Magento – Bulk Operations Exception: Message queue topic “example.topic” is not configured

I am trying to implement Bulk Operations in Magento 2.3.1 using the docs here as a reference.

When I call scheduleBulk on the BulkManagementInterface the operation is saved and can be viewed from the Bulk Action log but I get the following exception and my consumer never processes the operation:

Message queue topic "example.topic" is not configured.

I have the following files in app/etc:

di.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:ObjectManager/etc/config.xsd">
    <type name="Magento\Framework\MessageQueue\MergerFactory">
        <arguments>
            <argument name="mergers" xsi:type="array">
                <item name="ExampleConsumer" xsi:type="string">Vendor\Module\Model\Merger</item>
            </argument>
        </arguments>
    </type>
</config>

communication.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:Communication/etc/communication.xsd">
    <topic name="example.topic" request="Magento\AsynchronousOperations\Api\Data\OperationInterface">
        <handler name="processExampleOperation" type="Vendor\Module\Model\Consumer" method="processOperation"/>
    </topic>
</config>

queue_consumer.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework-message-queue:etc/consumer.xsd">
    <consumer name="ExampleConsumer" queue="example_queue" connection="db" handler="Vendor\Module\Model\Consumer::processOperation"/>
</config>

queue_publisher.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework-message-queue:etc/publisher.xsd">
    <publisher topic="example.topic">
        <connection name="db" exchange="example.exchange" />
    </publisher>
</config>

queue_topology.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework-message-queue:etc/topology.xsd">
    <exchange name="example.exchange type="topic" connection="db">
        <binding id="ExampleBinding" topic="example.topic" destinationType="queue" destination="example_queue"/>
    </exchange>
</config>

Here is a snippet where I call scheduleBulk:

$bulkUuid = $this->_identityService->generateId();
$bulkDescription = 'Example Bulk Operation';
$operations = [];
$serializedData = [
    'entity_id' => $id,
    'entity_link' => $this->_urlBuilder->getUrl('vendor/controller/' . $id),
    'meta_information' => 'Meta Information',
];
$data = [
    'data' => [
        'bulk_uuid' => $bulkUuid,
        'topic_name' => 'example.topic',
        'serialized_data' => $this->_jsonHelper->jsonEncode($serializedData),
        'status' => OperationInterface::STATUS_TYPE_OPEN,
    ]
];

$operation = $this->_operationFactory->create($data);
$operations[] = $operation;


$userId = $this->_userContext->getUserId();
$result = $this->_bulkManagement->scheduleBulk($bulkUuid, $operations, $bulkDescription, $userId);

if (!$result) {
    throw new \Magento\Framework\Exception\LocalizedException(
        __('Something went wrong while processing the request.')
    );
}

When I run bin/magento queue:consumers:list my consumer is listed, and when I run start it is started.

The exception is thrown from

Magento\Framework\MessageQueue\Config in the getPublisherConfigByTopic
function on line 184

. If I log $this->queueConfigData->get() at the top of that function it is an empty array.

Is there an issue with my configuration above that would be preventing it from being loaded?

Note: I have modified the sample code above and replaced with example data.