Pros
Confluent embodies the modern, transparent, open-source startup. It is fast-paced, collaborative, distributed, and the executive leadership is tuned into the needs of the modern engineer (since they are all modern engineers themselves)
- The brand is super strong and sales are good. Competition is fierce in this space but being the company behind Kafka really helps
- Above average compensation for a startup
- The code quality is exceptional and the infrastructure and tooling are right up there with the best and continuously improving
- Cutting-edge technology and ideas
- Team members are all experienced in this space and willing to put in the work needed to get stuff done
- Comfortable office in a great location (right next to the train station in Palo Alto)
- Remote employees considered well - (sympathetic work-from-home days, all meetings and meeting rooms have video conferencing equipment, etc)
- Product offering is very forward-thinking
Cons
- There are a lot of discussions about product direction that involve so many people (because of the aforementioned transparency) that it could be considered distracting. This is only a con if you're the type of person that would rather not be involved in higher-level strategy though - for someone who wants this it's just another positive.
- Being so distributed plus growing so quickly means there are the occasional logistic problems here and there.