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, Dev Ops, and infrastructure teams to deliver highly scalable, secure, and resilient solutions.

• 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 Cloud Watch, Prometheus, Grafana, or similar tools.
• Develop migration strategies including validation, dual-read/dual-write, rollback planning, and production readiness.
• Partner with Dev Ops teams to provision infrastructure using Terraform or Cloud Formation.
• 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.

• 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, Cloud Watch, 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 Git Lab CI), Infrastructure as Code (Terraform or Cloud Formation), and container technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• 5+ years of experience working with SQL and No
  
  SQL 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.

• 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.