Senior Kafka Platform Engineer [AQ-19287]

On‑site role in Austin. Pay Range: $72/hr – $80/hr

About the role

Aquent is partnering with a leading organization at the forefront of financial services innovation. The company empowers its clients through robust, scalable technology solutions and is seeking a visionary Senior Kafka Platform Engineer to design, implement, and optimize high‑performance data streaming architectures that power critical operations. This role will influence the reliability, security, and scalability of foundational platforms, leverage cutting‑edge AI tools, and drive transformative solutions that enhance engineering efficiency and customer experience.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement secure Kafka architectures, including authentication, authorization, encryption, and network isolation.
• Define and support high availability, disaster recovery, and data replication strategies for critical systems.
• Ensure alignment with enterprise security, compliance, and governance standards for all data streaming solutions.
• Advise on optimal data ingestion, event streaming, batch, and stream processing architectures.
• Provide expert guidance on data modeling and serialization standards (Avro, Protobuf, JSON Schema).
• Support enterprise integration use cases and resolve complex Kafka‑related integration challenges.
• Design and build AI agents, custom skills, or equivalent frameworks to automate engineering and operational workflows at scale.
• Leverage AI‑powered tools (e.g., Copilot, AI agents) to accelerate development, automate testing, improve code quality, and enable intelligent SDLC workflows.
• Design agentic workflows and multi‑agent orchestration patterns to solve complex distributed systems, integration, and operational challenges.
• Drive automation‑first operations using Python, Ansible, and scripting to enhance efficiency.
• Build and maintain self‑service operational tools to significantly reduce day‑to‑day support overhead.
• Integrate Kafka platform operations with robust DevOps and CI/CD tooling (e.g., Azure, Jenkins, Puppet, Chef).
• Lead deep‑dive investigations into complex production issues and outages, performing root cause analysis.
• Document findings and drive remediation efforts to successful closure, operating effectively in high‑pressure incident management scenarios.
• Act as a trusted technical advisor to engineering, operations, and leadership teams.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly and effectively to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Demonstrate strong customer focus, ownership, and collaborative engagement.
• Collaborate effectively with cross‑functional teams and external vendors to achieve project goals.

Must‑Have Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in distributed systems, messaging, and enterprise platform engineering.
• Extensive hands‑on experience with Confluent Kafka Platform, covering both on‑premise and cloud deployments.
• Proven experience leveraging AI‑powered tools and building AI‑driven agents to accelerate development and improve team productivity and efficiency.
• Strong background in Linux/Unix environments, including expertise in networking, OS performance, and security.
• Demonstrated experience with automation, DevOps practices, and operational tooling.
• Strong hands‑on experience with GitHub Copilot and other AI‑assisted development tools, including advanced prompt engineering and workflow integration.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts.
• Strong organizational, relationship management, and teamwork skills.

Nice‑to‑Have Qualifications

• Confluent Kafka and/or Cloud certifications.
• Prior experience supporting large‑scale, regulated enterprise environments.

About Aquent Talent

Aquent Talent connects top talent in marketing, creative, and design with the world’s biggest brands. Eligible talent receive benefits such as subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match. Aquent is an equal‑opportunity employer that values diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, fostering an inclusive environment where everyone can grow their careers and thrive.