Remote Real-Time Data Engineer | Kafka & Databricks

Central Strategies, LLC; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Central Strategies, LLC is seeking a skilled Data Engineer to design, build, and maintain robust data pipelines enabling near real‑time data analytics. You will work on streaming architectures, ETL/ELT workflows, and collaborate with data scientists and cloud engineers to ensure data quality and performance.

The role emphasizes hands‑on development with Apache Kafka and Databricks, plus Python/SQL proficiency and AWS familiarity.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or related field (or equivalent hands‑on experience).
• 3+ years of professional experience in data engineering.
• Hands‑on experience with Apache Kafka (Confluent, MSK, Red Panda, or similar) for event streaming.
• Experience with Databricks for large‑scale data ingestion, transformation, and analytics integration.
• Strong programming skills in Python, with solid SQL experience for data modeling and transformations.
• Understanding of data lakehouse architectures, Delta tables, and distributed processing performance tuning.
• Familiarity with AWS services.
• Excellent problem‑solving, analytical, and communication skills.
• Certifications in Databricks and Apache Kafka are a plus.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain real‑time and batch data pipelines integrating diverse data sources.
• Develop and optimize ETL/ELT workflows for ingestion, transformation, and delivery of structured and unstructured data.
• Collaborate with data scientists, analysts, and cloud engineers to define schemas, data quality standards, and performance baselines.
• Monitor, troubleshoot, and tune data pipelines for performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Maintain detailed documentation of data pipelines, transformations, and dependencies.
• Stay up to date with evolving the Apache data ecosystem and emerging best practices in data engineering.

Skills

Kafka

Databricks

Python

SQL

AWS

ETL/ELT

Streaming

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Data Eng or related

Tools

Databricks

Apache Kafka

AWS

Job description

Central Strategies, LLC is seeking a skilled Data Engineer to design, build, and maintain robust data pipelines enabling near real‑time data analytics. You will work on streaming architectures, ETL/ELT workflows, and collaborate with data scientists and cloud engineers to ensure data quality and performance.

The role emphasizes hands‑on development with Apache Kafka and Databricks, plus Python/SQL proficiency and AWS familiarity.