Apache Kafka jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills
As of 2026-05-17, Apache Kafka appears in 617 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — most often required for Software Engineer roles, with demand down 39% vs the prior 4 weeks.
Last updated · 90d ending 2026-05-17
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Frequently asked questions about Apache Kafka
+Is Apache Kafka in demand in 2026?
Yes. Apache Kafka appears in 617 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-05-17, with demand down 39% vs the prior 4 weeks. It is most often required for Software Engineer roles (31% of Software Engineer postings list it).
+What jobs require Apache Kafka?
According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-05-17, the job titles most likely to require Apache Kafka are Software Engineer (31% of postings list Apache Kafka), Data Engineer (10% of postings list Apache Kafka), Staff Software Engineer (6% of postings list Apache Kafka).
+What skills are commonly paired with Apache Kafka?
Across job postings indexed by Skillenai (90 days ending 2026-05-17), Apache Kafka most often appears alongside Python, Kubernetes, Java, AWS, Docker.
+Where is Apache Kafka most in demand?
As of 2026-05-17, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring Apache Kafka are Bengaluru, San Francisco, Hyderabad, New York City, Toronto, according to the Skillenai jobs index.
+How can I keep up with new Apache Kafka content and jobs?
Skillenai indexes news, blog posts, and research papers mentioning Apache Kafka alongside the jobs index. You can subscribe to a daily email digest of new Apache Kafka content from your Skillenai account.
Weekly job postings requiring Apache Kafka — last 90 days
Job titles most likely to require Apache Kafka
| Role | Postings mentioning | % requiring |
|---|---|---|
| Software Engineer | 190 | 30.8% |
| Data Engineer | 60 | 9.7% |
| Staff Software Engineer | 40 | 6.5% |
| Backend Engineer | 21 | 3.4% |
| Java Developer | 14 | 2.3% |
| Full Stack Developer | 11 | 1.8% |
| Staff Data Engineer | 10 | 1.6% |
| Platform Engineer | 9 | 1.5% |
| Site Reliability Engineer | 9 | 1.5% |
| Software Engineering Manager | 9 | 1.5% |
Top metros hiring for Apache Kafka
| Name | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Bengaluru | 33 | 21.2% |
| San Francisco | 29 | 18.6% |
| Hyderabad | 20 | 12.8% |
| New York City | 16 | 10.3% |
| Toronto | 15 | 9.6% |
| London | 14 | 9.0% |
| Seattle | 10 | 6.4% |
| Sunnyvale | 10 | 6.4% |
| Pune | 9 | 5.8% |
Skills commonly paired with Apache Kafka
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How this was computed
Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-05-17. Skills are resolved against the Skillenai canonical taxonomy, so the same entity is counted whether a posting writes 'Python', 'Python 3', or 'python'. Pages refresh weekly (or daily for the top-50 most-requested skills).
- source
- Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
- entity_id
- 21a17e15b5475e88
- data_as_of
- 2026-05-17
- window_days
- 90
The demand, skills, and geo numbers on this page come from the same Skillenai labor market index that powers our API. Use it for compensation benchmarking, hiring-competition analysis, and skill-adoption tracking.
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