Kafka Engineer

Role Description

We are seeking an experienced Kafka Engineer to architect, deploy, and operate large-scale Apache Kafka and Confluent platform environments supporting mission-critical event-driven workloads. In this role you will own the Kafka platform end-to-end, including:

• Cluster sizing
• Configuration
• Security
• Automation
• Observability
• Developer enablement

The ideal candidate will combine deep Kafka internals knowledge with strong DevOps and SRE practices, and will partner with application teams to deliver a reliable, performant, and developer-friendly streaming platform. You will work closely with cross-functional partners — product, design, engineering, operations, and business stakeholders — to translate ambiguous requirements into well-engineered solutions, and will be expected to raise the bar through code review, design review, and mentorship of more junior engineers. The successful candidate brings strong engineering discipline, a clear communication style, and a track record of shipping meaningful work that holds up well in production.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Five or more years of experience operating Apache Kafka or Confluent Platform in production.
• Deep, hands-on knowledge of Kafka internals (partitions, replication, ISRs, consumer groups).
• Strong experience with Kafka security (SASL, mTLS, ACLs, RBAC).
• Hands-on experience with Kafka Connect, Schema Registry, and either Kafka Streams or ksqlDB.
• Experience with HA/DR strategies for Kafka.
• Strong scripting skills in Python, Bash, or Go.
• Hands-on experience with infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Ansible).
• Working knowledge of observability tooling for Kafka.
• Excellent troubleshooting, communication, and documentation skills.

Requirements

• Architect, deploy, and operate large-scale Apache Kafka or Confluent Platform clusters across on-prem and cloud environments.
• Design partitioning, replication, and topic strategies that balance throughput, durability, and operational simplicity.
• Implement strong security on Kafka clusters using SASL, mTLS, ACLs, RBAC, and integration with corporate IdPs.
• Operate Schema Registry, Kafka Connect, KSQL/ksqlDB, and Kafka Streams in production.
• Build and operate Kafka Connect pipelines integrating sources and sinks across enterprise systems.
• Design HA/DR strategies for Kafka, including MirrorMaker 2, Cluster Linking, and multi-region active-active patterns.
• Build CI/CD pipelines for Kafka topic, ACL, and connector configurations using GitOps patterns.
• Implement comprehensive observability using Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, or Confluent Control Center.
• Drive Kafka cost and capacity optimization through right-sizing and storage tiering.
• Onboard application teams to Kafka with clear patterns, templates, and best practices.
• Lead incident response and post-incident reviews for streaming workloads.
• Mentor and coach junior and mid-level engineers through code review, design review, pair programming, and structured knowledge sharing.
• Maintain comprehensive, current technical documentation.
• Continuously evaluate emerging streaming technologies (Pulsar, Redpanda, AWS MSK, Azure Event Hubs).

Benefits

• Competitive base salary commensurate with experience, plus benefits.
• 100% remote, full-time, direct W2 position.
• Long-term, multi-year engagement aligned to the Bright Vision SOW delivery roadmap.

How to Apply

For immediate consideration, please send your resume to [email protected] or contact us at View phone number on remotive.com.