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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Confluent - Staff Software Engineer II - Secure Compute - **Company:** IBM - **Location:** Austin, TX, United States - **Experience:** Expert - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Abstraction Layers, Amazon Web Services, Computing Platforms, Microsoft Azure, Cloud Computing, Computer Networks, Distributed Systems, Protocol Buffers, Hypervisor, Identity and Access Management, Key Management, Linux Kernel, Data Logging, Google Cloud, System Availability, Kubernetes, Api Design, Dynatrace, Serverless Computing, Confluent - **Published:** September 2, 2026 - **Apply:** https://dejobs.org/x/x/78A5B470A3CF4AD7A623E052CBEB98D4/job/ ## About the Role 10+ years of experience delivering scalable backend or infrastructure software in production * Proven track record of leading the delivery of large-scale, highly available, low-latency distributed systems * Deep expertise in Kubernetes, including controller development, operator patterns, and preferably multi-region or multi-cluster architectures * Strong proficiency in Go with experience building production-grade services and control planes * Experience with multi-tenant platform architectures and security/isolation patterns (for example, namespaces, network policies, sandboxing, secrets management and identity management) * Hands-on experience with secure container runtimes and low-level Linux internals (for example, Kata containers, Cloud Hypervisor, cgroups, namespaces and seccomp) * Experience troubleshooting and optimizing performance for containerized and virtualized workloads * Familiarity with gRPC, Protobuf, and internal platform API design for service-to-service communication * Hands-on experience with observability and operational best practices (metrics, logging, distributed tracing, alerting, Service Level Objectives/SLOs, rollout strategies, incident response) * Experience with public cloud environments, including AWS, GCP, and Azure, as well as cloud-provider integrations * Demonstrated technical leadership and mentorship, including driving cross-team alignment on architecture, strategic direction, and execution Preferred technical and professional experience * Strong collaboration skills and a demonstrated ability to work effectively with Product, SRE/Operations, Security, and Engineering teams * A smart, humble, and empathetic approach, coupled with a strong sense of ownership, accountability, and teamwork * Passion for building foundational cloud infrastructure and enthusiasm for working in a fast-paced, innovative environment IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and 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, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status. ## Description As a Staff Software Engineer on the Secure Compute Platform team, you will be a key technical leader in building and evolving a next-generation, multi-tenant, cloud-native compute platform that safely runs both trusted and untrusted workloads at scale. Our platform is built on Kubernetes and runs across a large fleet of clusters in multiple public clouds, providing a unified abstraction layer for workload execution, lifecycle management, security, and operational excellence., As a senior technical leader, you think strategically and help drive end-to-end technical delivery, from platform APIs and developer experience down to runtime, capacity, and security. You leverage your expertise in cloud-native distributed systems to take the Secure Compute platform to the next level while ensuring high availability, reliability, security, and cost efficiency for mission-critical customer workloads. What You Will Do * Define and drive the technical direction for Secure Compute, including platform architecture, runtime, and security for running trusted and untrusted workloads at scale * Design and implement platform APIs and Kubernetes controllers/operators (primarily in Go) that power workload lifecycle, autoscaling, placement, and isolation for containers and serverless-style functions * Partner with product and platform teams to shape and deliver the roadmap for Secure Compute, enabling new customer-facing features and internal platforms to build on a common compute substrate * Deliver high-impact initiatives in areas such as workload scheduling, failure and disruption handling, private and public networking patterns, rollout strategies, and fleet-level resource management * Lead technical design reviews and influence architecture across teams, ensuring Secure Compute primitives are easy to adopt, safe by default, and aligned with broader platform strategy ## Related Videos - [Shipping Faster with Less: Render on Cloud Hosting, AI Workloads, and the Future of DevOps](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1894-shipping-faster-with-less-render-on-cloud-hosting-ai-workloads-and-the-future-of-devops) - [API Design - Getting Started](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/33-api-design-getting-started) - [Let's Get Started With Apache Kafka® for Python Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/565-let-s-get-started-with-apache-kafka-for-python-developers) - [The Power of Purpose: Unlocking Potential and Innovation](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1110-the-power-of-purpose-unlocking-potential-and-innovation) - [Inside Bitpanda's Tech Stack: Scaling a European Fintech Leader - Markus Dorner](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1979-inside-bitpanda-s-tech-stack-scaling-a-european-fintech-leader-markus-dorner) - [Rest API Antipatterns](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100208-rest-api-antipatterns) ## Related Articles - [7 Cloud Computing Trends Coming in 2025 for Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/412-7-cloud-computing-trends-coming-in-2025-for-developers) - [Is Software Engineering Over-Saturated?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/418-is-software-engineering-over-saturated) - [How We Built a Worry-Free System That Runs for 10+ Years – And What We’d Do Again](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/751-how-we-built-a-worry-free-system-that-runs-for-10-years-and-what-we-d-do-again) - [Highest Paying Tech Companies for Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/220-highest-paying-tech-companies-for-developers) - [How Much FAANG Companies Actually Pay Software Engineers in 2025](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/230-how-much-faang-companies-actually-pay-software-engineers-in-2025) - [Top-Paying Tech Jobs (with Salaries)](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/372-top-paying-tech-jobs-with-salaries)