Your role and responsibilities
Our team is composed of passionate distributed systems and infrastructure engineers dedicated to solving some of the hardest problems in cloud computing. We are building Kora from the ground-up to be a true managed service for clients who demand high levels of availability and performance at the lowest cost of ownership. Our mission is to deliver bulletproof data durability, high throughput, and ultra-low latency while maximizing multi-tenant efficiency and minimizing the total cost of ownership for enterprise data streams.
As a Senior Staff Software Engineer on the Kora Storage team, you will serve as a key technical authority and architectural anchor. In this role, you will tackle deep systems-level challenges across state management, hardware optimization, disk/network I/O, and fault tolerance. Beyond architecting and implementing critical storage components, you will set technical standards, partner with leaders across the broader organization to shape our core roadmap, and mentor senior and junior engineers to foster a culture of technical excellence.
What You Will Do- Storage Engine Development: Design and develop a highly available, performant, reliable, durable, scalable, and multi-tenant storage engine for Kora.
- Engineering Leadership: Set the standard for engineering excellence. Be instrumental in driving the technical solutions end-to-end, working closely with the team and key stakeholders to design, architect, and develop top-notch solutions.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate with product management, design, and other engineering teams to ensure seamless integration of storage features and infrastructure with the broader organization. Act as a trusted advisor for both internal and cross-functional teams, providing guidance on complex technical problems and contributing to high-level decision-making processes.
- Mentoring: Mentor engineers across the team and help shape the long-term technical direction.
Required education
Bachelor's Degree
Preferred education
Master's Degree
Required technical and professional expertise
- 10+ years of relevant backend and/or infrastructure development experience.
- BS, MS, or PhD in computer science or a related field, or equivalent work experience
- Expertise in Java, Scala, C/C++, Go or other statically typed languages
- Proven experience designing and building large-scale, distributed storage systems.
- Deep knowledge of distributed systems concepts, including fault tolerance, consistency, and scalability.
- Solid understanding at a systems level (disk, network, operating systems, etc).
- Strong leadership skills with a demonstrated ability to mentor and guide engineers to success.
Preferred technical and professional experience
- A strong background in distributed storage systems or databases
- Expertise in building and operating modern cloud-based infrastructure and multi-tenant environments
- Experience developing SaaS services on public cloud providers (AWS, Azure or GCP)
- Familiarity with or has experience contributing to the following open-source technologies: Apache Kafka, Apache Iceberg, Apache Flink
- Interest in evangelism (giving talks at tech conferences, writing blog posts evangelizing your work)
OTHER RELEVANT JOB DETAILSIBM 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.
