Delivery Manager – Streaming & Integration (Confluent & Kafka)

Nion is an IT consultancy and Tech Partner with offices in Stockholm, Malmö, Gothenburg, Oslo and London, plus nearshore delivery in North Macedonia and Bulgaria, where 220+ IT specialists work together to deliver tailored digital solutions. Together with Middlecon, now part of Nion, we help large and mid-market organisations across the Nordics turn data into real business value. What we do spans Data, AI and Adoption. We bring open data and AI platforms such as the Nion AI Data Platform, deep IBM expertise through Middlecon in Db2, CDC and integration, a growing team of Kafka specialists, and AI-first Cloud Teams that run platforms for our clients. Real-time data is what ties it together — and that is exactly where this role sits. Why now IBM completed its acquisition of Confluent in March 2026, and the partner landscape is being redrawn. Confluent is being integrated with watsonx.data , IBM MQ, webMethods and IBM Z, and sold through IBM's channels. Nion has both sides: the IBM heritage through Middlecon and hands-on Kafka delivery, with streaming already in production for Nordic clients. We are a specialised Confluent partner in IBM Partner Plus, with license distribution through Arrow. Our ambition is to become the leading Nordic partner for IBM's open data stack — with Confluent at its centre. We have the partnerships, the customers and a strong base of Kafka specialists. What we need now is the person who turns this into a practice: one clear offering, one team and one reputation for streaming and integration in the Nordics. What the role is This is a business role for a technical expert: you own one competence area: data streaming and integration. That means the offering, the people, the delivery and the references, from first customer conversation to a platform running in production. The role starts at 20–30% practice leadership; the rest of your time you work as a billable lead architect with our clients. You report to the CTO or head of delivery, and you work side by side with our alliance manager. The split is simple: the alliance manager owns the partners and the deal flow with IBM, Confluent and Arrow; you own the competence and the delivery. We run two streaming tracks, and you lead both. The Confluent track serves large enterprises that run Confluent or need vendor support and SLAs — typically banks, telecom operators and public agencies with a large IBM MQ, Db2 or mainframe estate. The open track serves mid-market companies that want Apache Kafka without licences, built on the Nion AI Data Platform, on-prem or as a managed service. As an independent advisor, you help each client choose the right path — and we win the services work either way. What you'll do You own the practice from offering to delivered result, working across five areas: Offerings & reference architecture — owning the content, scope and pricing of our streaming offerings: fixed-price entry offerings such as ZooKeeper-to-KRaft migration and renewal reviews, implementation offerings such as Db2 and mainframe CDC into Confluent and MQ-to-Kafka bridges, and recurring services such as a Streaming Platform Team with SLA. You maintain the reference architecture we deliver against. Competence & team — recruiting, certifying and developing the team, growing it substantially over the next three years. You build career paths, convert our best network consultants into employees, upskill Middlecon's Db2/CDC specialists and our Java developers in Confluent, and lead a team that spans Sweden and our nearshore centres. Delivery quality & technical presales — being the technical authority in customer meetings and proposals, ensuring architecture reviews, escalation paths and consistent quality across every engagement, and turning delivered projects into referenceable cases. Public face of the practice — speaking at our Open Data Forum, Kafka meetups and partner events, writing and being visible in the Kafka community, so that Nion becomes the name Nordic clients and candidates think of for streaming. Practice performance — running the practice as a business together with the alliance manager: utilisation, pipeline of offerings, certifications and the economics of each engagement. Throughout, you translate between architecture and business value — what moving from batch to real-time, or from MQ to Kafka, actually means for the client's operations, cost and compliance. You are measured on utilisation, number of certified consultants, delivery quality and offerings sold. Your profile - Minimum 10 years in integration or data architecture, with a strong track record in large organisations - Minimum 5 years running Apache Kafka in production in enterprise environments — design, operation and troubleshooting at scale - Confluent certification, or the ability to achieve it within three months of starting - Experience leading consultants or technical teams — setting direction, developing people and owning quality - Proven customer-facing presales: you can scope, price and win an engagement, and then stand behind it in delivery - A clear understanding of event-driven architecture and how streaming fits alongside messaging, databases, lakehouses and AI - Based in Sweden, fluent in Swedish and English, written and spoken What this role is not This is not a CTO role. Our CTO owns the company's overall technology strategy and platforms such as the Nion AI Data Platform, Software Factory and AI. You own one area as a business and you stay hands-on enough to be the strongest streaming architect in the room. It is not a partner-management role either. Partner agreements, deal registration, co-marketing and the joint account plans with IBM and Confluent sit with our alliance manager; you make sure we can deliver what is sold, at the quality our clients expect. Technologies & areas you'll work with Streaming: Confluent Platform and Confluent Cloud, Apache Kafka, KRaft, Kafka Connect, Kafka Stre