Senior Engineering Manager, Flink Control Plane

Confluent3 weeks ago

Location

Remote, California

Workplace

Remote

Type

Full Time

Salary

USD 271,500 – 319,000

Level

Manager

Role

Engineering Manager

Posted

May 13, 2026

Full TimeRemoteManager

The role

Summary

Confluent is seeking a Senior Engineering Manager to lead the Flink Control Plane team, responsible for building a robust, serverless control plane for their managed Flink offering. The ideal candidate will drive technical strategy, manage a team of 10 engineers, and focus on architectural excellence, scalability, and developing future technical leadership.

What you'll do

Vision & Execution: Own the roadmap and execution for the Flink Control Plane, defining strategy for job orchestration and serverless resource management

Architectural Leadership: Lead migration of control plane to Confluent's latest platform foundations, driving architectural refactors for reliability, security, and scalability

Engineering Excellence: Collaborate with engineering teams and product management on product definition, architectural design, and delivery

Scale & Performance: Drive control plane evolution to support 10x growth in compute pools, statements, and tenants per region

People Development: Manage and coach a diverse team, mentoring junior and mid-level developers to reach Staff-level leadership

Cross-Team Collaboration: Work closely with engineering leadership across Confluent Cloud to solve complex distributed system challenges

Operational Integrity: Maintain high code quality, comprehensive test coverage, and robust on-call rotation meeting enterprise-grade reliability standards

What we look for

Technical

Distributed SystemsDeep knowledge of distributed systems orchestration, including Kubernetes operators, controller patterns, and declarative API servers

Cloud ServicesExperience with scaling control planes for managed cloud services (AWS, GCP, Azure, Elastic, Snowflake, Databricks)

Education

DegreeBachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field preferred

Experience

Engineering Management10+ years in software development with 5+ years in engineering management, specifically leading cloud-native infrastructure or managed services teams

Leadership Track RecordProven ability to hire top talent, motivate engineers through technical transitions, and effectively manage performance

Skills

Required skills

KubernetesExpertise in Kubernetes operators and cloud-native infrastructure

Distributed SystemsAdvanced understanding of multi-tenant resource isolation and control plane architectures

LeadershipStrong people management and mentorship skills

Nice to have

FlinkExperience with Apache Flink (not required)

Cloud PlatformsDeep knowledge of AWS, GCP, or Azure managed services

Compensation & benefits

Salary

USD 271,500 – 319,000 (annual)

Stock options

Available

Benefits

Equity

Stock options available as part of compensation package

Remote Work

Fully remote position with flexible work arrangements

Diversity & Inclusion

Committed to creating an inclusive workplace that values diverse perspectives

Interview process

1
Initial Screening — HR review of application and resume
2
Technical Leadership Interview — Discussion of engineering management experience and leadership approach
3
System Design Interview — Deep dive into distributed systems architecture and scalability challenges
4
Team Fit Interview — Meeting with potential team members to assess collaboration and mentorship potential
5
Executive Leadership Interview — Final interview with senior engineering leadership