IBM
Software Engineer - Confluent Stream Processing & Analystics

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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.
With Confluent, data doesn’t sit still. We put information in motion, streaming in near real time so organizations can react faster, build smarter, and deliver experiences as dynamic as the world around them.
Your Role And Responsibilities
We’re a small, focused engineering team building the AI capabilities of Confluent Cloud. Our job is to make it possible to run machine learning and AI agents directly on real-time data — without customers having to stitch together a separate stack to do it. We own our products end to end, from the user-facing API down to the serving layer that runs inference in production, and we work closely with the broader platform teams whose systems we build on top of. It’s a high-ownership, high-autonomy environment: small enough that what you build ships and matters, broad enough that the problems are genuinely hard.
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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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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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.
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About The Role
As a Software Engineer on the AI team, you will take ownership of the infrastructure that enables our “in-place, at-scale” AI value proposition. Your team isn’t just building a feature; you are architecting the systems that allow customers to run complex inference and AI agents directly on streaming data, eliminating the need to move data to external stacks. This is a high-impact role where your work on scalable, cost-efficient serving layers directly drives Confluent’s growth and redefines the possibilities of real-time data.
We are looking for engineers who thrive on the technical complexity of large-scale distributed systems. You will tackle deep infrastructure challenges across networking, compute, and security to ensure our AI capabilities are as reliable as the core data plane itself. If you are passionate about building the foundational systems that power the next generation of AI in the cloud, this is the place to do it.
What You’ll Do


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- Design, develop, and operate large-scale, high-performance infrastructure that powers Confluent Cloud.
- Build foundational software to improve reliability, scalability, and efficiency across cloud environments.
- Work on distributed systems challenges such as consensus algorithms, failover strategies, and resource allocation.
- Collaborate with teams across Confluent to optimize and enhance infrastructure for real-time data streaming use cases.
- Troubleshoot and improve system reliability, observability, and performance across multiple cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP).
Preferred Education
None
Required Technical And Professional Expertise
- Strong fundamentals in distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and networking.
- Experience in building and operating large-scale, high-availability systems.
- Good understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and their services.
- Proficiency in Java, Scala, C++, Go, or other statically typed languages.
- A self-starter with strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work in a fast-paced environment.
- Education in computer science or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
Preferred Technical And Professional Experience
- Exposure to model serving, LLM/agent infrastructure, or streaming data systems.
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