Sr. Technical Program Manager - Confluent

Job description

**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** As a Senior Technical Program Manager (TPM), you will be a key force-multiplier within Confluent's Cloud Architecture and Reliability (CAR) organization. Your primary responsibility is leading the execution of our Observability and Monetization programs—critical initiatives that directly impact Confluent's platform reliability, customer experience, and revenue operations. This role requires driving cross-functional alignment across Engineering, Product, Finance, and Data teams.. **What You Will Do** Drive Observability Excellence: Lead programs that enhance platform monitoring, alerting, and operational intelligence capabilities across Confluent's cloud infrastructure. Own Monetization Delivery: Partner with Engineering and Finance to deliver billing accuracy, usage metering, and cost attribution initiatives that directly impact revenue. Technical Liaison: Translate business requirements into technical specifications for metrics pipelines, dashboards, and billing systems; communicate trade-offs to leadership. Operational Excellence: Establish clear milestones, KPIs, and risk-mitigation strategies; drive predictable delivery for programs spanning multiple quarters. Cross-Team Coordination: Resolve dependencies between Observability, Operational Intelligence, and Monetization teams; manage resource allocation and priorities. Stakeholder Management: Facilitate decision-making across global, distributed teams; provide regular executive-level program updates. **Preferred Education** Master's Degree **Required Technical And Professional Expertise** Experience: 5–8+ years in technical program management within cloud-native, SaaS, or high-scale infrastructure environments. Technical Depth: Strong understanding of observability stacks (metrics, logging, tracing), distributed systems, and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure). Data & Analytics: Experience with data pipelines, billing/metering systems, or usage analytics platforms. Leadership Style: Alignment with Confluent's values—Smart, Humble, and Empathetic; you thrive in ambiguity and "Get Stuff Done". Cross-Functional Collaboration: Proven ability to align Engineering, Product, Finance, and Data teams on shared goals. Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field. **Preferred Technical And Professional Experience** Experience with observability platforms (Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry) or building internal monitoring systems. Familiarity with usage-based billing models, revenue systems, or FinOps practices. Hands-on experience building dashboards and reports using SQL, BigQuery, JQL, or Data Studio. Experience with Apache Kafka or event streaming architectures.