Confluent - Manager II, Engineering

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 are seeking a hands-on, engineering-focused leader to manage our Cloud Security engineering team in India. In this role, you will lead a dedicated team of engineers focused on strengthening the security posture, visibility, and management of Confluent's multi-cloud infrastructure. You will partner with security peers, Engineering teams across the organization, and GRC/Compliance analysts to ensure we build secure cloud foundations.

This role requires a leader who leads from the front and is comfortable in the trenches. You should expect to participate in engineering activities alongside the team, such as proposing designs and architectures, reviewing and threat modeling infrastructure, and prototyping solutions. It is expected that you have mastered the fundamentals of management, operating with direct autonomy to deliver impactful outcomes, and nurture top talent.

What You Will Do

• Lead and coach a high-performing team of cloud security engineers in India, with accountability for team execution, operational delivery, and career growth.
• Remain technically hands-on: you will partner with your team to design architectures, review and threat model infrastructure, and prototype security solutions.
• Scale asset management, CSPM operations, and continuous visibility, and implement preventative security controls across multi-cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Focus on systematically eliminating entire classes of security misconfigurations and vulnerabilities through secure-by-default paved roads and safety guardrails.
• Serve as an escalation point for critical cloud security issues and operational outages, supporting the security team's on-call rotation.
• Drive automation-first initiatives to streamline compliance, reduce operational toil, and optimize security engineering workflows.
  
  

Preferred Education

Master's Degree

Required Technical And Professional Expertise

• 10+ years of total technical experience in Cloud Security or security engineering, with 2+ years of direct people management experience.
• Deep technical knowledge of cloud security primitives, IAM, and security posture management across at least one major cloud provider (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Experience with coding (e.g., Python, Go) and IaC (e.g., Terraform), and a desire to remain hands-on alongside your team.
• Proven ability to operate autonomously as a people manager – driving technical project delivery, coaching and mentoring engineers.
• Demonstrated philosophy of building secure-by-default systems and eliminating classes of vulnerabilities through automation rather than manual interventions.
• Hands-on familiarity with Kubernetes/container security, vulnerability scanning tools, and cloud asset inventory systems.
• Experience leveraging modern developer velocity tools, including AI-assisted coding.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
  
  

Preferred Technical And Professional Experience

• Experience with AWS, GCP, and/or Azure, with strong expertise in at least one cloud platform.
• Multi-cloud experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) preferred; deep hands-on proficiency in at least one required.