About the Role

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to help build the Kafka service on StreamNative Cloud, a next-generation cloud-native streaming platform that combines Apache Kafka compatibility with modern storage technologies.

You will work on challenging distributed systems problems, including streaming infrastructure, storage scalability, reliability, and performance optimization. You will design and implement critical components of our streaming platform and help build reliable infrastructure that powers real-time data applications for developers and enterprises worldwide.

This is a high-impact engineering role for engineers who are passionate about Apache Kafka, distributed systems, and building scalable data infrastructure. You will join the Platform Engineering team, which builds the messaging and streaming infrastructure by combining Kafka compatibility with modern cloud-native storage technologies.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain core components of the streaming platform — including Kafka-compatible APIs, storage systems, metadata management, and distributed services.
• Solve complex engineering problems involving distributed systems, storage, networking, and performance optimization, and continuously improve reliability through profiling, benchmarking, and testing.
• Debug and resolve production issues in large-scale distributed environments.
• Work closely with customers and field teams to understand real-world streaming use cases and help deliver effective technical solutions.
• Contribute to open-source projects and improve the developer experience of streaming platforms.
• On-call: one week per month, rotating, supporting customer tickets.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building large-scale distributed systems, backend infrastructure, or cloud services.
• Strong understanding of Apache Kafka, Apache Pulsar, or other distributed messaging systems.
• Experience with distributed systems concepts, including replication, consistency, fault tolerance, scalability, and distributed storage.
• Experience with Kafka internals, including the Kafka protocol, broker architecture, KRaft, tiered storage, log storage, and compaction.
• Experience building cloud-native streaming or storage systems.
• Strong programming skills in Java, Scala, or other systems programming languages.
• Experience designing and operating reliable production systems.
• Strong debugging and performance optimization skills.
• Ability to independently own projects from design through implementation and production deployment.
• Good communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams.

Nice To-Have's

• Experience building cloud-native streaming or storage systems.
• Familiarity with object storage technologies such as S3, GCS, or Azure Blob Storage.
• Experience with lakehouse technologies such as Apache Iceberg or Parquet.
• Experience with Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure.