How a University Lecturer in China Became Conduktor's Head of Sales Engineering

Christoph Schubert is Conduktor's Head of Sales Engineering. His path here was unconventional: lecturing at Chinese universities, discovering Kafka at a small German SAP consultancy, getting hired by Confluent during a client meeting. Here's how it happened.

Life Outside Work

I live in the countryside near Bremen, Germany. I spend time outdoors, do photography, and serve as a volunteer firefighter.

Why I Moved to China to Teach

My girlfriend at the time was Chinese, and I wanted a new challenge. I ended up lecturing at three universities, primarily teaching software development. A dean suggested I explore big data because of my Java and mathematics background. I was skeptical at first, but teaching big data technologies and cloud computing pulled me in.

My First Real Kafka Project

Back in Germany, I joined a small SAP consultancy that had won projects involving Kafka. I started with Spark programming, but Kafka quickly became the better fit for our use cases.

How a Client Meeting Turned Into a Job Offer

I never planned to stay in streaming. I just wanted to work with new technologies.

Then our client brought in a Confluent Solutions Architect to evaluate our Kafka implementation. After two hours, he offered me a job. Working for a Silicon Valley company had always seemed unreachable. That moment showed me I was actually good at this.

Moving from Professional Services to Sales Engineering

At Confluent, I started in professional services, helping customers implement Kafka. I found myself enjoying the sales side: scoping projects, understanding customer problems, demonstrating solutions. That pushed me toward sales engineering, despite having no formal experience in selling software.

Jean-Louis Boudart, whom I knew from Confluent, reached out about Conduktor. I wanted to leave professional services, where you're often fixing problems, and join a team building a product. Conduktor was the right fit.

What I Do at Conduktor

I showcase Conduktor's technical value to customers:

• Demo the platform and help customers see how it fits their architecture
• Guide customers through proofs of value: troubleshooting, advising, ensuring a smooth experience
• Collaborate with product, marketing, and customer success teams

My role has shifted toward coaching. I onboard new team members and formalize how we interact with customers. It's a transition from player to coach.

Why Conduktor Works

The collaboration and speed. At a larger company, customer feedback gets stuck in process. At Conduktor, we rally around a problem and solve it fast. That's what makes it exciting.

Advice for Aspiring Sales Engineers

• Jump in. Don't wait for perfect experience. Learn on the job.
• Develop empathy. Understanding customer pain points is the job.
• Ask the right questions. Customers don't always articulate their needs clearly. Read between the lines and map their challenges to solutions.
• Keep learning. The best sales engineers communicate value effectively, not just technical specs.

Cat or Dog?

I grew up with both. If forced to choose: cats.

We're always looking for people who like solving problems and shipping fast.

Explore our careers and find your next opportunity at Conduktor.