Apache Flink is a high-performance stream processor that handles millions of events per second with low latency and exactly-once semantics. Unlike Spark Streaming (micro-batches), Flink is true stream processing. Advanced practitioners design event-time windowing, complex state management, and rescalable operators. Demand is strong in fintech, advertising, and real-time analytics. Senior Flink engineers earn $140k-200k+ in the US.
Apache Flink is a stream processing framework that continuously processes unbounded data streams with millisecond latency. Unlike Spark Streaming (which processes data in micro-batches), Flink is a true stream processor with a single code path for batch and streaming. Flink's strengths: event-time semantics (handles out-of-order data), exactly-once delivery, stateful processing, and scalability to millions of events per second. You define a DAG of operations, and Flink parallelizes and distributes it across a cluster.
| Region | Junior | Mid | Senior |
|---|---|---|---|
| USA | $105k | $160k | $230k |
| UK | £75k | £120k | £170k |
| EU | €80k | €125k | €180k |
| CANADA | C$115k | C$170k | C$250k |
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