Confluent

Staff Software Engineer I - Control Plane Core Infrastructure

Confluent • $120K — $160K *
US-AnywhereRemote in Ontario, CA
Enterprise Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
1 month ago
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 6+ years of software engineering experience with a proven track record in complex backend or distributed systems.
  • Deep expertise in distributed systems design, including scalability and data modeling.
  • Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and cloud-native architectures.
  • Proficiency in Go, Java, or Scala, with comfort across services and infrastructure.
  • Ability to define and execute end-to-end software designs with a focus on quality and timely delivery.
  • Familiarity with operational principles like SLOs, observability, and incident response.
  • Strong communication skills for technical documentation and discussions across teams.
  • Proven leadership skills in cross-team projects and influencing technical direction.

Responsibilities

  • Own end-to-end architecture and delivery of complex control-plane systems supporting Confluent Cloud products.
  • Lead technical initiatives by clarifying ambiguous problems and driving execution across teams.
  • Improve system reliability and operations with strong observability and safe deployment patterns.
  • Collaborate with multiple engineering organizations to align on design and platform direction.
  • Mentor engineers through high-quality design, code reviews, and team development.
  • Enhance developer experience in the control-plane stack through tooling and automation.
  • Influence technical strategy by identifying high-impact opportunities and proposing aligned roadmaps.
  • Contribute to the engineering culture through documentation, design reviews, and knowledge sharing.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to work on cutting-edge cloud technologies that power Confluent Cloud.
  • Collaborative culture fostering cross-team leadership and technical influence.
  • Engagement in open-ended technical challenges that encourage innovation.
  • Access to mentorship opportunities to grow within a technical leadership role.
  • Encouragement for contributions to open-source projects and technical discussions.
Full Job Description
About the Role:

We're looking for a Staff Software Engineer I to lead the design and delivery of core control-plane infrastructure that powers Confluent Cloud. In this role you will own highly technical projects across multiple services and teams, shaping the architecture and reliability of our cloud platform. You'll combine deep distributed systems expertise with strong execution and cross-team leadership, identifying high-leverage problems and driving them from idea to durable impact.

What You Will Do:
  • Own end-to-end architecture and delivery of complex control-plane systems (APIs, controllers, orchestration workflows, data models) that support Confluent Cloud products.
  • Lead open-ended technical initiatives: take ambiguous problems, clarify requirements, define the approach, and drive execution across teams and services.
  • Raise the bar on reliability and operations by building resilient systems with strong observability, clear SLOs, runbooks, and safe rollout/rollback patterns.
  • Collaborate across orgs (Cloud Platform, Kafka, Compute, Security, Traffic, SRE and others) to align on designs, trade-offs, and long-term platform direction.
  • Mentor and unblock engineers at multiple levels; provide high-quality design and code reviews, and help grow the broader engineering team.
  • Continuously improve developer experience for our control-plane stack (tooling, automation, CI/CD, test strategy) to remove toil and increase velocity.
  • Influence technical strategy in your domain: identify high-impact opportunities, propose roadmaps, and help prioritize work aligned with business goals.
  • Contribute to engineering culture via documentation, design reviews, and knowledge sharing (internal talks, wikis, or external content where appropriate).
What You Will Bring:
  • Experienced builder: Typically 6+ years of software engineering experience, with a strong track record of delivering complex backend or distributed systems to production.
  • Distributed systems & cloud expert: Deep hands-on experience with at least some of:
  • Distributed systems design (consistency models, failure modes, data modeling, scalability).
  • Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and cloud-native architectures.
  • Kubernetes or similar orchestration platforms.
  • Strong systems and coding skills: Proficiency in one or more of Go, Java or Scala, and comfort working across services, infrastructure, and automation.
  • Architect & executor: Able to define end-to-end designs, break them into milestones, de-risk early, and land them on time with high quality.
  • Operationally rigorous: You think in terms of SLOs, failure modes, observability, and incident response; you design for safe change and graceful degradation.
  • Great communicator: You write clear design docs, explain trade-offs crisply, and can lead technical discussions with diverse stakeholders (engineers, PMs, leadership).
  • Leader without authority: You've successfully led cross-team projects, influenced technical direction beyond your immediate code, and helped others level up.
  • Values-aligned: You care about customer impact, reliability, long-term maintainability, and helping the team win, not just shipping features.


What Gives You an Edge:
  • Experience building control-plane systems (APIs, operators/controllers, metadata services, provisioning/orchestration workflows).
  • Background with Apache Kafka or other streaming/data systems.
  • Prior work on multi-region, high-availability, or disaster-recovery architectures.
  • Experience in security-sensitive infrastructure (identity, certificates, secrets, mTLS, policy) or compliance-driven environments.
  • Contributions to open source projects, public talks, or technical blogs in relevant areas.
Ready to build what's next? Let's get in motion.

About Confluent

Confluent is an American software company that provides a streaming platform based on Apache Kafka. The company was founded in 2014 by the creators of Apache Kafka and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Confluent's platform enables companies to easily access data as real-time streams, making it easier to build and manage real-time data pipelines and applications. The company's platform is used by a variety of industries, including financial services, healthcare, and retail.
Learn more about Confluent
Size
1,000 employees
Market Cap
$6 billion
Industry
Enterprise Technology
Founded
2014
NASDAQ
CFLT
* Ladders Estimates

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