Senior Manager, Engineering

Introduction At IBM Software, we transform client challenges into solutions. Building the world’s leading AI-powered, cloud-native products that shape the future of business and society. Our legacy of innovation creates endless opportunities for IBMers to learn, grow, and make an impact on a global scale. Working in Software means joining a team fueled by curiosity and collaboration. You’ll work with diverse technologies, partners, and industries to design, develop, and deliver solutions that power digital transformation. With a culture that values innovation, growth, and continuous learning, IBM Software places you at the heart of IBM’s product and technology landscape. Here, you’ll have the tools and opportunities to advance your career while creating software that changes the world. Your Role And Responsibilities About the Role The Confluent Platform Management & Observability charter spans Confluent Control Center (C3) and closely related management and observability capabilities that help customers operate Confluent Platform reliably across on-prem, cloud, and hybrid environments. As an Engineering Manager II , you will primarily own the C3 engineering team while partnering closely on USM execution areas that intersect with the broader management experience. You will be accountable for building a strong, healthy team that delivers consistently on roadmap commitments while maintaining a high bar for technical and operational excellence. This role is ideal for an experienced engineering leader with strong distributed systems depth, a track record of leading teams with both senior and junior engineers, and the ability to translate product and customer needs into clear plans, priorities, and execution. You will partner closely with product, peer engineering teams, and stakeholders across Confluent Platform and Confluent Cloud to deliver roadmap outcomes, strengthen engineering practices, and grow engineers in a business-critical area. What You Will Do Own execution for the C3 engineering team, including cluster health and observability, consumer and topic visibility, connector monitoring, and related management workflows, while partnering on selected USM execution areas that intersect with the broader management and observability experience. Partner with product management, engineering leadership, and cross-functional stakeholders to define quarterly milestones and drive multi-quarter roadmap delivery. Break down complex, cross-team initiatives into meaningful milestones, identify dependencies and blockers early, and keep projects aligned to business priorities even as requirements evolve. Lead a team of both senior and junior engineers, creating clarity on goals, providing regular coaching and feedback, and helping individuals grow in line with the career progression guide. Represent the team in technical discussions, design reviews, RCCAs, and postmortems; help raise the quality bar for architecture, execution, operational hygiene, and engineering processes. Translate product asks and customer needs into engineering requirements and delivery plans that balance feature velocity, technical debt, reliability, and long-term architectural integrity. Build a healthy, inclusive, high-trust team culture with psychological safety, strong engagement, and clear accountability. Partner with recruiting to attract, assess, and close strong engineering talent, while maintaining a high hiring bar and improving the candidate experience. Preferred Education Master's Degree Required Technical And Professional Expertise 10+ years of relevant software engineering experience and 2+ years of people management experience leading engineers in distributed systems, platform, infrastructure, or observability-focused teams. Strong technical depth in large-scale distributed systems, with the ability to weigh in credibly on design, architecture, operational trade-offs, and technical execution. Experience delivering multi-quarter or cross-team initiatives with clear business impact, including managing dependencies, changing priorities, and execution risk. Proven ability to lead through ambiguity, align teams around outcomes, and move work forward even when strategy is still being refined. Demonstrated strength in coaching, feedback, performance management, and career development for engineers across different levels of seniority. Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across engineering, product, and other cross-functional partners. Experience hiring and building balanced, high-performing teams with strong attention to inclusion, team health, and long-term talent development. Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience. Preferred Technical And Professional Experience Experience with Apache Kafka, Confluent Platform, or adjacent streaming/data infrastructure technologies. Experience in observability, monitoring, incident management, or operational tooling for large-scale systems. Familiarity with Kubernetes, cloud-native platforms, and hybrid cloud deployment models across AWS, Azure, or GCP. Experience leading teams that build management planes, operational workflows, or customer-facing platform experiences. Experience balancing roadmap delivery with reliability, technical debt reduction, and operational excellence in customer-critical systems.