Apache Kafka Developer

We are seeking an experienced Kafka Platform Engineer to architect, deploy, and operate large-scale Apache Kafka and Confluent platform environments supporting mission-critical event-driven workloads. In this role you will own the Kafka platform end-to-end, including cluster sizing, configuration, security, automation, observability, and developer enablement. The ideal candidate will combine deep Kafka internals knowledge with strong DevOps and SRE practices, and will partner with application teams to deliver a reliable, performant, and developer-friendly streaming platform. In this role you will work closely with cross-functional partners - product, design, engineering, operations, and business stakeholders - to translate ambiguous requirements into well-engineered solutions, and will be expected to raise the bar through code review, design review, and mentorship of more junior engineers. The successful candidate brings strong engineering discipline, a clear communication style, and a track record of shipping meaningful work that holds up well in production.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Five or more years of experience operating Apache Kafka or Confluent Platform in production.
• Deep, hands-on knowledge of Kafka internals (partitions, replication, ISRs, consumer groups).
• Strong experience with Kafka security (SASL, mTLS, ACLs, RBAC).
• Hands-on experience with Kafka Connect, Schema Registry, and either Kafka Streams or ksqlDB.
• Experience with HA/DR strategies for Kafka.
• Strong scripting skills in Python, Bash, or Go.
• Hands-on experience with infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Ansible).
• Working knowledge of observability tooling for Kafka.
• Excellent troubleshooting, communication, and documentation skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Confluent Certified Administrator or Developer credentials.
• Experience operating Kafka on Kubernetes (Strimzi, Confluent Operator).
• Exposure to managed Kafka services (AWS MSK, Azure Event Hubs Kafka API).
• Familiarity with stream processing frameworks (Flink, Spark Streaming).
• Experience with data governance and lineage for streaming data.