Senior Kafka Engineer

RESPONSIBILITIES:
Kforce has a client in Dallas, TX that is seeking a Senior Kafka Engineer.

Summary
We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Kafka Engineer to design, build, optimize, and support large-scale event-driven platforms leveraging Apache Kafka. This role will be responsible for architecting high-throughput, low-latency streaming solutions, ensuring reliable message delivery, optimizing platform performance, and enabling real-time data integration across enterprise systems. The ideal candidate has deep expertise in Kafka architecture, Java development, event streaming, and distributed systems.

Key Responsibilities:
* Design and implement scalable, fault-tolerant event-driven architectures using Apache Kafka and Confluent Platform
* Lead Kafka topic and partition strategy design, ensuring optimal performance, scalability, and message ordering requirements
* Develop and maintain producer and consumer applications using Java
* Configure and manage consumer groups, offset management, partition assignments, and rebalancing strategies
* Design and implement robust retry, dead-letter queue (DLQ), replay, and error-handling frameworks
* Establish and enforce schema governance using Schema Registry, including Avro and Protobuf serialization standards
* Build and support enterprise event-routing and streaming data-plane solutions that facilitate reliable real-time data movement across systems
* Administer and secure Kafka environments through ACL management, authentication, and authorization controls
* Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Kafka clusters, including performance tuning, throughput optimization, and consumer lag reduction
* Collaborate with application, infrastructure, and data engineering teams to define enterprise event streaming standards and best practices
* Support production environments, investigate incidents, and implement proactive monitoring and observability solutions

REQUIREMENTS:
* 7+ years of software engineering experience with at least 4+ years focused on Apache Kafka
* Expert-level knowledge of Kafka architecture, including brokers, topics, partitions, replication, consumer groups, and message delivery semantics
* Hands-on experience with Confluent Platform (preferred)
* Strong experience designing and implementing event-driven and streaming architectures
* Advanced proficiency in Java development
* Experience with Schema Registry, Avro, and Protobuf
* Deep understanding of message ordering, partitioning strategies, replay mechanisms, and DLQ patterns
* Experience implementing and managing Kafka security, including ACLs, authentication, and authorization
* Strong troubleshooting and performance tuning skills, including consumer lag analysis and optimization
* Experience working with distributed systems in cloud or hybrid enterprise environments
* Strong understanding of high-availability and disaster recovery patterns for streaming platforms

Preferred Qualifications:
* Confluent Certified Developer or Administrator certification
* Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform)
* Familiarity with Kafka Connect, ksqlDB, MirrorMaker, and stream processing frameworks
* Experience with observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, or Datadog
* Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible, etc.)

Technical Skills:
* Apache Kafka
* Confluent Platform
* Java
* Schema Registry
* Avro/Protobuf
* Kafka ACLs
* Consumer Groups
* Topic & Partition Design
* DLQ/Retry/Replay Patterns
* Event-Driven Architecture
* Streaming Data Platforms
* Performance Tuning & Consumer Lag Optimization
* Distributed Systems
* Kubernetes/Cloud Platforms (preferred)

The pay range is the lowest to highest compensation we reasonably in good faith believe we would pay at posting for this role. We may ultimately pay more or less than this range. Employee pay is based on factors like relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, location, performance, union contract and business needs. This range may be modified in the future.

We offer comprehensive benefits including medical/dental/vision insurance, HSA, FSA, 401(k), and life, disability & ADD insurance to eligible employees. Salaried personnel receive paid time off. Hourly employees are not eligible for paid time off unless required by law. Hourly employees on a Service Contract Act project are eligible for paid sick leave.

Note: Pay is not considered compensation until it is earned, vested and determinable. The amount and availability of any compensation remains in Kforce's sole discretion unless and until paid and may be modified in its discretion consistent with the law.

This job is not eligible for bonuses, incentives or commissions.

Kforce is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status.

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