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Kafka Software Engineer Jobs in Springfield, IL (NOW HIRING)

Senior Software Engineer

Springfield, IL · On-site

$180K - $220K/yr

... Senior Software Engineer, you will lead major initiatives that advance Datavant's platform ... Kafka or Kinesis * Observability: DataDog, Grafana, CloudWatch * Security: OAuth2/SAML, encryption ...

Kafka Software Engineer information

See Springfield, IL salary details

$62.9K

$146.2K

$203.7K

How much do kafka software engineer jobs pay per year?

As of May 28, 2026, the average yearly pay for kafka software engineer in Springfield, IL is $146,212.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $118,900.00 and $171,500.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Kafka Software Engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Kafka Software Engineer, you need strong programming skills (often in Java, Scala, or Python), a solid understanding of distributed systems, and experience with Apache Kafka architecture and stream processing. Familiarity with tools like Kafka Connect, Kafka Streams, Zookeeper, and containerization platforms, along with certifications such as Confluent Certified Developer for Apache Kafka, are highly valued. Excellent problem-solving, communication, and teamwork skills help you design scalable solutions and collaborate across engineering teams. These technical and interpersonal skills are critical to building reliable, high-throughput data pipelines and ensuring seamless real-time data flow in modern applications.

What are some common challenges Kafka Software Engineers face when building scalable streaming applications?

Kafka Software Engineers often encounter challenges related to ensuring high throughput, low latency, and fault tolerance when designing streaming data pipelines. Managing message ordering, handling data schema evolution, and optimizing partitioning strategies are critical for maintaining data consistency and performance. Additionally, engineers must monitor cluster health, address issues like consumer lag, and coordinate with DevOps and data engineering teams to ensure seamless integration with other systems.

What are Kafka Software Engineers?

Kafka Software Engineers are specialized software developers who design, build, and maintain systems that use Apache Kafka, a distributed event streaming platform. They create and manage data pipelines, ensure reliable message delivery, and optimize the performance of applications using Kafka. These engineers often work closely with data engineers, architects, and other developers to enable real-time data processing, analytics, and integration across various systems. Their role is crucial in organizations that rely on high-throughput, fault-tolerant data streams.
What job categories do people searching Kafka Software Engineer jobs in Springfield, IL look for? The top searched job categories for Kafka Software Engineer jobs in Springfield, IL are:
What cities near Springfield, IL are hiring for Kafka Software Engineer jobs? Cities near Springfield, IL with the most Kafka Software Engineer job openings:
Infographic showing various Kafka Software Engineer job openings in Springfield, IL as of May 2026, with employment types broken down into 57% Full Time, and 43% Part Time. Highlights an 99% Physical, and 1% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $146,212 per year, or $70.3 per hour.
Senior Software Engineer

Senior Software Engineer

Datavant

Springfield, IL • On-site

$180K - $220K/yr

Other

This job post has expired today. Applications are no longer accepted.


Datavant rating

7.0

Company rating: 7.0 out of 10

Based on 97 frontline employees who took The Breakroom Quiz

123rd of 204 rated it services


Job description

Datavant is the data collaboration platform trusted for healthcare. Guided by our mission to make the world's health data secure, accessible and actionable, we provide critical data solutions for organizations across the healthcare ecosystem - including providers, health plans, researchers, and life sciences companies. From fulfilling a single patient's request for their medical records to powering the AI revolution in healthcare, Datavanters are building the future of how data is connected and used to improve health.

By joining Datavant today, you're stepping onto a driven and highly collaborative team that is passionate about creating transformative change in healthcare.

Senior Software Engineer

The Role

As a Senior Software Engineer, you will lead major initiatives that advance Datavant's platform scalability and reliability. You'll drive technical design, coach peers, and ensure system-wide quality and consistency.

What You'll Do

  • Own architectural design and end-to-end delivery for key systems or migrations.

  • Partner with Product, Infrastructure, and Security teams to set technical direction.

  • Design scalable microservices and guide system decomposition initiatives.

  • Drive performance optimization, observability, and reliability improvements.

  • Mentor engineers at multiple levels and enhance team culture through best practices.

Tech Stack You'll Work With

Senior engineers at this level are expected to leverage Datavant technologies effectively, demonstrate fluency across the stack, and use their architectural experience to design systems that are scalable, reliable, secure, and maintainable within Datavant's platform. Your work will span Datavant's core platform technologies, including:

  • Backend: Python, Go, Java; microservices; REST and GraphQL

  • Frontend: TypeScript, React, Next.js

  • Infrastructure & Cloud: AWS (EC2, S3, IAM, Lambda), Docker, Kubernetes; IaC tools

  • Data: Snowflake, Spark, SQL; S3 for raw data

  • ETL & Pipelines: Airflow/Glue

  • Streaming: Kafka or Kinesis

  • Observability: DataDog, Grafana, CloudWatch

  • Security: OAuth2/SAML, encryption, tokenization, zero-trust architecture

What You Bring

  • 6+ years of professional experience developing and scaling distributed systems.

  • Deep expertise in system design, cloud-native architectures, and backend frameworks.

  • Proven record of leading major technical projects from inception to launch.

  • Strong collaboration with cross-functional teams (Product, Design, Infrastructure, Security).

  • Commitment to data integrity, privacy, and operational excellence.

Leadership Qualities & Mindset

Provides architectural leadership and technical clarity. Identify systemic issues and drive cross-team solutions.

  • Inspire confidence through technical expertise and build talent through thoughtful mentorship.

  • Balance innovation with pragmatic execution and long-term maintainability.

  • Act with humility, integrity, and focus on team success.

  • Drive alignment between engineering goals and business outcomes.

Core Value Expectations

  • Earn trust through high-quality architectural decisions and transparent leadership.

  • Obsess over customers by prioritizing reliable, secure, scalable systems.

  • Prioritize growth over comfort by tackling complex, ambiguous technical challenges.

  • Win as a team by facilitating alignment and resolving cross-team challenges.

  • Rise to the challenge by owning key initiatives and elevating organizational excellence.

Why This Role Matters

As a Senior Software Enginer, you ensure the engineering organization's systems are resilient, maintainable, and aligned with Datavant's mission to securely connect healthcare data. You play a central role in advancing architecture and engineering culture.

We are committed to building a diverse team of Datavanters who are all responsible for stewarding a high-performance culture in which all Datavanters belong and thrive. We are proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other legally protected status.

At Datavant our total rewards strategy powers a high-growth, high-performance, health technology company that rewards our employees for transforming health care through creating industry-defining data logistics products and services.

The range posted is for a given job title, which can include multiple levels. Individual rates for the same job title may differ based on their level, responsibilities, skills, and experience for a specific job.

The estimated total cash compensation range for this role is:

$180,000-$220,000 USD

To ensure the safety of patients and staff, many of our clients require post-offer health screenings and proof and/or completion of various vaccinations such as the flu shot, Tdap, COVID-19, etc. Any requests to be exempted from these requirements will be reviewed by Datavant Human Resources and determined on a case-by-case basis. Depending on the state in which you will be working, exemptions may be available on the basis of disability, medical contraindications to the vaccine or any of its components, pregnancy or pregnancy-related medical conditions, and/or religion.

This job is not eligible for employment sponsorship.

Datavant is committed to a work environment free from job discrimination. We are proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other legally protected status. To learn more about our commitment, please review our EEO Commitment Statement here (https://www.datavant.com/eeo-commitment-statement) . Know Your Rights (https://www.eeoc.gov/know-your-rights-workplace-discrimination-illegal) , explore the resources available through the EEOC for more information regarding your legal rights and protections. In addition, Datavant does not and will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay.

At the end of this application, you will find a set of voluntary demographic questions. If you choose to respond, your answers will be anonymous and will help us identify areas for improvement in our recruitment process. (We can only see aggregate responses, not individual ones. In fact, we aren't even able to see whether you've responded.) Responding is entirely optional and will not affect your application or hiring process in any way.

Datavant is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you need an accommodation while seeking employment, please request it here, (https://peopleteam.datavant.com/portal/en/newticket?departmentId=248697000248790029&layoutId=248697000248795462) by selecting the 'Interview Accommodation Request' category. You will need your requisition ID when submitting your request, you can find instructions for locating it here (https://app.tango.us/app/workflow/Greenhouse--Locating-Requisition-ID-2c7d618c8a8a423da4330ff12330695e) . Requests for reasonable accommodations will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

For more information about how we collect and use your data, please review our Privacy Policy (https://www.datavant.com/privacy-policy) .


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