Full Stack Engineer - Java, Kafka & AWS MSK Migration

Job Title: Full Stack Engineer - Java, Kafka & AWS MSK Migration Location: Seattle, WA (In Office) Experience: 5-8 years (flexible) About the Role: Seeking an experienced Full Stack Engineer with strong Java expertise and deep hands-on Apache Kafka experience to lead and support the migration of existing Kafka infrastructure to Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (AWS MSK). This role blends backend engineering, streaming architecture, and cloud infrastructure skills to ensure a seamless, low-risk transition with minimal disruption to downstream consumers. Key Responsibilities: Lead technical migration of self-managed/on-prem Kafka clusters to AWS MSK - cluster sizing, topic replication, cutover planning Design and implement Java-based microservices and APIs producing/consuming from Kafka topics Develop full-stack features (backend + UI integration) supporting event-driven architectures Re-architect/refactor producer/consumer applications for MSK compatibility (IAM auth, TLS, VPC connectivity, security groups) Implement monitoring/alerting/observability using CloudWatch, Prometheus/Grafana, or equivalent Define and execute data validation, dual-write/dual-read, and rollback strategies during cutover Optimize Kafka topic partitioning, replication factor, retention policies, and consumer group configurations Collaborate with DevOps/Infra teams on Terraform/CloudFormation-based MSK provisioning Ensure compliance with security, encryption (at-rest/in-transit), and access control standards (IAM, SASL/SCRAM, mTLS) Troubleshoot performance, latency, and throughput issues pre/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 producers/consumers, Kafka Streams/Connect, schema registry (Avro/Protobuf), partition strategy, 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 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)