Senior Software Engineer

Enterprise AI is moving from pilots to production, and the constraint is no longer the model - it's the data. Agents are only as good as what they can sense, trust, and act on in the moment, and real-time, event-driven data is becoming the foundation every serious AI system runs on.

Solace is the leading real-time data platform for the enterprise AI era. Established enterprises worldwide - including RBC Capital Markets, Bosch, Heineken, PSA Singapore, United Airlines, Schwarz Group, and hundreds more - have built their business around Solace to enable intelligent, real-time experiences, modernize their application and integration landscape, and create seamless digital journeys for their customers, partners, and employees.

So, the next time you drive a car, order furniture online, fly in a plane, check your bank balance on your phone, your positive experience could be a direct result of our technology - and your hard work!

About the Role

Solace is building Solace Diskless Streaming for Apache Kafka® (SSK), by the creators of Nisshi. SSK builds on Nisshi Diskless Streaming for Apache Kafka®, an open-source project licensed under Apache-2.0. Both implement the Apache Kafka® protocol and separate compute from storage. Stateless Protocol Engines scale out by adding more, and data is stored in object storage rather than on local disks.

Other systems depend on this platform, so writes must remain correct under heavy concurrent load. The work covers wire protocols, storage engines, and the coordination problems that arise in keeping order and consistency across stateless engines. The team focuses on scale, security, latency, and robustness, and tunes for tail latency, throughput, and cost per byte; object storage sets its own floor on latency. You will own pieces of the data path end to end, working in Rust. Part of that work takes place in public, in the Nisshi repository.

What You’ll Do

• Design and build core data-path components: request handling and storage, for a system that must hold strict ordering guarantees under load.
• Implement and evolve Apache Kafka® wire-protocol handling: parsing, framing, versioning, and backward compatibility with Apache Kafka® client libraries.
• Build and harden storage engines: offset and sequence coordination, compaction, retention, and correctness under concurrent access.
• Diagnose difficult defects: races, consistency edge cases, and security or robustness issues that surface only under real concurrent load.
• Profile and tune throughput and latency against measured production numbers.
• Work with the open-source community on Nisshi: review, discuss, and contribute.

What You’ll Bring to the Role

One of the Following, at a Deep Level:

• Hands-on experience building a high-throughput, log-based streaming or messaging system, such as Apache Kafka® or a comparable platform: wire protocols, client/server compatibility, and the internals of a system that can’t lose data.
• Deep experience with a database’s internals: storage engine, write-ahead-log or commit-log design, replication and consensus, or query execution. Any flavor counts (relational, graph, document, or otherwise). If you’ve solved these problems inside a database, you understand the ones we’re solving.

Both Paths Also Need:

• Strong systems-programming fundamentals (Rust, C++, Go, or Java).
• A track record of owning hard technical problems end to end, from design through production.
• Comfort working remotely and asynchronously, across time zones.

Preferred:

• Production experience in Rust.
• Working knowledge of the Apache Kafka® protocol, client libraries, and ecosystem.
• Hands-on experience working on the internals of a system like Apache Kafka®, Redpanda, Pulsar, WarpStream, NATS JetStream, or Solace Event Broker.
• Experience running one of these systems at production scale.
• Experience with security hardening, fuzzing, or performance engineering of network services.

Why You’ll Love Working at Solace

At Solace, we’re all about smart people, meaningful work, and good vibes.

• Work with brilliance – Our team is packed with some of the sharpest minds in the industry.
• Balance matters – We believe work should fit into your life, not the other way around.
• Hybrid-first – Flexibility is built into how we work, so everyone feels included and empowered.
• Values-driven – We live and breathe our core values: craftsmanship, trust, courage, freedom, momentum, humility, and human experience.
• Growth mindset – Our training programs are designed to help you level up, fast.
• Customer Obsessed – We’re proud of our world-class customer lineup (we’re not shy about it).
• Keep it fun – We’re social, we keep things simple, and we know how to have a good time.
• Creative culture – We’ve got a great sense of humour and we make cool videos on topics like MITT and this (check them out!).

At Solace, we are committed to a fair, inclusive, and transparent recruitment process. To help identify candidates whose qualifications best align with the role, we use artificial intelligence (AI) tools during the initial stage of resume screening. These tools compare submitted resumes to the job description, focusing on education, experience, and skills.

Importantly, all decisions beyond this initial screening - including interviews and final hiring - are made by our human recruitment team. AI is never used to make final hiring decisions.

Let’s Talk

Not sure you meet every requirement? That’s okay - we’re more interested in your potential and passion. If this role excites you, we’d love to hear from you.

Need accommodations during the hiring process? Just let us know - we’re here to support you.

Thanks to everyone who applies! While we wish we could connect with every candidate, only those selected to move forward will be contacted.

At Solace, we believe that diversity and inclusion drive innovation and growth, both in business and in life. We strive to create an enriching and safe workplace where you can be who you are. If you want to do the best work of your career and feel supported every step of the way, we encourage you to join us!