Kafka Data Engineer

About Persistent We are an AI-led, platform-driven Digital Engineering and Enterprise Modernization partner, combining deep technical expertise and industry experience to help our clients anticipate what's next. Persistent has been recognized across top industry platforms for innovation, leadership, and inclusion. Our 27,500+ global team members, located in 18 countries, have been instrumental in helping the market leaders transform their industries. We have been recognized as the Fastest Growing IT Services Brand Globally in the 2026 Brand Finance IT Services 25 Report. We named a Leader in the Everest Group Private Equity (PE) Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2026 and Software Product Engineering PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2026 .

Whippany NJ (Hybrid -3 days a week)

Mandatory Skills: AWS, Java, Spring, Kafka Streaming Deep experience designing, building, and operating real-time data platforms, streaming architectures, and distributed systems in complex enterprise environments. At least 8 years of hands-on experience running real-time streaming solutions in production at scale, with accountability for reliability, performance, observability, recovery, and operational stability. Strong software engineering capability, with fluency in Java programming and a track record of writing production-grade code and leading technical implementation for business-critical systems. Strong technical credibility in streaming and event-driven systems, including topics such as partitioning, ordering, stateful processing, delivery semantics, replay, fault tolerance, and platform resilience. Proven experience leading engineering teams, mentoring developers, and driving delivery while maintaining high standards across design, coding, testing, and operational support. Experience working with modern streaming and data technologies such as Kafka, Pulsar, Kinesis, Flink, Spark Structured Streaming, or equivalent platforms, with the judgment to select the right patterns for the problem. Strong understanding of control, governance, and risk management expectations for production data platforms, particularly where resilience, auditability, and data correctness are business critical. Lead the architecture, design, development, and operational stewardship of real-time streaming and data platform capabilities, remaining hands-on in key technical decisions and implementation where appropriate. Write, review, and guide high-quality production code for critical platform components, setting the bar for engineering standards, maintainability, resilience, and performance. Lead and develop engineering teams, providing technical direction, coaching, and delivery leadership while creating a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement. Own the design and production operation of resilient, low-latency streaming solutions that process critical financial events with strong guarantees for correctness, recoverability, observability, scalability, and control. Run streaming platforms at scale, including responsibility for production health, capacity, reliability, incident response, recovery, and continuous service improvement. Partner with business, product, architecture, and control stakeholders to shape roadmaps, solve complex engineering problems, and align platform delivery with business and regulatory requirements. Drive platform modernization across streaming, event processing, and data movement, balancing hands-on technical contribution with leadership across delivery priorities and dependencies. Establish strong engineering disciplines across testing, code review, release management, observability, incident response, capacity planning, and production readiness for real-time workloads. Employee engagement initiatives such as project parties, flexible work hours, and Long Service awards Insurance coverage: group term life, personal accident, and Mediclaim hospitalization for self, spouse, two children, and parents Persistent is dedicated to fostering diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We invite applications from all qualified individuals, including those with disabilities, and regardless of gender or gender preference. We support hybrid work and flexible hours to fit diverse lifestyles. Our office is accessibility-friendly, with ergonomic setups and assistive technologies to support employees with physical disabilities. If you are a person with disabilities and have specific requirements, please inform us during the application process or at any time during your employment