Staff Engineer – PaaS Messaging/Kafka (Remote)

GEICO; Raleigh (NC); Remote; USD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

A forward-thinking company is looking for a Staff Engineer to join their PaaS Messaging team. This role focuses on building high-performance platforms that support an ambitious transformation in the insurance sector. You will lead technical initiatives, collaborate with product managers, and mentor team members while ensuring the quality and performance of solutions. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in designing scalable architectures and a strong proficiency in OOP languages. Join this innovative firm to contribute to engineering excellence and continuous improvement in a supportive environment.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in designing complex systems and data pipelines.
• Proficiency in OOP languages like Java, Go, or Python.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical areas and provide enterprise-wide thought leadership.
• Collaborate with teams to solve complex problems and ensure quality.

Skills

System Design

Data Pipelines

Java

Go

Python

C++

Kafka

CI/CD

Data Structures

Algorithms

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science

Equivalent experience

Tools

Kafka

Grafana

Prometheus

AWS

GCP

Azure

Job description

GEICO is seeking an experienced Staff Engineer to join our PaaS Messaging team, focused on building high-performance, low-maintenance, zero-downtime platforms and applications. You will contribute to our insurance business transformation, shifting from a traditional IT model to a technology-driven organization committed to engineering excellence, psychological safety, and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities:

1. Lead multiple technical areas, providing enterprise-wide thought leadership.
2. Collaborate with product managers, teams, and customers to solve complex problems.
3. Develop and execute strategic plans for the Platform Engineering domain.
4. Ensure quality, usability, and performance of solutions.
5. Mentor and role model technical excellence; influence engineering and product strategies.
6. Share best practices and improve development processes.
7. Forecast costs, determine resource needs, and support operational efficiency.
8. Participate in on-call and operational support duties.

Qualifications:

• Extensive experience in designing complex systems, data pipelines, and scalable distributed architectures.
• Proficiency in at least one OOP language such as Java, Go, Python, or C++.
• Deep expertise in open-source messaging and event streaming platforms like Kafka, Pulsar, or ActiveMQ, including concepts like Topic Scaling, Partitions, and Consumer Groups.
• Experience developing Kafka Connectors or similar tooling.
• Ability to influence engineering direction through experimentation and design.
• Experience transitioning research into production environments.
• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and related tools.
• Strong understanding of data structures and algorithms.
• Experience with open-source monitoring tools such as Grafana and Prometheus is a plus.
• Cloud experience with AWS, GCP, or Azure is preferred.

Experience & Education:

• Minimum 6 years of professional experience, with 4+ years in open-source frameworks, and 3+ years in architecture and design.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or equivalent experience.

For more details, including salary range, benefits, and our company culture, please refer to the full job posting.