Staff Data Streaming Systems Engineer - On-Prem Kafka Lead

The Walt Disney Company; Emeryville (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 233,000; Full time

Job summary

Pixar in Emeryville seeks a Staff Systems Engineer to join the Data Systems Engineering team. You will own Kafka infrastructure operations, migrate components to on-prem management, and collaborate with production and engineering teams to align data services with studio goals.

You’ll lead large projects, mentor teammates, and help shape the strategic direction of Pixar’s data systems while delivering reliable, scalable data services for filmmaking pipelines.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience maintaining mission-critical Linux services.
• Expertise administering Kafka or similar data streaming systems.
• Scripting skills in Python or shell for automation.
• Strong Linux engineering with IaC (Ansible, Puppet, Terraform).
• Collaborative mindset with mentoring ability.
• Problem solving and willingness to tackle cross-domain issues.
• Ability to lead large projects to completion.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.

Responsibilities

• Create and implement a strategy to migrate Kafka infrastructure on-prem and manage ongoing operations.
• Support filmmaking pipelines by managing asset version control (Perforce).
• Collaborate with production and engineering teams to shape data streaming strategy.
• Provide first-rate service and maintain a supportive team environment.
• Coordinate machine configuration, security, and patching policies with other Teams.
• Troubleshoot complex Linux issues and participate in on-call rotation.

Skills

Linux administration

Kafka admin

Scripting (Python/Shell)

Infrastructure as Code

Mentoring

Problem solving

Project leadership

Communication

Tools

Elasticsearch

Splunk

Oracle DB

Perforce P4

Job description

Pixar in Emeryville seeks a Staff Systems Engineer to join the Data Systems Engineering team. You will own Kafka infrastructure operations, migrate components to on-prem management, and collaborate with production and engineering teams to align data services with studio goals.

You’ll lead large projects, mentor teammates, and help shape the strategic direction of Pixar’s data systems while delivering reliable, scalable data services for filmmaking pipelines.