Kafka Engineer

***Job Summary:*** *We are seeking a highly skilled Confluent Kafka Engineer to join our dynamic team. The ideal candidate will be responsible for the development, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), and production support of our Confluent Kafka-based systems. This role requires deep expertise in Kafka architecture, including Confluent Control Center, KSQLDB, Kafka Streams, and Kafka Connect. The engineer will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to ensure the smooth operation of our data streaming services and provide support across various environments.* ***Key Responsibilities:*** ***Development:*** * *Design, develop, and implement Kafka-based solutions to meet business requirements, utilizing Confluent Control Center, KSQLDB, Kafka Streams, and Kafka Connect.* * *Write and maintain high-quality code for Kafka producers, consumers, and stream processing applications.* * *Develop and manage Kafka connectors for seamless integration with external systems, ensuring data consistency and reliability.* * *Utilize Kafka Streams for real-time processing of streaming data, transforming and enriching data as it flows through the pipeline.* * *Employ KSQLDB for stream processing tasks, including real-time analytics and transformations.* * *Collaborate with data engineers, software developers, and DevOps teams to integrate Kafka solutions with existing systems.* * *Ensure all Kafka-based solutions are scalable, secure, and optimized for performance.* ***User Acceptance Testing (UAT):*** * *Develop and execute UAT plans to validate Kafka solutions, including components such as Kafka Streams, KSQLDB, and Kafka Connect, before deployment to production.* * *Work closely with QA teams to identify and resolve defects during the UAT phase.* * *Ensure all UAT activities comply with the organization’s standards and best practices.* * *Provide detailed reports on UAT outcomes and work with developers to implement necessary fixes.* ***Production Support:*** * *Monitor and maintain Kafka clusters, including components like Confluent Control Center, to ensure high availability and reliability of data streaming services.* * *Troubleshoot and resolve issues related to Kafka performance, latency, and data integrity, including issues specific to Kafka Streams, KSQLDB, and Kafka Connect.* * *Perform routine maintenance tasks such as patching, upgrades, and backups for Kafka clusters and associated components.* * *Implement monitoring solutions to proactively identify and mitigate potential production issues, leveraging Confluent Control Center for comprehensive cluster visibility.* * *Provide 24/7 support for production systems, including participation in on-call rotation.* ***Qualifications:*** ***Education:*** *Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.* ***Experience:*** * *3+ years of hands-on experience with Apache Kafka and Confluent Kafka in a production environment, including experience with Confluent Control Center, KSQLDB, Kafka Streams, and Kafka Connect.* * *Proven experience in Kafka development, including producer and consumer API, stream processing, and connector development.* * *Experience with Kafka cluster management, including setup, configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting.* * *Familiarity with distributed systems, microservices architecture, and event-driven design patterns.* * *Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure) and containerization (Kubernetes) is a plus.* ***Technical Skills:*** * *Proficiency in programming languages such as Java, Python, or Scala.* * *Strong knowledge of Kafka internals, including brokers, zookeepers, topics, partitions, and offsets.* * *Experience with monitoring tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana) and logging frameworks (e.g., Log4j, ELK Stack).* * *Proficiency in using Confluent Control Center for monitoring, managing, and optimizing Kafka clusters.* * *Expertise in Kafka Streams for building scalable, fault-tolerant stream processing applications.* * *Experience with KSQLDB for real-time processing and analytics on Kafka topics.* * *Strong understanding of Kafka Connect for integrating Kafka with external data sources and sinks.* * *Understanding of networking, security, and compliance aspects related to Kafka.* * *Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and automation tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI).*