Kafka Engineer

The OpportunityCACI is seeking a Kafka Engineer to join our team and support the Border Enforcement Applications for Government Leading-Edge Information Technology (IT) (BEAGLE) contract. You will have the opportunity to apply your knowledge, skills and experience to building a modern, cloud-native application in new development. If you thrive in a culture of innovation and can bring creative ideas to solve complex technical and procedural problems at the team and portfolio levels, this opportunity is for you.Join this passionate team supporting best practices in agile software development for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). You will support the men and women charged with safeguarding the American people and enhancing the nation's safety and security.ResponsibilitiesServe as an Agile Scrum team member providing software development support and maintenance for the delivery of releasable software in short sprint cycles. Collaborate with software developers/engineers, stakeholders, and end users within Agile processes.Design, develop, and deploy high-performance Kafka producers, consumers, and stream processing applications (using Kafka Streams, ksqlDB, Flink, or Spark Streaming) in Java.Collaborate with architects and other engineering teams to define and evolve the event-driven architecture, including Kafka topic design, partitioning, replication, and data retention.Implement and manage Kafka ecosystem components including Kafka Connect (source and sink connectors), Schema Registry (Avro, Protobuf), and Kafka security features.Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Kafka clusters and related applications for throughput, latency, reliability, and resource utilization.Build and maintain robust data pipelines for real-time ingestion, transformation, and distribution of data across systems.Provide operational support for Kafka-based systems, including incident response, root cause analysis, and proactive maintenance for high availability and reliability.Enforce data contract definitions and schema evolution strategies using Schema Registry to maintain data quality and compatibility across services.Implement comprehensive testing strategies for Kafka applications, including unit, integration, and end-to-end tests to ensure data integrity and system reliability.Create and maintain detailed technical documentation, architectural diagrams, and operational runbooks for Kafka components and processes.Act as a subject matter expert, share knowledge, mentor junior engineers, and champion Kafka best practices across the organization.QualificationsRequired:Must be a U.S. Citizen with the ability to pass a CBP background investigation (criteria include but are not limited to checks for misconduct, illegal drug use, and felony convictions).Extensive hands-on experience designing, developing, and deploying applications using Apache Kafka (producers, consumers, topic management, consumer groups).Deep understanding of Kafka internal architecture, guarantees, offset management, and delivery semantics.Experience with Kafka Streams API or other stream processing frameworks (e.g., Flink, Spark Streaming with Kafka).Programming proficiency in at least one modern backend language suitable for Kafka development (Java strongly preferred).Strong understanding of distributed systems principles, concurrency, fault tolerance, and resilience patterns.Experience with data serialization formats such as Avro, Protobuf, or JSON Schema, and their use with Kafka Schema Registry.Solid understanding of relational and/or NoSQL databases and experience integrating them with Kafka.Excellent analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills in complex distributed environments.Strong verbal and written communication skills to clearly articulate technical concepts.Knowledge of monitoring and observability tools for Kafka and streaming applications (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, Datadog).Working knowledge of Git and collaborative development workflows; understanding of the full software development lifecycle.Professional experience: at least seven (7) years in software design, development, and implementation in a Windows environment.College degree (B.S.) in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Management Systems or related discipline; equivalent professional experience will be considered.Local candidates must be available for 1+ day per week onsite in Ashburn, VA.DesiredHands-on experience with Confluent Platform components (Control Center, ksqlDB, REST Proxy, Tiered Storage).Experience with Kafka Connect for building data integration pipelines (developing connectors is a plus).Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and managed Kafka services (e.g., AWS MSK, Confluent Cloud, Azure Event Hubs).Experience with containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes) for deploying Kafka-dependent applications.Experience with CI/CD pipelines for automated testing and deployment of Kafka-based services.Familiarity with performance testing and benchmarking tools for Kafka and related applications.What You Can ExpectA culture of integrity. We place character and innovation at the center of everything we do. You'll be part of a high-performing group dedicated to our customer's missions and driven by a higher purpose – to ensure the safety of our nation.An environment of trust. We value the unique contributions that every employee brings to our company and our customers. You'll have autonomy and access to robust learning resources.A focus on continuous growth. We will advance our nation's missions and support career development and learning opportunities.Pay RangeThe proposed salary range for this position is $90,300-$189,600. The final salary is influenced by location, experience, skills, and certifications. We offer competitive compensation, benefits and learning opportunities, including healthcare, retirement, and time off benefits. This position may be worked in multiple locations; the range shown is the national average.Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.J-18808-Ljbffr