We are looking for a Lead Confluent/Kafka Engineer for a contract-to-hire opportunity that is full-time and fully remote.

What You’ll Do

Architect and design scalable, fault-tolerant, and high-performance Kafka-based data streaming solutions
Lead technical design sessions and provide architectural guidance to junior engineers
Develop and maintain Confluent Platform components, including Kafka Connect, Kafka Streams, Flink, TableFlow and ksqlDB
Implement and manage monitoring and alerting systems for the Kafka cluster
Lead troubleshooting and resolution of complex issues within the data streaming platform
Perform root cause analysis and implement corrective actions to prevent future occurrences
Mentor and guide junior engineers
Collaborate with other engineering teams to integrate data streams into their applications
Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation for the data streaming platform
Provide technical leadership and guidance on best practices
Participate in code reviews and ensure adherence to coding standards and best practices
Proactively identify and address potential performance bottlenecks and scalability issues
Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives
Stay up to date on the latest Confluent Platform and Kafka technologies

What You’ll Need

Required:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. Master's degree preferred.
5+ years of experience with Confluent Platform and Kafka, including experience in designing and implementing large-scale data streaming solutions
Experience as a developer/operator of the Kafka technology (NOT interested in candidates who set up clusters for others to use)
Must have real-world experience setting up after Kafka real-time data streaming
Proficient in Java or other JVM languages (e.g., Scala, Kotlin)
Experience with Kafka Connect, Kafka Streams, and ksqlDB. Strong understanding of Kafka architecture and concepts (topics, partitions, consumers, producers)
Experience with message queuing systems
Familiarity with cloud-based environments (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Excellent problem-solving and debugging skills
Experience with CI/CD
Experience leading and mentoring engineering teams
Strong architectural skills
Experience with performance tuning and optimization
Experience with schema registries (e.g., Avro)
Ability to work independently and as part of a team
Excellent communication and collaboration skills

Preferred:

Physical Demands

Ability to safely and successfully perform the essential job functions consistent with the ADA and other federal, state, and local standards
Sedentary work that involves sitting or remaining stationary most of the time with occasional need to move around the office to attend meetings, etc.
Ability to conduct repetitive tasks on a computer, utilizing a mouse, keyboard, and monitor

Application Developer