Sr. Open Source Software Engineer (Kafka) at NetApp
Durham, NC
$220,000–$265,000from the description
Jun 28, 2026
Durham, NC
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior engineering role centred on deep Apache Kafka upstream work — authoring and shepherding KIPs, performing binding committer reviews, contributing to release management, and improving project infrastructure such as CI and test coverage. The position also bridges that upstream activity to enterprise production environments by translating operator pain points into accepted community improvements and advising internal product and field teams on complex Kafka trade-offs. Suited to a current Apache Kafka committer with at least 12 years of professional experience and expert-level knowledge of Kafka internals.
Principal level · 12+ years · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA · Full-time
Advertised as Senior, but the requirements read as Principal.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 210 people in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 80–280
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
What the occupation pays Median $213,110 (middle half $173,650–$226,080). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The advertised title is 'Senior Open Source Software Engineer', but the actual requirements — active Apache Kafka committer status, 12+ years of experience, KIP-level design leadership, org-wide community influence, and mentoring others toward committer standing — describe a Principal-level individual contributor. The seniority band has been set to Principal accordingly.
Multiple US office locations are listed (San Jose, Raleigh, Boston, Seattle); San Jose is used as the primary CBSA. The role also has global postings in Cork, Ireland and Schiphol, Netherlands, but this posting is US-focused.
The role requires 3 days per week in-office, so remote=false.
Apache Kafka committer status is treated as a hard gate — the JD explicitly requires 'current Apache Kafka committer status with a sustained and publicly verifiable upstream track record' in the requirements section.
KIP authoring is listed as a hard gate in the requirements section ('Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical work through the Apache open source governance model: KIP authoring or co-sponsorship…').
PMC membership, KRaft, Kafka Streams, Kafka Connect, MirrorMaker 2, Kubernetes-based Kafka operations, and Strimzi all appear under 'Preferred qualifications' and are marked accordingly.
The degree requirement states 'Bachelor's degree… OR additional equivalent experience', so no minimum degree is hard-gated.
The salary range ($220,000–$265,000) is stated as a target and may vary by location and qualifications.
Read the full posting
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