Sr. Technical Support Engineer - Confluent

Senior Technical Support Engineers work directly with customers to diagnose and resolve complex Apache Kafka and Confluent Platform issues. They manage high-priority production cases, lead difficult escalations, build customer trust, and collaborate with Engineering, Product, and other internal teams

• Own and manage complex customer cases across production and non-production environments. * Lead investigations for critical escalations and high-severity incidents. * Troubleshoot distributed systems, Kafka, Confluent Platform, customer applications, and integrations. * Define and manage resolution plans, including priorities, dependencies, risks, mitigations, and timelines. * Communicate clearly with customers and set expectations during high-pressure situations. * Collaborate with Engineering and Product to identify bugs, improve product quality, and provide field feedback. * Create and review technical documentation, knowledge articles, and training material. * Mentor and coach other TSEs and provide technical guidance across the team. * Contribute to process, tooling, workflow, and supportability improvements. * Participate in on-call and emergency-response activities as required.

Required technical and professional expertise

• At least 10 years' recent experience in software development, technical support, site reliability engineering or a similar technical role. * Deep troubleshooting skills across distributed systems and infrastructure. * Practical knowledge of Apache Kafka, Confluent Platform, Linux, networking, cloud platforms, and relevant programming or scripting languages. * Ability to analyse logs, metrics, configurations, source code, and customer environments. * Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly. * Demonstrated customer empathy, incident ownership, and ability to remain effective under pressure. * Provide technical leadership during complex customer engagements, acting as a recognised subject matter expert across the organisation * Ability to work independently on ambiguous and technically complex problems.

Preferred technical and professional experience

• Apache Kafka or other distributed messaging technologies. * Java development. * Public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure or Google Cloud). * Kubernetes, Docker or containerised environments. * Linux system administration. * Networking fundamentals (DNS, TLS, load balancing, firewalls). * CI/CD pipelines and software development lifecycle practices. * SQL, data analysis or scripting (Python, Bash or similar). * Observability platforms such as Prometheus, Grafana or OpenTelemetry. * Experience using AI-assisted tools to improve troubleshooting, automation and knowledge management.