[Remote] Senior Software Engineer, Big Data

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Zillow is a leading real estate platform in the U.S. seeking a Senior Software Engineer, Big Data to enhance their real-time data platform. This role involves designing and evolving the streaming infrastructure that supports internal services, focusing on scalability, reliability, and long-term sustainability.ResponsibilitiesDesign, build, and operate large‑scale Kafka and Flink infrastructure supporting tier‑0 and tier‑1 workloadsLead critical initiatives in our streaming platform modernization, including platform architecture evolutionDevelop and enhance streaming control planes, APIs, CLIs, and provisioning systems that standardize how teams create and operate streaming resources across ZillowImprove platform reliability through SLO definition, monitoring, alerting, incident response, and automationEnable simplified stream processing patterns for product and engineering teams, reducing the need for bespoke infrastructure or specialized expertiseEvaluate and integrate modern streaming ecosystem capabilities, including managed Kafka offerings, serverless stream processing, and real‑time AI integration patternsMake high‑quality architectural decisions under ambiguity, balancing reliability, cost, performance, and developer experience across competing prioritiesMentor engineers and contribute to raising the bar on distributed systems design, operational excellence, and long‑term platform strategySkills5+ years of experience building and operating large‑scale distributed systems, including independently owning critical production systems end to endSignificant production experience with Kafka and/or Flink, including performance tuning, state management, scaling strategies, and operational incident resolutionProficiency in at least one programming language such as Python, Java, or ScalaExperience operating services in cloud environments (for example, AWS) and working with container orchestration platforms like KubernetesExperience designing scalable, multi‑tenant systems with reliability, cost efficiency, and observability in mindExperience defining and operating against SLOs, participating in on‑call rotations, and leading incident response effortsFamiliarity with infrastructure‑as‑code tooling such as Terraform and CI/CD systemsStrong systems design skills, including the ability to reason about consistency, state management, fault tolerance, and throughputExperience collaborating across platform and product teams to define boundaries, contracts, and integration patternsExperience working with streaming vendors (for example, Confluent, MSK, Redpanda) or modernizing legacy Kafka/Flink infrastructureDemonstrated experience leading system design efforts for complex, multi‑team platform initiativesExperience integrating streaming systems with analytics platforms such as Databricks or building real‑time context engineering capabilities for AI systemsBackground in reliability engineering or platform engineeringBenefitsEquity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and locationCompany OverviewZillow is an online real estate marketplace for finding and sharing information about homes, real estate, and mortgages. It is a sub-organization of Zillow Group. It was founded in 2005, and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, USA, with a workforce of 5001-10000 employees. Its website is http://www.zillow.com.Company H1B SponsorshipZillow has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships, with 12 in 2026, 179 in 2025, 150 in 2024, 171 in 2023, 256 in 2022, 239 in 2021, 195 in 2020. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role.