Confluent - Staff Systems Engineer

IBM
IBM

Software Engineering

Remote

Posted on Oct 23, 2026
Introduction

We're not just building better tech. We're rewriting how data moves and what the world can do with it. With Confluent, an IBM Company, data doesn't sit still. Our platform puts information in motion, streaming in near real-time so companies can react faster, build smarter, and deliver experiences as dynamic as the world around them.

It takes a unique mix of drive and curiosity to join this team. We’re here to tackle complex problems, get stuff done, and enjoy the ride while we do it. No egos, no solo acts—just sharp, collaborative humans working hard, celebrating the wins, and building the future together.

One Confluent. One Team. One Data Streaming Platform.

Your role and responsibilities

We're looking for a Staff Systems Engineer to be the technical leader for Cloud, Network & Automation within Corporate IT. You will set the architecture and engineering standards for the cloud environments, network access, secrets, infrastructure-as-code pipelines, and automation platforms that every employee and every IT team depends on. This is a broader and more senior scope than a Senior Systems Engineer: rather than owning individual systems end to end, you define how those systems are designed, delivered, secured, and handed off, and you raise the bar for the engineers around you. You will partner closely with the Identity and SaaS pillars, Trust & Security, and Infrastructure, and you will help guide the integration of our environments with IBM. You influence roadmap and risk decisions without relying on formal authority.

What You Will Do

- Cloud Platform Architecture: Set technical direction for our AWS, GCP, and Azure footprint supporting corporate IT, including account, project, and subscription structure, guardrails, networking, and cost and risk hygiene. Lead the cleanup and hardening of legacy cloud environments and define the target state.

- Infrastructure as Code & GitOps: Own the reference patterns and delivery pipelines for infrastructure change (Terraform, Atlantis, Argo, Semaphore), including module standards, pull-request controls, drift detection, and safe rollout practices that other engineers can adopt without your help.

- Network & Zero Trust Access: Architect secure remote access and network connectivity across standard and FedRAMP environments, including VPN and zero trust access tooling (for example Palo Alto Networks platforms), resource routing, allowlisting, and egress IP management.

- Automation & Orchestration Platforms: Own the platforms IT automation runs on (Rundeck, Semaphore CI, Workato, Cloud Run and Cloud Functions). Set standards for how automation is built, tested, secured, monitored, and handed off, and eliminate systemic toil with durable software rather than one-off scripts.

- Secrets, Service Accounts & Workload Identity: Define patterns for secrets management (Vault), service accounts, tokens, and workload identity federation across clouds and CI/CD. Partner with the Identity pillar, which owns user identity and access governance, so that machine identity is consistent, least-privilege, and auditable.

- Core Services & Cloud-Native Operations: Own or guide operational patterns for DNS (DNSControl and the it-dns repository), load balancers and TLS lifecycle, GKE/Kubernetes, Cloud SQL and other service databases, and logging and monitoring, with clear service ownership and runbooks.

- Developer & Virtual Desktop Infrastructure: Set administration and security standards for the GitHub Enterprise organization and the VDI environment, balancing developer experience, security, lifecycle governance, and auditability.

- Security Posture, Incident & Compliance: Drive cloud and infrastructure security posture, including SSPM findings, misconfiguration remediation, and suspicious-activity investigations with Trust & Security. Design technical controls and supply audit evidence for FedRAMP, SOC 2, ISO 27001, and related frameworks.

- Technical Strategy & Integration Leadership: Lead ambiguous, cross-functional initiatives from problem definition through architecture, rollout, and operational handoff, including integration and consolidation work with IBM. Make and document build-versus-buy and sequencing decisions, and communicate tradeoffs to engineers, auditors, and executives.

- Mentorship & Operational Excellence: Mentor engineers across the team, including colleagues in other time zones, review designs and changes, and set expectations for on-call, incident response, documentation, and handoff so critical systems never depend on tribal knowledge.

Come As You Are

Belonging isn't a perk here. It's the baseline. We work across time zones and backgrounds, knowing the best ideas come from different perspectives. And we make space for everyone to lead, grow, and challenge what's possible.

We're proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. Employment decisions are based on 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 law.

Required education
Bachelor's Degree
Preferred education
Master's Degree
Required technical and professional expertise
  • Staff-level technical leadership: 10+ years of experience in systems, cloud, infrastructure, security, or platform engineering, with a track record of setting technical direction and delivering durable, organization-wide outcomes that outlast your own involvement.
  • Cloud architecture: Deep, hands-on expertise in at least one major cloud (AWS preferred) and working expertise across all three of AWS, Azure, and GCP, including account and project structure, networking, hardening, and large-scale cleanup or consolidation of existing environments.
  • Infrastructure as code & GitOps: Strong experience designing Terraform (or equivalent) modules and pipelines at scale, with PR-based controls, policy checks, and tools such as Atlantis, Argo, or comparable systems.
  • Network & zero trust: Solid experience with VPN, ZTNA, and SASE technologies (such as Twingate, Cloudflare, Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect or Prisma Access), routing, allowlisting, egress NAT, DNS, and segmented or FedRAMP environments.
  • Automation & software engineering: Ability to design maintainable, tested automation in Python, Go, or shell, and to run the orchestration and CI platforms behind it (Rundeck, Semaphore, Workato, Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, or similar).
  • Secrets & workload identity: Working knowledge of Vault or comparable secrets platforms, service-account lifecycle, and workload identity federation, plus enough grounding in OAuth 2.0/OIDC, SAML, and SCIM to partner effectively with identity teams. Deep Okta or IGA administration is not required.
  • Cloud-native & service operations: Experience operating Kubernetes (GKE preferred), managed databases, DNS, load balancers, and TLS in production, with sound observability and capacity practices.
  • Reliability & security operations: Strong incident-management and troubleshooting instincts across system boundaries; comfortable with on-call practices, PagerDuty, logging and monitoring, SIEM alerts, and root-cause analysis.
  • Compliance & risk: Experience supporting or leading technical controls and evidence for FedRAMP, SOC 2, ISO 27001, or similar frameworks, with a practical understanding of least privilege and JIT access.
  • Strategy, influence & mentorship: Experience leading multi-quarter, cross-team initiatives such as platform consolidation, migration, or post-acquisition integration. Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to explain tradeoffs to engineers, auditors, and executives and to mentor others across time zones.
Preferred technical and professional experience
  • Experience leading infrastructure or IT integration through an acquisition or large-scale reorganization.
  • Experience leading zero trust or network access transformations across standard and regulated environments.
  • Experience with GitHub Enterprise governance, including repository and team synchronization, SSO mapping, and audit logging.
  • Experience with Azure Virtual Desktop or other VDI platforms at scale.
  • Experience with SSPM, CSPM, or similar posture-management tooling.
  • Familiarity with Okta, Entra ID, or IGA tooling sufficient to collaborate with an identity team.
  • Experience building self-service IT capabilities that replace ticket-driven requests.
  • Relevant certifications such as AWS, Azure, GCP, CKA, CISSP, or equivalent.

ABOUT BUSINESS UNIT

IBM Finance & Operations (F&O) provides critical capabilities that enable IBM to operate as a data-driven enterprise powered by intelligent workflows. Our teams span Finance, Transformation & Operations, Strategy, and Mergers & Acquisitions. We partner across the company to drive business performance, enterprise transformation, and long-term growth. Through data-driven insights, innovative solutions, and strategic execution, we help IBM deliver greater value to clients, partners, employees, and shareholders.

YOUR LIFE @ IBM

In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMers as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better.

Being an IBMer means you’ll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you’ll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can-do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.

Are you ready to be an IBMer?

ABOUT IBM

IBM’s greatest invention is the IBMer. We believe that through the application of intelligence, reason and science, we can improve business, society and the human condition, bringing the power of an open hybrid cloud and AI strategy to life for our clients and partners around the world.

Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are not only one of the largest corporate organizations in the world, we’re also one of the biggest technology and consulting employers, with many of the Fortune 500 companies relying on the IBM Cloud to run their business.

At IBM, we pride ourselves on being an early adopter of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain. Now it’s time for you to join us on our journey to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

IBM 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, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

OTHER RELEVANT JOB DETAILS

IBM offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits program. Eligible employees may have access to:

- Healthcare benefits including medical & prescription drug coverage, dental, vision, and mental health & well being

- Financial programs such as 401(k), cash balance pension plan, the IBM Employee Stock Purchase Plan, financial counseling, life insurance, short & long- term disability coverage, and opportunities for performance based salary incentive programs

- Generous paid time off including 12 holidays, minimum 56 hours sick time, 120 hours vacation, 12 weeks parental bonding leave in accordance with IBM Policy, and other Paid Care Leave programs. IBM also offers paid family leave benefits to eligible employees where required by applicable law

- Training and educational resources on our personalized, AI-driven learning platform where IBMers can grow skills and obtain industry-recognized certifications to achieve their career goals

- Diverse and inclusive employee resource groups, giving & volunteer opportunities, and discounts on retail products, services & experiences

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

This position was posted on the date cited in the key job details section and is anticipated to remain posted for 21 days from this date or less if not needed to fill the role.

IBM will not be providing visa sponsorship for this position now or in the future. Therefore, in order to be considered for this position, you must have the ability to work without a need for current or future visa sponsorship.

The compensation range and benefits for this position are based on a full-time schedule for a full calendar year. The salary will vary depending on your job-related skills, experience and location. Pay increment and frequency of pay will be in accordance with employment classification and applicable laws. For part time roles, your compensation and benefits will be adjusted to reflect your hours. Benefits may be pro-rated for those who start working during the calendar year.

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