IBM
Senior Software Engineer - Networking Traffic Team (United Kingdom)

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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
We're not just building better tech. We're rewriting how data moves and what the world can do with it. With Confluent, data doesn't sit still. Our platform puts information in motion, streaming in near real-time so companies can react faster, build smarter, and deliver experiences as dynamic as the world around them.
It takes a certain kind of person to join this team. Those who ask hard questions, give honest feedback, and show up for each other. No egos, no solo acts. Just smart, curious humans pushing toward something bigger, together. One Confluent. One Team. One Data Streaming Platform.
Reasons to use Rodeo
I’m in my final year doing Economics and I don’t know whether to apply for grad schemes now or do a masters first. What do you think?
Honest answer — it depends on where you want to end up. A lot of top grad schemes (Big 4, civil service, banking) don’t need a masters. Let’s look at the ones you’d be competitive for now, and we can decide if a masters actually adds anything.
Also worth knowing: most autumn 2026 applications are open now. Timing matters more than you think.
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Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
Graduate Consultant — 2026 Scheme
Why you're a good match
StrongYour economics background and your summer at a regional bank line up with what PwC looks for on the consulting scheme. Applications close in four weeks.
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Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Why you're a good match
You’ve got the grades and the economics background, and your bank internship is exactly the experience this scheme looks for. Apply soon — deadlines close within the month.
Experience fit
Your summer at the bank plus your econometrics coursework map directly to the day-one responsibilities on this scheme — client modelling, market briefings, and deal support.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
About The Role
We are looking for a senior software engineer to help us build the next-generation network data plane to enable our Confluent Cloud platform to achieve 10x the current scale. This role blends strong independent software development with hands-on operational ownership.
Cloud networking is a strategic investment area with significant potential to impact the company's growth. The Traffic team is responsible for the network platform of Confluent Cloud with a focus on performance, security, reliability, and cost optimizations for all network traffic that ingresses and egresses a customer's Kafka and DSP deployments as well as all internal service to service traffic on Confluent Cloud.
You will design and build highly scalable, cost efficient, networking data plane solutions, while ensuring these systems are reliable, observable, and resilient in production. You'll independently drive complex projects from design through production, working closely with engineers across the Traffic team, and help grow more junior engineers along the way.
Key Responsibilities
- Design, develop, and operationalize high-performance, scalable, reliable, and resilient systems for the Confluent Cloud network data plane platform.
- Independently drive the execution of software projects, delivering complex work in production with a focus on quality.
- Leverage cloud providers and open-source software to deliver impactful business solutions.
- Troubleshoot and improve operations for a complex technical stack that spans across AWS, Azure, and GCP, including microservices, containers, and virtualization.
- Mentor junior engineers on the team, helping them grow their technical skills and engineering judgment.


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Preferred Education
Master's Degree
Required Technical And Professional Expertise
- 2+ years of software engineering industry experience.
- Strong fundamentals in distributed systems design and development.
- Experience in building and operating large-scale systems.
- Solid understanding at a systems level (disk, network, operating systems, etc.).
- Solid understanding of networking primitives and protocols.
- Practical experience with Kubernetes and containerization technologies.
- Experience/knowledge with public clouds (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
- Self-starter with the ability to work effectively in teams.
- Proficiency in C++, Go, Python, or other programming languages.
Preferred Technical And Professional Experience
- Experience with network proxies and/or load balancers.
- Strong networking background combined with software engineering experience.
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