Senior Software Engineer

Eliassen Group; Concord (CA); Hybrid; USD 124,000 - 166,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision benefits

401k with company matching

Life insurance

Job summary

Eliassen Group is seeking a Sr Software Engineer to lead and modernize enterprise Kafka streaming platforms from Concord, CA (hybrid) with onsite support in Charlotte, NC or Dallas, TX. You will design, implement, and optimize complex Kafka-based services, mentor teams, and drive production readiness across multiple environments.

Hybrid role requiring hands-on development and strong operational leadership, including incident response and observability improvements.

Qualifications

• 5+ years deploying on Kubernetes-based platforms (OpenShift preferred).
• 3+ years hands-on Apache Kafka, with Confluent exposure.
• 7+ years Linux/Unix servers support.
• 3+ years using CI/CD tools: Ansible, Git, Jenkins, Harness.
• 7+ years Software Engineering experience or equivalent.
• Kafka cluster operations, upgrades, capacity planning, troubleshooting.
• Familiarity with Kafka security (auth, authz, encryption).
• 2+ years supporting cloud migration initiatives.
• Observability experience with ELK, Splunk, AppDynamics, Grafana.
• Bonus: experience supporting Flink platforms.

Responsibilities

• Lead and support Kafka-related initiatives with enterprise impact and multiple teams.
• Define and evolve standards, best practices, and operational patterns for Kafka.
• Design, develop, test, and document software for Kafka tooling and integrations.
• Provide hands-on engineering for Kafka platforms, including incident response and RCA.
• Design, build, and maintain APIs for Kafka provisioning and config management.
• Automate deployments with CI/CD tooling for safe, auditable releases.
• Influence Kafka platform architecture and operational models.
• Collaborate with developers, SREs, and infrastructure to resolve issues.
• Advance observability with logging, metrics, dashboards, and alerts.
• Lead projects, mentor engineers, and contribute to knowledge sharing.

Tools

Kubernetes

OpenShift

Apache Kafka

Confluent Kafka

CI/CD

Ansible

Git

Jenkins

Harness

ELK

Splunk

AppDynamics

Grafana

Cloud migration

Flink (bonus)

Job description

Description

Hybrid 3 days onsite in either Concord, CA or Charlotte, NC or Dallas, TX. Our client is seeking a Sr Software Engineer to support, enhance, and modernize its enterprise Kafka streaming platforms. This role combines technical expertise with hands-on engineering and operational leadership to ensure available, scalable, and observable event streaming services. The Lead Software Engineer will maintain platform stability, guide Kafka adoption patterns, and support application teams through design, onboarding, and production readiness. The role requires urgency, operational rigor, and the ability to influence best practices across the organization. Preference exists for candidates with Kafka on OpenShift or Kubernetes, experience migrating from legacy VM-based Kafka, and future-state Confluent Kafka exposure. The role supports the Kafka platform used by application teams. Experience supporting Flink platforms is a plus.

Due to client requirements, applicants must be willing and able to work on a w2 basis. For our w2 consultants, we offer a great benefits package that includes Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits, 401k with company matching, and life insurance.

Rate: $60.00 to $80.00/hr. w2

JN -062026-107563

Responsibilities

• Lead and support complex Kafka-related initiatives with enterprise impact and multi-team dependencies.
• Define and evolve standards, best practices, and operational patterns for Kafka-based streaming solutions.
• Design, develop, test, debug, and document software and platform components that support Kafka infrastructure, tooling, and integrations.
• Provide hands-on engineering and support for Kafka platforms, including incident response, root cause analysis, and remediation.
• Design, build, and maintain APIs and services for Kafka provisioning, monitoring, configuration management, and client integration.
• Implement CI/CD automation for Kafka platform services and tooling for safe and auditable deployments.
• Influence Kafka platform architecture, operational models, and support processes using industry best practices.
• Collaborate with application developers, SREs, infrastructure teams, and senior stakeholders to resolve complex Kafka issues.
• Advance observability through logging, metrics, dashboards, and alerting strategies.
• Lead projects, mentor engineers, and contribute to knowledge sharing and operational maturity.

Experience Requirements

• 5+ years deploying and supporting software on Kubernetes-based platforms, preferably OpenShift.
• 3+ years of hands-on experience supporting Apache Kafka, with preference for Kubernetes-based operations and Confluent Kafka exposure.
• 7+ years of support experience on Linux or Unix servers.
• 3+ years using CI/CD tools such as Ansible, Git, Jenkins, or Harness.
• 7+ years of Software Engineering experience or equivalent through work, training, military experience, or education.
• Kafka cluster operations, upgrades, capacity planning, and performance troubleshooting.
• Familiarity with Kafka security including authentication, authorization, and encryption.
• 3+ years with observability tools such as ELK, Splunk, AppDynamics, or Grafana.
• 2+ years supporting or contributing to cloud migration initiatives.
• Experience leveraging automation to improve Kafka support efficiency and reduce operational risk.
• Bonus: Experience supporting Flink platforms.