Senior DevOps Engineer (all genders) | Data Platform

Kaufland e-commerce; United States; Remote; USD 80,000 - 112,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation package

Urban Sports Club

Mental Well-Being

30 days vacation

Pluxee vouchers

Deutschlandticket

Employee discount

OS choice (MacOS/Ubuntu)

Conferences & training

Job summary

Kaufland e-commerce sucht eine erfahrene Infrastruktur- bzw. Data-Engineer-Position zur Betreuung einer selbst gehosteten Kafka-Backbone, Debezium-Pipelines und Kubernetes-Workloads. Sie arbeiten eng mit Senior Data Engineers zusammen, gestalten Design-Reviews und treiben Multi-Quartal-Initiativen voran.

Einstieg über Remote/Deutschland; Flexible Standortwahl innerhalb Deutschlands. Sie bringen tiefgehende Praxis in Kafka, Kubernetes, IaC-Tools und SQL/Python mit, agieren kosteneffizient und

Qualifications

• Mehrjährige Erfahrung im Betrieb von Produktionsinfrastrukturen, inkl. On-Call- Rotation.
• Deep hands-on expertise in Apache Kafka-Broker-Betrieb, Cluster-Größe, Replikation, ISR-Verhalten und Upgrades.
• Erfahrung mit cross-system Datenreplikation in Produktion - ideal Debezium auf Kafka Connect oder BINLOG-/GTID-/WAL-gestützte Pipelines.
• Profi-Erfahrung mit Kubernetes, Ressourcenmanagement, Autoscaling und Debugging.
• Infrastructure as Code über mehrere Umgebungen (idealerweise Terraform/Ansible; Pulumi/Helm o. Ä. zählen ebenfalls) mit Least-Privilege IAM.
• Verwendung von Python und SQL im Produktionsumfeld; kostenbewusstes Abfragen, Volumen- und Datenreinigung.
• Schnelle Selbstorganisation in einem Kanban-Umfeld, Bereitschaft zur wöchentlichen Triageteilnahme.
• Optional: Interesse an OOP-Design, Data Modeling, BigQuery-Architektur, Orchestrierung (Airflow/Dagster), Stream-Processing (Beam/Flink/Spark) oder interner Automatisierung (n8n, AI-Triage-Bots).
• Englischkenntnisse auf C1-Niveau und Freude an internationalem Team.

Responsibilities

• Betreibung der self-hosted Apache Kafka-Backbone und Schema Registry von End-to-End; ACLs, Client Quotas, Zertifikate, Upgrades, Disaster Recovery.
• Betrieb von Debezium-basierten Change Data Capture-Pipelines; Connectoren, Snapshots, Offsets, Replikaslag, BigQuery-Sink Loader.
• Betrieb unserer Workloads auf Kubernetes; Navarch-Workflow-Orchestrator mit ca. 7.500 SQL- und Python-Aufgaben pro Tag; Ressourcenmanagement, Auto-Scaling und Debugging.
• Automatisierung und Ownership von Access-Management und Infrastructure as Code in unseren self-hosted GitLab CI/CD-Pipelines; Ticketing durch Code-gesteuerte Policies ersetzen.
• Verantwortung für Observability und Infrastrukturkosten – Datadog, Slack-Alerts, K8s, Kafka-Retention und Log-Volumen.
• Mitladung bei Triage in drei Wochen – Bearbeitung von Ingestions- und Zugriffsanfragen, Schema-Alerts, Unterstützung von Analysten; Automatisierungsschicht via AI gestützt.
• Sie arbeiten eng als Senior Sparringspartner neben zwei Senior Data Engineers – Design-Reviews und mehrmonatige Initiativen; Wachstumsraum in BigQuery-Architektur.
• Optional: Teilnahme an 24/7-Notfallrotation.

Skills

Kafka-Operationen

Kubernetes

Debezium

Terraform/Ansible

Cloud (GCP/AWS/Azure)

Python

SQL

On-Call-Erfahrung

Englisch (C1)

Tools

Kafka

Kafka Connect

Debezium

Kubernetes

Terraform

Ansible

Pulumi

Helm

GitLab CI/CD

Datadog

BigQuery

Job description

Anstellungsdetails

Permanent Contract, Full- or Part-Time, Remote or Cologne / Düsseldorf / Darmstadt / Berlin

Info

Who we are

We are the tech powerhouse behind Kaufland's international online marketplaces and a company within the Schwarz Group. Driven by a start-up mentality and working on an equal footing within flat hierarchies, we develop the best marketplace solutions for our customers, sellers and partners. #FromEuropeForEurope Day by day, our Tech & Product Team of about 400 experts pursues the goal of creating the best possible customer shopping experience for our online marketplace. Through innovative technical developments, they not only create an outstanding shopping experience but also lay the foundation for an optimal selling experience for our sellers. Learn more about our division, areas, and cross-functional teams here!

Aufgaben

Your tasks – this is what awaits you in detail

• You run and own our self-hosted Apache Kafka backbone and Schema Registry end-to-end, managing ACLs, client quotas, certificates, upgrades, and disaster recovery
• You operate our Debezium-based change data capture pipelines, overseeing connectors, snapshots, offsets, replica lag, and BigQuery sink loaders
• You run our workloads on Kubernetes, including Navarch - our self-built workflow orchestrator executing ~7,500 SQL and Python tasks daily - owning resource management, autoscaling, and debugging
• You automate and own access management and infrastructure as code across our self-hosted GitLab CI/CD pipelines, replacing manual tickets with code-driven policies
• You own observability and infra costs - Datadog across Kafka and sink loaders, Slack-native alerting, and maintaining an honest view of K8s, Kafka retention, and log volume expenses
• You carry your share of triage, one week in three - handling ingestion and access requests, schema alerts, and supporting analysts, while helping automate this layer via AI-assisted review
• You act as a senior sparring partner alongside two senior data engineers (reporting to the Head of Data & Analytics) - driving design reviews and multi-quarter initiatives, with room to grow into BigQuery architecture over time: access frameworks, partitioning and slot strategy, the pipelines and models on top
• Optional: You take part in our 24/7 on-call rotation

Profil

Your profile – this is what we expect from you

• You have several years of experience operating production infrastructure you were personally responsible for, including on-call rotation. You have run systems that broke, can explain what went wrong and how you permanently fixed it, and can detail a specific trade-off you navigated backed by concrete numbers
• You have deep hands-on expertise in Apache Kafka broker operations, including cluster sizing, partition rebalancing, replication, ISR behavior, and version upgrades
• You have operated cross-system data replication in production - ideally Debezium on Kafka Connect, or database replication via binlog, GTID, WAL, or agent-based pipelines
• You demonstrate strong production experience with Kubernetes, master resource management and autoscaling, and possess sharp debugging reflexes for complex failure modes
• You manage infrastructure and access as code across multiple environments (ideally Terraform and Ansible; Pulumi, Helm or serious configuration management also counts) following a strict least-privilege IAM approach across multiple environments, ideally with GCP experience or transferable AWS/Azure knowledge
• You use production-grade Python and SQL as practical tools, applying a cost-conscious mindset to query performance, scanning volume, and data pruning
• You thrive in a low-process, Kanban-driven environment where seniors self-organize, rotate weekly triage duties without micro-management, and prefer automating recurring requests over manually repeating them
• Optional:You bring skills or interest in object-oriented design, data modeling/dbt, BigQuery architecture, orchestration frameworks (Airflow, Dagster), stream processing (Beam, Flink, Spark), or internal automation (n8n, AI triage bots).
• You are fluent in English (C1 level) and enjoy working in an international team environment

Benefits

What we offer

• Create your own work-life balance: You have the flexibility to choose between working remotely (within Germany) or from one of our locations in Cologne, Darmstadt, Düsseldorf, or in Berlin!
• Do you want to move to Germany? No problem – we offer you an attractive relocation package to give you a smooth start.
• Urban Sports Club and RSG Group Fitness Studios:Get top deals for fitness, swimming, yoga andmore
• Mental Well-Being: We support you on your well-being journey with special offerings such as Instahelp, the digital platform for online psychological counseling
• Vacation & Sabbatical:Enjoy 30 days of vacation per year and the opportunity to take a sabbatical onceyou havebeen part of the team for a certainperiod!
• Option for Pluxee restaurant vouchers: Buy Pluxee vouchers through us and benefit from tax-advantaged meal allowances!
• 'Deutschlandticket':We subsidize your train season ticket for more mobility
• Employee Discount: You will receive a monthly coupon for Kaufland.de
• Free choice of operating system:MacOS or Ubuntu Linux,it'sup toyou
• Boost your growth:Benefit from our online language learning programs, diverse in-house training, and our automated 360-degree feedback. We cover the costsfor relevant conferences, training opportunities, and approved team workshops to strengthen personalinteractions
• This is who we are: Our dynamic culture combines flat hierarchies, a start-up mentality, an international team of over 65 nationalities, and the strength of the Schwarz Group to provide you an agile and secure working environment.
• We are team players: From day one, you will connect not only with your team but also with others through our digital onboarding journey, the buddy program, and regular team and company events, all-hands meetings, powerful mornings, and much more!

Check out our Principles and our blog for even more insights into our company culture!

Bewerben

Diversity at Kaufland e-commerce

We welcome applications from everyone, regardless of skin colour, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, ethnic origin, religion and ideology. We are signatories to the Charta der Vielfalt (German Diversity Charter) - because we know that extraordinary things can only be achieved with diversity. Read more here!

Kaufland e-commerce Services GmbH & Co. KG

Postal address:

Habsburgerring 2

50674 Köln

Ansprechpartner

Your contact person: Kristina Heymann