Kafka Platform Engineer for AI Agents & Automation (Austin)

Spectraforce; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 96,000 - 103,000; Full time

Job summary

Spectraforce is seeking a senior specialist for on-site engagement in Austin, TX for a 12-month duration. The role emphasizes distributed systems, Confluent Kafka, and AI-driven development practices to accelerate engineering workflows.

Expect collaboration with cross-functional teams and adherence to security and governance standards. The position requires extensive Kafka expertise, Linux proficiency, and a strong DevOps/automation background with experience in AI-powered tooling.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in distributed systems, messaging, and enterprise platform engineering.
• Extensive hands-on experience with Confluent Kafka Platform (on prem and cloud).
• Strong Linux/Unix, networking, OS performance and security background.
• Experience with automation, DevOps, and operational tooling.
• Experience leveraging AI-powered tools to accelerate development and improve productivity.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; strong organizational and teamwork skills.
• Confluent Kafka and/or Cloud certifications preferred.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement secure Kafka architectures, including authentication, authorization, encryption, and network isolation.
• Define and support HA, DR, and data replication strategies.
• Ensure alignment with security, compliance, and governance standards.
• Data Streaming & Integration: advise on ingestion and batch/stream processing.
• Support data modeling and serialization standards (Avro, Protobuf, JSON Schema).
• Lead incident management and root cause analysis for production issues.
• Act as trusted technical advisor to engineering, operations, and leadership.

Skills

Distributed systems

Technical advisory

Communication

Teamwork

Tools

Confluent Kafka Platform

Linux/Unix

Azure

Jenkins

Puppet

Chef

Job description

Spectraforce is seeking a senior specialist for on-site engagement in Austin, TX for a 12-month duration. The role emphasizes distributed systems, Confluent Kafka, and AI-driven development practices to accelerate engineering workflows.

Expect collaboration with cross-functional teams and adherence to security and governance standards. The position requires extensive Kafka expertise, Linux proficiency, and a strong DevOps/automation background with experience in AI-powered tooling.