Engineering Manager - CC UI Apps; Kafka, Governance, and Tableflow

About the Role

Confluent Cloud UI Apps owns the core cloud experiences that data engineers, platform operators, and governance stakeholders use every day to discover, understand, and safely operate streaming data. As an Engineering Manager for Kafka UI, Tableflow UI, and Governance UI, you will lead the team that stitches these experiences together in Confluent Cloud — from Kafka-centric workflows and Data Portal to governance-aware views and Tableflow integrations.

You will be responsible for a team that operates at the intersection of product, platform, and governance: evolving the Governance/Data Portal experience, completing the Tableflow story in the UI, and driving schema and catalog experiences (e.g., search, RBAC-aware editing, subject lifecycle) that sit on top of complex backend systems. You will run several initiatives in parallel, know when to lean in technically on architecture, backend contracts, and platform UX, and when to focus on building, coaching, and scaling a healthy, high-performing team.

• Own the overall vision and execution for Kafka UI, Tableflow UI, and Governance UI — including, but not limited to, Data Portal, Governance-aware Kafka experiences, and Tableflow integrations in lineage and catalog — to deliver cohesive, intuitive user journeys for data engineers, platform operators, and governance stakeholders in Confluent Cloud.
• Work closely with product management, design, and TPMs to build and drive the roadmap for these experiences, enabling seamless adoption and operation of capabilities like stream governance, schema management, catalog search and discovery, and Tableflow, while balancing net‑new features with migrations, deprecations, and UX improvements.
• Partner with backend and platform teams (e.g., Kafka, Schema Registry, Data Catalog/RBAC, Search, Tableflow/Unified Storage, Observability) to define clear API contracts and sequencing, de‑risk cross-team dependencies, and ensure UI flows remain robust as services evolve (including upgrades to new APIs and retirement of deprecated ones).
• Raise the operational bar for this team by instilling solid execution practices — including effective retrospectives, clear ownership and accountability, and a predictable approach to managing capacity across “big rocks” and papercuts — while giving the team room to choose the day‑to‑day execution model that works best (e.g., sprints vs. Kanban).
• Build, grow, and lead a team of engineers working on cloud UI applications: hire and retain top talent, provide coaching and feedback, create structured onboarding in a complex domain (Kafka, governance, catalog, Tableflow), and develop engineers into senior technical and leadership roles.
• Lean in technically where it matters most — participating in design and architecture reviews, shaping cross-surface UX patterns with design, guiding decisions around performance and reliability, and unblocking the team when backend contracts, deprecations, or ambiguous requirements threaten delivery.

• Minimum of 8+ years of software development experience with 3+ years of engineering management experience, including leading teams that deliver complex, customer-facing cloud experiences.
• Strong experience with Kafka, data streaming platforms, or data governance/catalog products (e.g., Schema Registry, data catalogs, lineage, or table/warehouse integrations), and a track record of shipping features that sit on top of such systems.
• Technical expertise in large scale systems engineering or distributed systems, with hands-on experience building or integrating with cloud-native services (for example, APIs powering search, catalog, permissions/RBAC, governance workflows, or storage/table systems).
• A strong track record of driving execution across multiple concurrent initiatives — from net-new feature development (such as UX revamps, new workflows, and integrations) to operational work like API migrations, deprecation-driven changes, quality improvements, and papercuts — while maintaining clear priorities and predictable delivery.
• Demonstrated ability to influence and align cross-functional partners (product management, design,…