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.

About the Role:

Our Distinguished AI Strategist (DAIS) is an AI expert, experienced researcher or operator, and high-performing utility player who will investigate how data streaming can enable better business outcomes for AI-enabled applications. The DAIS will work with high agency and autonomy to develop a plan for how Confluent’s data streaming platform can enable our customers with AI-enabled applications by engaging with customers and studying the market landscape to educate and influence Confluent’s decision-makers. As our DAIS at Confluent, you will perform a technical yet cross-disciplinary role that involves the following key responsibilities:

What You Will Do:

• Research: The DAIS will spend a significant portion of their time on high-impact, long-term research investigations that take one quarter or more. They will examine how data streaming can integrate with existing AI technologies, patterns, and practices to deliver better outcomes and faster time-to-market for our customers using Confluent to build real-time applications. This will inform both R&D and GTM aspects of Confluent’s business.

• Engage with the Market. Represent Confluent with C-level executives at prospects and customers, media, and analysts to showcase data streaming’s role in enabling AI. Support our Customer and Product Advisory Boards to ensure that our products, marketing, and field enablement are of the highest quality and relevance to the market.

• Thought Leadership: Shape the industry thinking around Data Streaming applications in AI, focusing on Developers, Architects, CTOs, and Analysts through technical content and industry use cases demonstrating business value. Drive adoption of Confluent products by AI practitioners. Enable Confluent’s field to better connect with and serve our customers.

• Data Streaming Advocacy: Establish credibility for Confluent as an enabling capability for AI-enabled applications by collaborating with our solutions engineering team to develop and promote relevant technical patterns and reference architectures.

• Product Direction and Prototyping: Recommend notable changes in technology direction to Product/Engineering to integrate with existing AI technologies and workflows. Prototype early-stage ideas, explore the practicalities of different patterns, and formalize new implementation strategies. Contemplate new capabilities more than twelve months out from the current product roadmap.

• Competition and Technology Trends: Track AI-related technology trends affecting Confluent’s trajectory, analyze competitive threats from a technology perspective and look for opportunities.

What You Will Bring:

• Industry experience as a leader in either R&D or GTM for enterprise SaaS companies, well-versed in commercializing AI-enabled technologies. Alternatively, come with strong experience as an AI researcher with a PhD in Computer Science (or similar) and relevant, top-tier peer-reviewed publications.

• Ability to extract the important concepts and details from a complex technical domain, summarize, and articulate clearly and succinctly. Know when to dig deep.

• Ability to confidently influence deals with Confluent’s C-level and C-level customers.

• Experience creating novel content that reframes existing concepts in interesting ways.

• Excellent writing style with the ability to clearly explain complex concepts.

• Confident speaking style, spanning both technical and conceptual content.

• Experience in operating autonomously, delivering high-quality tasks on time and with minimal supervision.

• Proven software development or data science experience.

• Broad understanding of the technology space in general, distributed systems, and business. Data streaming experience is considered a huge plus.

Ready to build what's next? Let’s get in motion.

Come As You Are

Belonging isn’t a perk here. It’s the baseline. We work across time zones and backgrounds, knowing the best ideas come from different perspectives. And we make space for everyone to lead, grow, and challenge what’s possible.

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. Employment decisions are based on job-related criteria, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other classification protected by law.