Senior Software Engineer, Managed Streaming Kafka (MSK)
Job Location:
Job Location:
Seattle, WA - USA
Monthly Salary:
Not Disclosed
Monthly Salary:
Posted on:
Yesterday
Posted on:
Vacancies:
1 Vacancy
Vacancies:
Department:
Job Summary
Come build the future of data streaming with the Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (MSK) team.
Were looking for builders who want to work on one of the fastest-growing services in AWS. Amazon MSK is a fully managed Apache Kafka service and if you care about data streaming open source and operating at scale this is the team.
Youll work across the full stack: the control plane APIs the Kafka platform itself and the tooling that makes Kafka easier to run for everyone. Upstream compatibility is a core tenet. Your changes to Kafka ship back to open source. Thats the deal and its a good one. You get to build inside AWS and contribute to one of the most widely adopted open-source platforms in the world.
Day to day youll design features improve performance prototype solutions and ship code that serves customers directly. Youll collaborate with engineers across the team and work with senior leaders to shape the roadmap including identifying what needs to change in the upstream platform to unlock what customers need next.
Were looking for people whove built large-scale distributed systems who enjoy hard problems and who can reason about tradeoffs at the intersection of performance reliability and cost. Experience with Kafka Kinesis Flink or Spark is a plus. What matters more is that youre curious you ship and you think in systems.
Recent MSK innovations:
- MSK Replicator for External Clusters (April 2026): Replication from external Apache Kafka clusters to MSK Express Brokers and back enabling migration and multi-cloud distribution.
- Topic Management APIs (February 2026): New CreateTopic UpdateTopic and DeleteTopic APIs with console integration eliminating the need to maintain Kafka admin clients.
- Apache Kafka 4.1 Support (October 2025): Queues as a preview feature a new Streams Rebalance Protocol in early access and Eligible Leader Replicas (ELR).
- 5x More Partitions on Express Brokers (July 2025): Partition-bound workloads can now be hosted on fewer brokers simplifying cluster sizing.
- Seamless Certificate Renewals (May 2025): Brokers receive updated encryption certificates without restarts.
- Express Brokers (re:Invent 2024): Up to 3x more throughput per broker 20x faster scaling 90% faster recovery and hands-free unlimited storage.
- KRaft Mode (May 2024): Clusters run without ZooKeeper supporting up to 60 brokers.
- Tiered Storage (2023): Decouples compute from storage to optimize cost and scalability.
Learn more about Amazon MSK:
- AWS re:Invent 2024: Express Brokers for Amazon MSK
- AWS re:Invent 2023: How Rivian builds real-time analytics from electric vehicles
- AWS re:Invent 2021: How Coinbase uses Amazon MSK as an event store for applications
- AWS re:Invent 2020: How Goldman Sachs uses an Amazon MSK backbone for Transaction Banking Platform
- AWS re:Invent 2020: How New Relic is migrating its Apache Kafka cluster to Amazon MSK
- AWS re:Invent 2018: Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (Amazon MSK) Launch
- MSK Tiered Storage: Optimize cost and improve Kafka scalability
Utility Computing (UC)
AWS Utility Computing (UC) provides product innovations from foundational services such as Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2 to consistently released new product innovations that continue to set AWS apart in the industry. As a member of the UC organization youll support the development and management of Compute Database Storage Internet of Things (IoT) Platform and Productivity Apps services in AWS including support for customers who require specialized security solutions for their cloud services.
About the team
ABOUT AWS:
Diverse Experiences
Amazon values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred qualifications and skills listed in the job description we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting hasnt followed a traditional path or includes alternative experiences dont let it stop you from applying.
Why AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the worlds most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating thats why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.
Work/Life Balance
We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home which is why flexible work hours and arrangements are part of our culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home theres nothing we cant achieve in the cloud.
Inclusive Team Culture
Here at AWS its in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity and AmazeCon conferences inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.
Mentorship and Career Growth
Were continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earths Best Employer. Thats why youll find endless knowledge-sharing mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.
- 5 years of non-internship professional software development experience
- 5 years of programming with at least one software programming language experience
- 5 years of leading design or architecture (design patterns reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
- Experience as a mentor tech lead or leading an engineering team
- 5 years of full software development life cycle including coding standards code reviews source control management build processes testing and operations experience
- Bachelors degree in computer science or equivalent
Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status disability or other legally protected status.
Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process including support for the interview or onboarding process please visit for more information. If the country/region youre applying in isnt listed please contact your Recruiting Partner.
Were looking for builders who want to work on one of the fastest-growing services in AWS. Amazon MSK is a fully managed Apache Kafka service and if you care about data streaming open source and operating at scale this is the team.
Youll work across the full stack: the control plane APIs the Kafka platform itself and the tooling that makes Kafka easier to run for everyone. Upstream compatibility is a core tenet. Your changes to Kafka ship back to open source. Thats the deal and its a good one. You get to build inside AWS and contribute to one of the most widely adopted open-source platforms in the world.
Day to day youll design features improve performance prototype solutions and ship code that serves customers directly. Youll collaborate with engineers across the team and work with senior leaders to shape the roadmap including identifying what needs to change in the upstream platform to unlock what customers need next.
Were looking for people whove built large-scale distributed systems who enjoy hard problems and who can reason about tradeoffs at the intersection of performance reliability and cost. Experience with Kafka Kinesis Flink or Spark is a plus. What matters more is that youre curious you ship and you think in systems.
Recent MSK innovations:
- MSK Replicator for External Clusters (April 2026): Replication from external Apache Kafka clusters to MSK Express Brokers and back enabling migration and multi-cloud distribution.
- Topic Management APIs (February 2026): New CreateTopic UpdateTopic and DeleteTopic APIs with console integration eliminating the need to maintain Kafka admin clients.
- Apache Kafka 4.1 Support (October 2025): Queues as a preview feature a new Streams Rebalance Protocol in early access and Eligible Leader Replicas (ELR).
- 5x More Partitions on Express Brokers (July 2025): Partition-bound workloads can now be hosted on fewer brokers simplifying cluster sizing.
- Seamless Certificate Renewals (May 2025): Brokers receive updated encryption certificates without restarts.
- Express Brokers (re:Invent 2024): Up to 3x more throughput per broker 20x faster scaling 90% faster recovery and hands-free unlimited storage.
- KRaft Mode (May 2024): Clusters run without ZooKeeper supporting up to 60 brokers.
- Tiered Storage (2023): Decouples compute from storage to optimize cost and scalability.
Learn more about Amazon MSK:
- AWS re:Invent 2024: Express Brokers for Amazon MSK
- AWS re:Invent 2023: How Rivian builds real-time analytics from electric vehicles
- AWS re:Invent 2021: How Coinbase uses Amazon MSK as an event store for applications
- AWS re:Invent 2020: How Goldman Sachs uses an Amazon MSK backbone for Transaction Banking Platform
- AWS re:Invent 2020: How New Relic is migrating its Apache Kafka cluster to Amazon MSK
- AWS re:Invent 2018: Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (Amazon MSK) Launch
- MSK Tiered Storage: Optimize cost and improve Kafka scalability
Utility Computing (UC)
AWS Utility Computing (UC) provides product innovations from foundational services such as Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2 to consistently released new product innovations that continue to set AWS apart in the industry. As a member of the UC organization youll support the development and management of Compute Database Storage Internet of Things (IoT) Platform and Productivity Apps services in AWS including support for customers who require specialized security solutions for their cloud services.
About the team
ABOUT AWS:
Diverse Experiences
Amazon values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred qualifications and skills listed in the job description we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting hasnt followed a traditional path or includes alternative experiences dont let it stop you from applying.
Why AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the worlds most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating thats why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.
Work/Life Balance
We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home which is why flexible work hours and arrangements are part of our culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home theres nothing we cant achieve in the cloud.
Inclusive Team Culture
Here at AWS its in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity and AmazeCon conferences inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.
Mentorship and Career Growth
Were continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earths Best Employer. Thats why youll find endless knowledge-sharing mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.
- 5 years of non-internship professional software development experience
- 5 years of programming with at least one software programming language experience
- 5 years of leading design or architecture (design patterns reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
- Experience as a mentor tech lead or leading an engineering team
- 5 years of full software development life cycle including coding standards code reviews source control management build processes testing and operations experience
- Bachelors degree in computer science or equivalent
Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status disability or other legally protected status.
Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process including support for the interview or onboarding process please visit for more information. If the country/region youre applying in isnt listed please contact your Recruiting Partner.
The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience qualifications and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical dental vision prescription Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans EAP Mental Health Support Medical Advice Line Flexible Spending Accounts Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage) 401(k) matching paid time off and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at WA Seattle - 168100.00 - 227400.00 USD annually
Required Experience:
Senior IC
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