Kafka Engineer

Job Summary

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.

Key Responsibilities

• 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, applying disciplined engineering practices and partnering closely with stakeholders to ensure outcomes are durable, well-documented, and aligned with broader team and platform standards.
• Mentor and coach junior and mid-level engineers through code review, design review, pair programming, and structured knowledge sharing, helping the broader team grow in technical maturity and confidence over time.
• Maintain comprehensive, current technical documentation — including architecture diagrams, design decisions, configuration references, runbooks, and operational procedures — so that the system remains supportable, auditable, and easy to onboard new engineers onto over time.
• Continuously evaluate emerging streaming technologies (Pulsar, Redpanda, AWS MSK, Azure Event Hubs).

Requirements

• 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.
• Confluent Certified Administrator or Developer credentials.
• Experience operating Kafka on Kubernetes (Strimzi, Confluent Operator).
• Exposure to managed Kafka services (AWS MSK, Azure Event Hubs Kafka API).
• Experience with data governance and lineage for streaming data.

Qualifications

• Experience with stream processing frameworks (Flink, Spark Streaming).

Skills

• Knowledge of Apache Kafka and Confluent Platform.
• Experience with security features such as SASL, mTLS, ACLs, RBAC.
• Hands-on experience with Kafka Connect, Schema Registry, and Kafka Streams.
• Experience with HA/DR strategies for Kafka.
• Strong scripting skills in Python, Bash, or Go.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, Ansible).
• Working knowledge of observability tools for Kafka.
• Ability to troubleshoot and document complex systems.
• Experience with data governance and lineage for streaming data.

Benefits

Competitive base salary commensurate with experience, plus benefits.

Pay

$100K - $150K

Schedule

Full-time, direct W2 with Bright Vision Technologies (no C2C, no 1099, no third-party)

Employment Terms & Visa Policy

This is a 100% remote, full-time, direct W2 position with Bright Vision Technologies. This role is part of Bright Vision Technologies’ in-house Statement of Work (SOW) engagement. The client, end customer, and employer for this position is Bright Vision Technologies — there is no third-party client, vendor, or implementation partner involved. We do not engage in C2C, 1099, or third-party arrangements for this role. Candidates must be willing to work directly as a full-time W2 employee of Bright Vision Technologies and contribute to our in-house SOW deliverables. No new H1B sponsorship is available for this role. However, candidates who are currently on a valid H1B visa and require a transfer are welcome to apply. We will support H1B transfers for qualified candidates.

How to Apply

Would you like to know more about this opportunity? For immediate consideration, please send your resume to [email protected]