Java full stack engineer

We are seeking a Full Stack Java Engineer with deep expertise in Apache Kafka and AWS Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (MSK) for a 12+ month contract role based in Seattle, Washington. In this position, you will lead the migration of enterprise Kafka infrastructure from self-managed environments to AWS MSK, design and build event-driven applications, and modernize streaming platforms while ensuring seamless, low-risk transitions with minimal impact to business-critical systems. You will work closely with engineering, DevOps, and infrastructure teams to deliver highly scalable, secure, and resilient solutions.

Responsibilities

• Lead the migration of on-premises or self-managed Kafka clusters to AWS MSK, including planning, sizing, replication, and production cutovers.
• Design, develop, and maintain Java/Spring Boot microservices and REST APIs that publish and consume Kafka events.
• Build and enhance full-stack applications using modern frontend technologies such as React or Angular where required.
• Refactor Kafka producers and consumers to support AWS MSK, including IAM authentication, TLS, networking, and security best practices.
• Optimize Kafka performance through effective partitioning, replication, retention, and consumer group management.
• Implement monitoring and observability using CloudWatch, Prometheus, Grafana, or similar tools.
• Develop migration strategies including validation, dual-read/dual-write, rollback planning, and production readiness.
• Partner with DevOps teams to provision infrastructure using Terraform or CloudFormation.
• Ensure secure, compliant implementations with encryption, IAM, mTLS, and SASL/SCRAM authentication.
• Troubleshoot application, streaming, and infrastructure performance issues.
• Produce technical documentation, migration runbooks, and operational procedures.
• Mentor junior engineers and promote Kafka and AWS best practices.

Qualifications

• Required

• Bachelor's degree

• 5+ years of software engineering experience with Java-based enterprise applications.

• 5+ years of strong expertise in Java (8/11/17), Spring Boot, and RESTful API development.

• 5+ years of deep experience with Apache Kafka, including producers and consumers, Kafka Streams, Kafka Connect, Schema Registry (Avro or Protobuf), and consumer groups and partitioning strategies.

• 5+ years of proven experience implementing or migrating workloads to AWS MSK, including MSK Connect or MSK Serverless.

• 5+ years of hands-on experience with AWS services including IAM, VPC, CloudWatch, Lambda, S3, and Secrets Manager.

• 5+ years of experience building full-stack applications using React or Angular.

• 5+ years of experience with CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins or GitLab CI), Infrastructure as Code (Terraform or CloudFormation), and container technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.

• 5+ years of experience working with SQL and NoSQL databases including PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, or MongoDB.

• Strong understanding of distributed systems, event-driven architectures, scalability, and fault tolerance.

• Experience supporting large-scale production migrations with minimal downtime.

• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate across engineering and infrastructure teams.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to work independently in fast-paced environments.

• Preferred

• Experience migrating from self-managed or Confluent Kafka environments to AWS MSK.

• Financial services or other highly regulated industry experience.

• AWS certifications (Solutions Architect, Developer Associate, or similar).

• Experience implementing Kafka security using IAM, mTLS, SASL/SCRAM, and encryption best practices.