Brauns Brian
@braunsbrian
Senior data engineer with 10+ years building real-time streaming platforms, Kafka CDC, and scalable cloud data pipelines.
United StatesWhat I'm looking for
I’m a Senior Data Engineer with 10+ years designing and scaling real-time data platforms, distributed systems, and cloud-native data pipelines. I focus on building resilient, high-throughput architectures and delivering measurable performance improvements through strong data engineering fundamentals.
At Weedmaps, I led end-to-end data platform architecture and strategy using Apache Kafka, CDC pipelines, AWS services, and distributed systems, improving real-time data availability by 40%. I designed scalable pipelines with Kafka Connect, Schema Registry, and microservices architecture—boosting processing throughput by 3x—then optimized ingestion and transformation workflows to reduce data latency by 35% and achieve 99.9% system uptime using Docker, ELK stack, and monitoring.
I’ve also architected and automated real-time streaming platforms at DealerSocket using Kafka, Zookeeper, Kafka Connect, and Schema Registry, including building a custom MSSQL CDC connector that enabled near real-time synchronization and reduced batch dependency by 70%. Earlier, as a Software Engineer at ViaSat Inc, I built distributed messaging for mission-critical defense applications using C#, .NET, and Kafka, improving inter-system reliability by 35%.
Experience
Work history, roles, and key accomplishments
Led end-to-end data platform architecture using Apache Kafka and CDC pipelines on AWS, improving real-time data availability by 40%. Built streaming infrastructure and optimized ingestion/transformation, increasing processing throughput 3x, reducing latency 35%, and reaching 99.9% uptime.
Senior Data Engineer
DealerSocket
Aug 2016 - Oct 2018 (2 years 2 months)
Architected and deployed a real-time data streaming platform using Apache Kafka, ZooKeeper, Kafka Connect, and Schema Registry for event-driven systems. Developed a custom MSSQL CDC connector reducing batch dependency by 70% and automated deployments to cut deployment time by 50%.
Developed network control systems for satellite communications using C#, .NET, WCF, and WPF. Built distributed messaging with Apache Kafka and Protocol Buffers, improving inter-system communication reliability by 35%, and optimized build/deployment pipelines to reduce build failures by 25%.
Education
Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework
University of California, Irvine
Master of Science, Computer Science
2013 - 2015
Earned a Master of Science (M.S.) in Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine from 2013 to 2015.
San Diego State University
Bachelor's Degree, Information and Decision Systems
2006 - 2009
Earned a Bachelor's Degree in Information and Decision Systems at San Diego State University from 2006 to 2009.
Availability
Location
United StatesAuthorized to work in
Job categories
Skills
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