Lead Kafka Developer

Job Title:

Lead Software Engineer

Work Locations:

Must be local to either of the locations listed below and must work 5 days in office. Pittsburgh PA

• Two PNC Plaza 620 Liberty Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Cleveland OH
• Strongsville Technology Center 8100 Mohawk Dr. Strongsville, OH 44136 Birmingham AL
• Birmingham
• Brock 701 32nd St. South Birmingham, AL 35233 North Texas Market TX
• Dallas Innovation Center
• Luna Rd 11511 Luna Rd Farmers Branch, TX 75234 Phoenix
• Biltmore 2850 E Camelback Rd Phoenix

AZ 85016

Note:

This is a W2 position•

Roles Responsibilities:

We are seeking a Lead Kafka Developer to design, build, and operate scalable, high-throughput event streaming platforms using Apache Kafka. This role provides technical leadership, sets best practices, and drives the implementation of reliable, secure, and performant data streaming solutions across the organization. Key Responsibilities Lead the design and development of Kafka-based streaming architectures and data pipelines Own Kafka cluster setup, configuration, tuning, monitoring, and upgrades Establish standards for topic design, schema management, security, and reliability Collaborate with application, platform, and data teams to integrate event-driven solutions Troubleshoot complex production issues and drive root-cause analysis Mentor developers and provide technical guidance and code reviews.

MUST HAVE SKILLS

Apache Kafka (producers, consumers, streams, connectors) Experience operating Kafka in production environments Proficiency in Java and/or Scala (Python a plus) Solid understanding of distributed systems, messaging patterns, and event-driven architecture Experience with schema registries, monitoring, and performance.

FLEX SKILLS

Kafka Streams ksqlDB Kafka Connect Cloud-based Kafka platforms and containerized deployments Familiarity with CI/CD, observability, and security best practices