Sr. Open Source Software Engineer (Kafka) - SAN JOSE
Core
Lead end-to-end upstream initiatives in Apache Kafka, driving KIP authorship, design alignment, implementation, and release management to advance the project and serve enterprise customer needs.
Role type
Senior Open Source Software Engineer (Kafka)
Builds
Apache Kafka core components, including broker internals, storage, log replication, KRaft metadata, consumer groups, Kafka Streams, and Kafka Connect.
Domain
Distributed systems, data infrastructure, open source governance
Required skills
Apache Kafka committer status, Java engineering, distributed systems, Kafka internals, open source governance, technical judgment, asynchronous technical communication
Preferred skills
KIP authoring, design consensus, community mentorship, CI/CD reliability, benchmarking
Technologies
Java, Kafka, Kubernetes, JIRA
Responsibilities
Lead end-to-end upstream initiatives from KIP authorship through implementation and release; provide binding committer reviews on upstream patches; contribute to release management and test stabilization; translate enterprise needs into upstream proposals; shape community direction and architecture; mentor engineers toward committer standing; strengthen upstream infrastructure and automation.