Lead Kafka Developer

System One, Inc.; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 117,000 - 193,000; Part time

Job summary

System One, Inc. in Pittsburgh is seeking a Lead Kafka Developer to design and implement streaming architectures and data pipelines using Apache Kafka.

This contract role is onsite with 40-hour weeks and requires strong production Kafka experience. You will lead engineering efforts, mentor teammates, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure reliability, scalability, and security of event-driven solutions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• Extensive experience engineering with Kafka in production.
• Proficient in Apache Kafka producers, consumers, streams, and connectors.
• Strong knowledge of distributed systems and event-driven architecture.
• Experience with Schema Registry and performance tuning.
• Excellent communication and leadership abilities to mentor teams.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop Kafka-based streaming architectures and data pipelines.
• Manage Kafka cluster setup, configuration, tuning, monitoring, and upgrades.
• Define standards for topic design, schema management, security, and reliability.
• Collaborate with platform, application, and data engineering teams.
• Troubleshoot production issues and perform root-cause analysis.
• Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and code reviews.
• Support enterprise event-driven solutions and scalable messaging systems.

Skills

Kafka

Java/Scala

Distributed Systems

Event-Driven Architecture

Kafka Monitoring

Schema Registry

Leadership & Mentoring

Production Support

Education

Bachelor’s Degree

Job description

Job Title: Lead Kafka Developer – Software Engineer Lead
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Type: Contract
Compensation:
Contractor Work Model: Onsite – onsite
Hours: 40.0

Responsibilities

• Design and develop Kafka-based streaming architectures and data pipelines.
• Manage Kafka cluster setup, configuration, tuning, monitoring, and upgrades.
• Define standards for topic design, schema management, security, and reliability.
• Collaborate with platform, application, and data engineering teams.
• Troubleshoot complex production issues and perform root-cause analysis.
• Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and code reviews for developers.
• Support enterprise event-driven solutions and scalable messaging systems.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience
• Strong enterprise Kafka engineering experience
• Experience operating Kafka in production environments
• Deep expertise in distributed systems, event-driven architecture, Kafka operations, and high-throughput data streaming solutions
• Proficiency with Apache Kafka (Producers, Consumers, Streams, Connectors)
• Kafka Production Support & Administration
• Java and/or Scala (Python is a plus)
• Distributed Systems & Messaging Architectures
• Event-Driven Architecture
• Kafka Monitoring & Performance Optimization
• Schema Registry Experience
• Soft Skills: Excellent verbal and written communication, strong leadership and collaboration abilities, problem-solving and troubleshooting expertise, ability to mentor and guide engineering teams

System One, and its subsidiaries including Joulé and Mountain Ltd., are leaders in delivering outsourced services and workforce solutions across North America. We help clients get work done more efficiently and economically, without compromising quality. System One not only serves as a valued partner for our clients, but we offer eligible employees health and welfare benefits coverage options including medical, dental, vision, spending accounts, life insurance, voluntary plans, as well as participation in a 401(k) plan.

System One is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, family care or medical leave status, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.