Staff Engineer – PaaS Messaging/Kafka (Remote)

GEICO; Chevy Chase (MD); Remote; USD 105,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Staff Engineer to join a dynamic PaaS Messaging team. This role focuses on building high-performance, low-maintenance platforms while driving the transformation of the insurance business. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in open-source messaging and event streaming technologies like Kafka and Pulsar. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to innovate and enhance systems, ensuring quality and performance. This position offers a unique opportunity to influence engineering direction and mentor fellow engineers, all within a culture that values psychological safety and continuous improvement.

Benefits

401K savings plan with 6% match

Tuition assistance

Mental healthcare benefits

Fertility and adoption assistance

Remote work flexibility

Employee engagement programs

Recognition programs

Comprehensive Total Rewards program

Qualifications

• Deep hands-on experience in complex system design and data pipelines.
• Fluent in OOP languages like Java, Go, Python, or C++.
• Experience building Kafka Connectors and tooling.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical roadmap execution and improve existing systems.
• Collaborate with teams to solve complex engineering problems.
• Mentor engineers and influence product direction.

Skills

Kafka

Pulsar

ActiveMQ

Java

Go

Python

C++

CI/CD

Data Structures

Algorithms

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

AWS

GCP

Azure

Git

Jenkins

CircleCI

SonarQube

Terraform

Ansible

Grafana

Prometheus

Job description

GEICO is seeking an experienced Staff Engineer to join our PaaS Messaging team that brings a passion for building high performance, low maintenance, zero-downtime platforms, and applications. You will help drive our insurance business transformation as we transition from a traditional IT model to a tech organization with engineering excellence as its mission, while co-creating the culture of psychological safety and continuous improvement.

In this role you will collaborate with the Distinguished Engineer and Senior Engineers to innovate and build new systems, improve, and enhance existing systems as well as identify new opportunities to apply your knowledge to solve critical problems. You will lead the strategy and execution of a technical roadmap that will increase the velocity of delivering products and unlock new engineering capabilities. The ideal candidate has deep technical expertise in open-source messaging and event streaming domains showing proven expertise with Kafka, Pulsar and/or ActiveMQ.

As a Staff Engineer, you will:

• Focus on multiple areas and provide technical thought leadership to the enterprise

• Collaborate with product managers, team members, customers, and other engineering teams to solve our toughest problems

• Develop and execute technical software development strategy for the Platform Engineering domain

• Be accountable for the quality, usability, and performance of the solutions

• Be a role model and mentor, helping to coach and strengthen the technical expertise and know-how of our engineering and product community. Influence and educate executives

• Consistently share best practices and improve processes within and across teams

• Analyze cost and forecast, incorporating them into business plans

• Determine and support resource requirements, evaluate operational processes, measure outcomes to ensure desired results, demonstrate adaptability and sponsor continuous learning

• Take on-call and operation support

Qualifications:

• Deep hands-on experience in complex system design, data pipeline and architectures, scalable distributed systems

• Fluent in at least one OOP languages such as Java, Go, Python, C++, etc.

• Fluency in at least one open-source messaging and event streaming products like Kafka, Pulsar, ActiveMQ, RabbitMQ etc. with proven understanding of concepts like Topic Scaling, Partitions, Consumer Groups, etc.

• Experience building Kafka Connectors or other tooling on Kafka

• Exemplary ability to design, perform experiments, and influence engineering direction and product roadmap

• Experience partnering with engineering teams and transferring research to production

• Experience with continuous delivery and infrastructure as code

• In-depth knowledge of CS data structures and algorithms

• Experience solving analytical problems with quantitative approaches

• Knowledge of developer tooling across the software development life cycle (task management, source code, building, deployment, test automation and related tools, operations, real-time communication)

• Experience with open-source messaging and event streaming platforms with emphasis on building enterprise scale platforms

• Experience in CI/CD pipeline and related open-source tools like GIT/Jenkin/CircleCI/SonarQube and knowledge in Terraform/Ansible will be a plus

• Knowledge on Open-source monitoring software like Grafana and Prometheus will be a plus

• Familiarity with other messaging and event solutions like Azure Service Bus and Azure Event Hub will be a plus

Experience:

• 6+ years of professional experience.

• 4+ years of experience in open-source frameworks

• 3+ years of experience with architecture and design

• 3+ years of experience with AWS, GCP, Azure or similar cloud service preferred

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or equivalent education or work experience

#LI-MK1

Annual Salary

$105,000.00 - $230,000.00

The above annual salary range is a general guideline. Multiple factors are taken into consideration to arrive at the final hourly rate/ annual salary to be offered to the selected candidate. Factors include, but are not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the role, the selected candidate’s work experience, education and training, the work location as well as market and business considerations.

GEICO will consider sponsoring a new qualified applicant for employment authorization for this position.

The GEICO Pledge:

Great Company:At GEICO, we help our customers through life’s twists and turns. Our mission is to protect people when they need it most and we’re constantly evolving to stay ahead of their needs.

We’re an iconic brand that thrives on innovation, exceeding our customers’ expectations and enabling our collective success. From day one, you’ll take on exciting challenges that help you grow and collaborate with dynamic teams who want to make a positive impact on people’s lives.

Great Careers:We offer a career where you can learn, grow, and thrive through personalized development programs, created with your career – and your potential – in mind. You’ll have access to industry leading training, certification assistance, career mentorship and coaching with supportive leaders at all levels.

Great Culture:We foster an inclusive culture of shared success, rooted in integrity, a bias for action and a winning mindset. Grounded by our core values, we have an an established culture of caring, inclusion, and belonging, that values different perspectives. Our teams are led by dynamic, multi-faceted teams led by supportive leaders, driven by performance excellence and unified under a shared purpose.

As part of our culture, we also offer employee engagement and recognition programs that reward the positive impact our work makes on the lives of our customers.

Great Rewards:We offer compensation and benefits built to enhance your physical well-being, mental and emotional health and financial future.

• Comprehensive Total Rewards program that offers personalized coverage tailor-made for you and your family’s overall well-being.
• Financial benefits including market-competitive compensation; a 401K savings plan vested from day one that offers a 6% match; performance and recognition-based incentives; and tuition assistance.
• Access to additional benefits like mental healthcare as well as fertility and adoption assistance.
• In office and remote opportunities, as well as our signature GEICO Flex program, offering the ability to work remotely for up to four weeks per year.

The equal employment opportunity policy of the GEICO Companies provides for a fair and equal employment opportunity for all associates and job applicants regardless of race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, familial status, disability or genetic information, in compliance with applicable federal, state and local law. GEICO hires and promotes individuals solely on the basis of their qualifications for the job to be filled.

GEICO reasonably accommodates qualified individuals with disabilities to enable them to receive equal employment opportunity and/or perform the essential functions of the job, unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship to the Company. This applies to all applicants and associates. GEICO also provides a work environment in which each associate is able to be productive and work to the best of their ability. We do not condone or tolerate an atmosphere of intimidation or harassment. We expect and require the cooperation of all associates in maintaining an atmosphere free from discrimination and harassment with mutual respect by and for all associates and applicants.