Principal Engineer

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.

About the Role:

As Principal Engineer of our Cloud Compute & Storage platform engineering, you will be a key technical leader responsible for driving the architectural vision and technical direction of our Kubernetes infrastructure. You will work closely with cross-functional teams, including product management, engineering management, and other key stakeholders, to design, build, and scale our multi-cloud Kubernetes platform. Your role will involve ensuring the platform's reliability, scalability, and security, while also fostering a culture of technical excellence and innovation within the team. You will be instrumental in bridging the gap between our technical capabilities and the broader organizational goals, ensuring that our Kubernetes platform meets the evolving needs of Confluent Cloud.

What You Will Do:

• Lead the technical charter for the Kubernetes Platform Team, focusing on cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes orchestration, networking and security.
• Collaborate with product management and engineering management to develop and drive the roadmap for the Kubernetes platform, enabling new business opportunities.
• Deliver high-impact technical initiatives in areas such as security, reliability, multi-tenancy, and architectural direction.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to the engineering team, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous learning - setting a high bar for technical and communication excellence.
• Represent the Kubernetes Platform Team in cross-organizational technical discussions, ensuring alignment with broader engineering goals.
• Drive the adoption of best practices in cloud-native technologies and Kubernetes, promoting a culture of operational excellence.
• Capable of being hands-on in a deeply technical area of ownership, but equally comfortable driving a high-level technical vision and guiding the teams around you

What You Will Bring:

• Over 12 years of experience in delivering scalable software solutions.
• Proven track record of leading the delivery of large-scale, highly available, low latency, high-quality systems.
• Deep hands-on technical expertise in large-scale systems engineering or distributed systems.
• Extensive experience with best-of-breed open-source container-related infrastructure technologies such as Terraform, Prometheus, Linux, Kubernetes, Gatekeeper, Cilium, SPIRE, and Falco.
• Experience with Kubernetes operator patterns - ideally for orchestrating infrastructure (such as Crossplane, Rancher or AWS ACK)
• Demonstrated, hands-on capability with cloud back-end software engineering technologies, ideally Golang.
• Proven ability to drive operational excellence for large, production services.
• Experience managing large-scale environments (10,000s of VMs) in private or multiple public clouds.
• Strong track record of providing technical leadership and mentorship.
• Proven ability to work collaboratively across various functions, teams, and roles.
• Experience working remotely across multiple time zones and engineering cultures is a bonus.
• Candidates must be located in the Eastern Time Zone.

Come As You Are

At Confluent, equality is a core tenet of our culture. We are committed to building an inclusive global team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, beliefs, and experiences. The more diverse we are, the richer our community and the broader our impact. Employment decisions are made on the basis of job-related criteria without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other classification protected by applicable law.

At Confluent, we are committed to providing competitive pay and benefits that are in line with industry standards. We analyze and carefully consider several factors when determining compensation, including work history, education, professional experience, and location. This position has an annual estimated salary of $221,850 - $244,035, an annual bonus, and a competitive equity package. The actual pay may vary depending on your skills, qualifications, experience, and work location. In addition, Confluent offers a wide range of employee benefits. To learn more about our benefits click HERE.

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