Kafka Engineer

About the Role:

The Kafka Engineer will support and administer the Kafka Platform Service (KPS) within the IT Operations Middleware team. This role will focus on the deployment and operations of enterprise-grade event streaming infrastructure, ensuring reliability, scalability, and security of the Kafka platform. The role will work closely with Development Teams, Architecture, and Technology Managers to deliver and maintain a robust event-driven ecosystem.

Job Duties in Brief:

· Manage and operate Apache Kafka clusters across multiple environments

· Implement event streaming solutions aligned with enterprise standards

· Continuous improvement of the Kafka platform, including performance tuning and capacity planning

· Develop and maintain automation for Kafka provisioning, configuration, and operations using Infrastructure as Code

· Work closely with application teams to onboard new producers and consumers onto the platform

· Troubleshoot and drive resolution of Kafka-related issues with minimal impact to customers

· Ensure the platform complies with internal security requirements and data governance policies

· Maintain and improve observability of the Kafka platform including metrics, dashboards, and alerting

· Contribute to the development and maintenance of the Event Catalog and Subscription API

· Document runbooks, operational procedures, and platform standards

About You:

 The successful candidate is passionate about event-driven architecture and open-source technologies. You have hands-on experience managing Kafka clusters in production environments and are comfortable working in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. You understand the importance of data governance, security, and reliability in an enterprise setting. Experience and Technical Skills

· 3+ years of professional hands-on experience working with Apache Kafka or similar event streaming platforms

· Experience deploying and managing Kafka clusters in production environments, including broker configuration, topic management, and ACL administration

· Hands-on experience with Kafka ecosystem tools such as Schema Registry, Kafka Connect, MirrorMaker 2 and other Kafka-compatible platforms

· Strong understanding of event-driven architecture and messaging patterns

· Experience with Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform or Ansible

· Experience using centralized logging and monitoring systems (Prometheus, Grafana, EFK stack)

· Understanding of Kafka security including TLS, SASL-SCRAM, and ACL management

· Background in Linux/Unix administration

· Good understanding of networking concepts relevant to distributed systems

· Experience with CI/CD pipelines and automation tools (Jenkins, BitBucket, Rundeck)

· Prior experience in a 24/7 on-call rotation supporting critical applications

· Strong organizational and time-management abilities

· Critical thinker with problem-solving aptitude Education

· Bachelors' degree in Information Technology or equivalent experience

· Degree in a relevant technical field; additional certification such as Confluent Certified Administrator for Apache Kafka (CCAAK) will be a plus