks and Workshops
• Guide customers with hands-on help and best practice to drive operational maturity of their Confluent Deployment
• Analyze Customer Consumption trends and identify Optimization opportunitiesWork closely with Product and Engineering teams, and serve as a key Product advocate across the Customer, Partner and Industry ecosystem
• Forge strong relationships with key customer stakeholders and serve as a dependable partner for them

Required technical and professional expertise

• Extensive Experience as a Solutions Engineering or similar work experience
• Experience with Event-Driven architecture, Data Integration & Processing Techniques, Database & Data Warehouse technologies
• First-Hand exposure to Cloud Architecture, Migrations, Deployment & Application Development
• Experience with Automation, GitOps and Kubernetes
• Proficiency in Java, Python or SQL
• Technical certifications - Cloud Developer/Architect, Data Engineering & Integration
• Clear, consistent demonstration of self-starter behavior, a desire to learn new things and tackle hard technical problems
• Exceptional presentation and communications capabilities.
• Confidence presenting to a highly skilled and experienced audience, ranging from developers to enterprise architects and up to C-level executives

Preferred technical and professional experience

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IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and 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, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.