Kafka Platform Engineer

Kafka Platform Engineer
Irvine, CA (Hybrid)
Full-Time
JPC - 19722

Solugenix is assisting a client, a prestigious and large investment management company, in their search for a Kafka Platform Engineer. This is a full-time opportunity based out of Irvine, CA (Hybrid).

We are seeking a Senior Kafka Engineer to manage, enhance, and scale an enterprise-grade Apache Kafka implementation deployed on AWS and the Confluent Platform. This person will be responsible for keeping the system reliable, improving it over time, and expanding it to support new applications.

This role involves performing detailed architectural reviews, monitoring, performance tuning, optimizing existing Kafka pipelines, and partnering with application teams to deliver reliable, secure, and performant streaming solutions in a FinTech environment.

Qualifications:

• 8+ years in platform engineering with 3+ years of hands-on experience with Apache Kafka.
• Proficiency in Kafka client development using Java or Python.
• Expertise with Confluent Platform (Brokers, Schema Registry, Control Center, ksqlDB).
• Experience deploying and managing Kafka on AWS (including MSK or self-managed EC2-based setups).
• Solid understanding of Kubernetes, especially EKS, for microservices integration.
• Hands-on experience with Kafka Connect, Kafka Streams, and schema management.
• Infrastructure automation experience with Terraform and Helm.
• Familiarity with monitoring and alerting stacks: Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, or similar.

• Prior experience in the FinTech domain or other regulated industries.
• Understanding of security best practices, including TLS, authentication (SASL, OAuth), RBAC, and encryption at rest.
• Exposure to Apache Flink, Spark Streaming, or other stream processing engines.
• Experience establishing Kafka governance frameworks and multi-tenant topic strategies.
• Must Have & Desired Skills: Confluent Kafka, Terraform, Kubernetes, EKS.
• Nice to have Kafka Certification.

• Manage and enhance existing Apache Kafka and Confluent Platform on AWS.
• Review existing implementations and recommend improvements.
• Collaborate with engineering and product teams to integrate new use cases and define scalable streaming patterns.
• Implement and maintain Kafka producers/consumers, Connectors, and Kafka Streams applications.
• Enforce governance around topic design, schema evolution, partitioning, and data retention.
• Monitor, troubleshoot, and tune Kafka clusters using Confluent Control Center, Prometheus, and Grafana.
• Use Kubernetes and Terraform to automate Kafka infrastructure deployment and scaling.
• Ensure high availability, security and disaster recovery.
• Mentor other engineers and provide leadership in Kafka-related initiatives.

Pay Range for CA, CO, IL, NJ, NY, WA, and DC: $75/hour to $90/hour. Starting rate of pay offered may vary depending on factors including but not limited to, position offered, location, education, training, and/or experience.

Solugenix will consider qualified applicants with a criminal history pursuant to the California Fair Chance Act and Ordinance. Applicants do not need to disclose their criminal history or participate in a background check until a conditional job offer is made to you. After making a conditional offer and running a background check, if we are concerned about conviction that is directly related to the job, applicants will be given the chance to explain the circumstances surrounding the conviction, provide mitigating evidence, or challenge the accuracy of the background report.

About the Client
Our client is an American financial services company. It ranks among the world's oldest and largest investment management organizations. They have offices globally.

About Solugenix
Solugenix is a leader in IT services, delivering cutting-edge technology solutions, exceptional talent, and managed services to global enterprises. With extensive expertise in highly regulated and complex industries, we are a trusted partner for integrating advanced technologies with streamlined processes. Our solutions drive growth, foster innovation, and ensure compliance-providing clients with reliability and a strong competitive edge.
Recognized as a 2024 Top Workplace, Solugenix is proud of its inclusive culture and unwavering commitment to excellence. Our recent expansion, with new offices in the Dominican Republic, Jakarta, and the Philippines, underscores our growing global presence and ability to offer world-class technology solutions. Partnering with Solugenix means more than just business-it means having a dedicated ally focused on your success in today's fast-evolving digital world.