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Kafka Dev Ops Engineer Entry Level

Job ID
R0114746
Date posted
02/09/2026

Why USAA?

At USAA, our mission is to empower our members to achieve financial security through highly competitive products, exceptional service and trusted advice. We seek to be the #1 choice for the military community and their families.

Embrace a fulfilling career at USAA, where our core values – honesty, integrity, loyalty and service – define how we treat each other and our members. Be part of what truly makes us special and impactful.

The Opportunity

As an entry-level Kafka Dev Ops Engineer, this person will help support and maintain our Apache Kafka runtime infrastructure. In this role, the engineer will assist with day to day operations of Kafka clusters, including basic configuration, monitoring, troubleshooting, and performance checks. They will learn how to ensure the platform runs reliably and supports the organization’s data streaming needs.

This role is designed for someone early in their career who is eager to grow their skills in distributed systems and enterprise messaging technologies. The engineer will work closely with senior team members to follow established processes, contribute to platform improvements, and gain hands on experience with Kafka operations, automation, and best practices.

We offer a flexible work environment that requires an individual to be in the office 4 days per week. This position will be based in Plano, TX or San Antonio, TX. Relocation assistance is not available for this position.

What you'll do:

  • Learns how to design scalable IT system infrastructure, starts to implement system change, learns how to automate service delivery and maintenance tasks and starts to build monitoring and tooling activities.

  • Learns how to independently resolve production issues through troubleshooting of systems.

  • Under direct supervision, analyzes outages in order to identify opportunities.

  • Learns how to experiment with new patterns and technologies.

  • Learns engineering best practices, concepts, and patterns.

  • Gathers data to understand the customer and learns how to identify solutions and ideas for the customer.

  • Learns how to evaluate potential solutions.

  • Develop software defined infrastructure in code in CI/CD Pipelines

  • Ensures risks associated with business activities are effectively identified, measured, monitored, and controlled in accordance with risk and compliance policies and procedures.

What you have:

  • Bachelor’s Degree or 4 additional years of experience beyond the minimum requirement can be used in lieu of a degree OR Approved certification from CodeUp, Galvanize, VetFIT (Veterans for IT) or eFIT (Employees for IT).

  • 0 to 2 years of infrastructure experience or applicable IT experience such as IT Management, Software Development, Data Engineering, and Agile Product/Release Management.

  • Foundational and conceptual knowledge of function/discipline and demonstrated application of knowledge, skills, and abilities towards work products.

  • Foundational level of business acumen in the areas of business operations, risk management, industry practices and emerging trends.

  • Basic understanding of cloud technologies and tools.

What sets you apart:

  • Experience with configuration management and DevOps tools such as Puppet and GitLab; foundational knowledge of Kafka.

  • Exposure to monitoring platforms like Prometheus and Datadog.

  • Experience or familiarity with container orchestration environments such as AWS EKS and Kubernetes.

Salary: The salary range for this position is: $62,470.00 - $111,940.00

USAA does not provide visa sponsorship for this role. Please do not apply for this role if at any time (now or in the future) you will need immigration support (i.e., H-1B, TN, STEM OPT Training Plans, etc.).

Compensation: USAA has an effective process for assessing market data and establishing ranges to ensure we remain competitive. You are paid within the salary range based on your experience and market data of the position. The actual salary for this role may vary by location.

Employees may be eligible for pay incentives based on overall corporate and individual performance and at the discretion of the USAA Board of Directors.

The above description reflects the details considered necessary to describe the principal functions of the job and should not be construed as a detailed description of all the work requirements that may be performed in the job.

Benefits: At USAA our employees enjoy best-in-class benefits to support their physical, financial, and emotional wellness. These benefits include comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans, 401(k), pension, life insurance, parental benefits, adoption assistance, paid time off program with paid holidays plus 16 paid volunteer hours, and various wellness programs. Additionally, our career path planning and continuing education assists employees with their professional goals.

For more details on our outstanding benefits, visit our benefits page on USAAjobs.com.

Applications for this position are accepted on an ongoing basis, this posting will remain open until the position is filled. Thus, interested candidates are encouraged to apply the same day they view this posting.

USAA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

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