Staff Software Engineer

About Confluent: Confluent, an IBM subsidiary, is the premier, internationally recognized data streaming pioneer, cloud architecture innovator, and enterprise event orchestration leader on an absolute mission to rewrite how information moves and what the world can achieve with it. By building an advanced hybrid-first data platform centered around Apache Kafka, Confluent untethers static storage blocks, putting data into near real-time motion so that thousands of global companies can react faster, build smarter, and deliver highly dynamic user experiences. Operating as a unified global collective that discards ego and solo acts in favor of transparent, curious, and collaborative engineering, Confluent eliminates legacy tech debt to enable multi-cloud data routing. The company provides elite technologists with an unparalleled, high-ownership remote environment to push the boundaries of distributed computing and scale event-driven infrastructure safely worldwide.

Position Overview

We are seeking a highly analytical, systems-minded Staff Software Engineer I - Confluent Platform to join our core centralized Engineering organization in a full-time remote capacity within India. Sitting at the critical intersection of platform architecture, ultra-high-scale distributed systems, and mission-critical enterprise operations, you will claim individual technical accountability for setting the structural direction and driving advancements across a continually growing platform charter. Shifting completely away from basic application development or standard user-space wrapping, you will act as a primary technologist architecting foundational Unified Stream Manager (USM) hybrid-first capabilities. This senior leadership seat requires a seasoned engineering craftsman with 10+ years of distributed systems history who designs resilient multi-region architectures fluidly, navigates complex Kubernetes networking layers under pressure, and establishes uncompromised standards for execution velocity and long-term data streaming roadmaps.

Key Responsibilities

• Platform Architecture and Evolution Governance: Lead and govern the technical lifecycle of the Confluent Platform, taking deep architectural ownership over hybrid-first management layers, platform reliability, and core USM components.
• Distributed System Backend Implementation: Code, design, and optimize low-level data streaming engines, implementing performant multi-threaded logic, advanced memory tracking, and concurrency safeguards natively utilizing Backend engineering standards.
• Cloud-Native Infrastructure Orchestration: Architect and manage enterprise deployment configurations across complex multi-cloud ecosystems, structuring high-throughput network nodes natively leveraging DevOps principles over Kubernetes environments.
• USM Hybrid Offerings Engineering: Design and deliver consistent, enterprise-grade capabilities for management, deep observability, and security, enabling customers to effortlessly monitor and secure Confluent Platform deployments across multiple regions.
• High-Severity Performance Debugging: Roll up your sleeves to deep-dive debug, profile, and operate critical production systems, acting as an escalation point to mitigate high-severity infrastructure issues under operational pressure.
• Technical Design and Code Reviews: Champion domain health and architectural hygiene, raising the execution bar across the company by leading rigorous cross-team technical reviews for structural components.
• Cross-Functional Roadmap Alignment: Partner peer-to-peer alongside internal Product Management, engineering leadership, and cross-organizational business units (including Confluent Cloud) to define and iterate platform roadmaps.
• Engineering Mentorship and Leadership: Mentor, guide, and grow senior software engineers and technical leads within the regional cell, setting elite execution, communication, and software craftsmanship standards across India.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 10+ years of verified professional history running advanced software development, distributed systems programming, cloud infrastructure engineering, or principal backend systems consulting.
• Demonstrated commercial track record taking complex, low-level technical ideas from early prototyping states completely into production inside high-scale, multi-tenant environments.
• Deep, authoritative technical command of core operating systems fundamentals, concurrency frameworks, asynchronous networking layers, and cloud-native memory structures natively leveraging Backend coding languages.
• Production-tested experience configuring, scaling, and managing infrastructure microservices natively utilizing DevOps automation practices and container orchestration via Kubernetes.
• Proven capability to influence technical decisions across multiple distributed teams and senior corporate leadership through clear, data-driven documentation and logical blueprints.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication traits in fluent English, showcasing an absolute capacity to act as a strong external technical voice for the platform.
• Location Context: Parameters open exclusively to qualified distributed systems specialists base-stationed permanently within **India** to execute production and architectural duties under a 100% remote work-from-home model.

Preferred Strategic Indicators (Nice to Have)

• Prior professional experience contributing directly to open-source computing software or stream processing engines (e.g., Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, Apache Spark, or Apache Hadoop).
• Familiarity with query processing systems, large data warehousing engines, or highly regulated enterprise compliance and security data frameworks.
• Active interest in technical evangelism, including publishing software engineering articles, writing architecture blogs, or delivering presentations at global technology conferences.
• An academic background holding a BS or MS degree in Computer Science, engineering, or an equivalent quantitative discipline demonstrating deep logical fundamentals.

What We Offer

• The exceptional professional canvas to directly direct, shape, and code-engineer the foundational event streaming systems and data-in-motion architectures power-routing real-time operations for the global Fortune 500.
• Highly competitive, capability-benchmarked full-time baseline compensation packages calibrated to reward your accelerated computing authority, supplemented immediately by premium performance benefits and corporate career growth pathways.
• Profound work-from-home remote parameters providing an elite digital workplace, complete scheduling trust, and zero physical geographic office commuting friction across India.
• Immediate integration into a high-performing, ego-free engineering culture composed of smart, curious humans pushing toward large-scale technological goals.
• Access to uncompromised long-term professional security structures, including comprehensive health protections, wellness pathways, and ongoing exposure within an IBM subsidiary organization.