Job Description :

Experience : 8+ years (including 5+ years hands-on with Apache Kafka platform engineering)

Key Responsibilities :

- Manage Kafka cluster lifecycle : provisioning, configuration tuning, upgrades, and decommissioning

- Deploy, operate, and maintain Kafka on Kubernetes using Confluent for Kubernetes (CFK)

- Monitor cluster health and set up alerting across consumer lag, broker health, and topic throughput

- Design and operate disaster recovery and multi-region replication strategies

- Enforce Kafka security policies including access reviews and ACL management

- Troubleshoot performance bottlenecks, consumer lag issues, and broker failures

Must Have :

- 8+ years in messaging/streaming platform engineering, with 5+ years on Apache Kafka platform engineering

- Hands-on administration of self-managed on-premises Kafka clusters in KRaft mode

- Confluent for Kubernetes (CFK) : operator management and custom resource configuration

- Kafka Connect : connector lifecycle, SMTs, and error handling

- Confluent Schema Registry; schema evolution and compatibility modes

- Kafka security : TLS/mTLS, SASL, and ACL configuration and troubleshooting

- Proficiency in Java or Scala; Python for scripting and tooling

- Observability : Prometheus, Grafana, and OpenTelemetry

Good to Have :

- Apache Flink for complex event processing beyond Kafka Streams

- CDC pipelines into Kafka

- Operational experience with Mirror Maker 2 or Confluent Replicator in multi-DC setups

- Knowledge of event-driven architecture or data mesh principles

- Build and maintain infrastructure-as-code for Kafka resources

- Integrate Kafka platform changes with CI/CD pipelines for topic and schema deployments