Kafka Engineer

Bright Vision Technologies; Aurora (IL); Remote; USD 82,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Bright Vision Technologies seeks a Kafka Engineer to architect, deploy, and operate large-scale Kafka and Confluent environments for mission-critical workloads. You’ll own sizing, config, security, automation, and observability, enabling developers with a reliable streaming platform.

The ideal candidate has deep Kafka internals knowledge and strong DevOps/SRE practices, plus collaboration with cross-functional teams to translate ambiguous requirements into robust solutions.

Qualifications

• 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 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.

Responsibilities

• Architect, deploy, and operate large-scale Apache Kafka and Confluent platform environments.
• Own the Kafka platform end-to-end: cluster sizing, configuration, security, automation, observability, and developer enablement.
• Collaborate with product, design, engineering, operations, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into solutions.
• Mentor engineers and raise the bar through code and design reviews.

Skills

Kafka in production

SRE practices

Troubleshooting

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Kafka Connect

Schema Registry

Job description

Kafka Engineer – Remote

Bright Vision Technologies is a technology consulting and software development company delivering cloud, AI, data, and enterprise solutions across the United States.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join an established and well-respected organization offering tremendous career growth potential.

Job Title:

Kafka Engineer

Location:

100% Remote (U.S.)

Position Type:

Full-time, Direct W2

Salary Range:

$82,000–$100,000 Annually

Experience Required:

7+ years

Sponsorship:

U.S. Citizens, Green Card Holders, EAD Holders, and H-1B transfer candidates are encouraged to apply. We are unable to sponsor new H-1B visa petitions for this position.

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. In this role you will own the Kafka platform end-to-end, including cluster sizing, configuration, security, automation, observability, and developer enablement. The ideal candidate will combine deep Kafka internals knowledge with strong DevOps and SRE practices, and will partner with application teams to deliver a reliable, performant, and developer-friendly streaming platform. In this role you will work closely with cross-functional partners — product, design, engineering, operations, and business stakeholders — to translate ambiguous requirements into well-engineered solutions, and will be expected to raise the bar through code review, design review, and mentorship of more junior engineers. The successful candidate brings strong engineering discipline, a clear communication style, and a track record of shipping meaningful work that holds up well in production.

Required Qualifications

• 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.

Preferred Qualifications

• 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).
• Familiarity with stream processing frameworks (Flink, Spark Streaming).
• Experience with data governance and lineage for streaming data.

Bright Vision Technologies is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Statement

Bright Vision Technologies (BV Teck) is committed to equal employment opportunity (EEO) for all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, veteran status, or any other protected status as defined by applicable federal, state, or local laws. This commitment extends to all aspects of employment, including recruitment, hiring, training, compensation, promotion, transfer, leaves of absence, termination, layoffs, and recall.

BV Teck expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment or discrimination. Any improper interference with employees' ability to perform their job duties may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.