Role: Full Stack Engineer (Java)
Location: Seattle, WA (Onsite)
Type: Contract
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead the technical migration of self-managed/on-prem Kafka clusters to AWS MSK, including cluster sizing, topic replication, and cutover planning
- Design and implement Java-based microservices and APIs that produce/consume from Kafka topics
- Develop full-stack features (backend services + UI integration where applicable) supporting event-driven architectures
- Re-architect or refactor existing producer/consumer applications for MSK compatibility (IAM auth, TLS, VPC connectivity, security groups)
- Implement monitoring, alerting, and observability for MSK using CloudWatch, Prometheus/Grafana, or equivalent
- Define and execute data validation, dual-write/dual-read, and rollback strategies during migration cutover
- Optimize Kafka topic partitioning, replication factor, retention policies, and consumer group configurations for MSK
- Collaborate with DevOps/Infra teams on Terraform/CloudFormation-based provisioning of MSK clusters
- Ensure compliance with security, encryption (at-rest/in-transit), and access control standards (IAM, SASL/SCRAM, mTLS)
- Troubleshoot performance, latency, and throughput issues pre- and post-migration
- Document migration runbooks, architecture decisions, and operational procedures
- Mentor junior engineers on Kafka/MSK best practices
Required Skills & Experience
- Java: Strong hands-on experience with Java (8/11/17), Spring Boot, REST API development
- Kafka: Deep expertise in Kafka producers/consumers, Kafka Streams/Connect, schema registry (Avro/Protobuf), partition strategy, and consumer group management
- AWS MSK: Proven experience provisioning, configuring, and migrating workloads to AWS MSK; familiarity with MSK Connect, MSK Serverless
- AWS Ecosystem: IAM, VPC, CloudWatch, Lambda, S3, Secrets Manager
- Full Stack: Frontend framework exposure (React/Angular) is a plus for full-stack ownership
- DevOps: CI/CD (Jenkins/GitLab CI), Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/CloudFormation), Docker/Kubernetes
- Databases: SQL/NoSQL (PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, MongoDB)
- Experience with large-scale, mission-critical migrations in regulated environments (financial services preferred)
- Strong understanding of distributed systems, fault tolerance, and event-driven design patterns
Preferred Qualifications
- Prior experience migrating from self-managed Kafka (Confluent/Apache) to AWS MSK
- Experience in banking/financial services with knowledge of data governance and compliance requirements
- AWS Certification (Solutions Architect / Developer Associate)
- Exposure to Kafka security hardening (mTLS, SASL/SCRAM, IAM-based auth)
Soft Skills
- Strong stakeholder communication for cross-functional migration coordination
- Ability to work independently in ambiguous, evolving technical environments
- Problem-solving mindset with a focus on zero-downtime migration strategies
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