The Senior Principal Engineer for Kafka at Confluent is a pivotal role focused on defining and driving the multi-year technical strategy for the Background Plane of Kafka. This individual contributor position requires a deep understanding of distributed systems and the ability to lead high-visibility initiatives that span various technical domains. The role emphasizes architecting high-scale processing platforms and ensuring end-to-end correctness in data workflows. The engineer will also mentor upcoming talent while representing Confluent's technical vision externally.

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field, with a preference for a Master's degree.
• Proven track record of architecting and operating mission-critical distributed systems at planetary scale.
• Deep expertise in Apache Kafka internals or equivalent high-throughput streaming systems.
• Exceptional problem-solving skills related to distributed concurrency and edge-case failures.
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills.

• Establish the long-term technical vision for the Background Plane and translate strategic objectives into engineering roadmaps.
• Design, build, and optimize core platform capabilities including distributed scheduling and task coordination.
• Own the correctness model for all data and metadata workflows, ensuring safety under extreme conditions.
• Ensure the Background Plane can accommodate hyper-growth without compromising performance.
• Lead architectural contracts across organizations and drive initiatives from initial framing to production rollout.
• Define global engineering standards for operational excellence and risk mitigation.
• Act as the definitive technical authority during critical architectural reviews and incident responses.
• Mentor and sponsor senior engineers while representing the company's technical vision externally.

• IBM offers competitive compensation, healthcare coverage, retirement programs, paid parental leave, tuition assistance, wellness programs, flexible work options, and extensive learning and certification resources.