Role:
ConfluentKafkaEngineer (Platform/Infrastructure Engineering)
Overview
We are seeking an experienced ConfluentKafkaEngineer to design, build, and operate a scalableKafkaplatform that enables self-service streaming for engineering teams. This is a hands-on engineering role focused on platform reliability, automation, governance, and developer enablement.
Key Responsibilities
KafkaPlatform Engineering
- Design, build, and operate large-scale ConfluentKafkaclusters (on-prem, cloud, or hybrid)
- ArchitectKafkafarms for high availability, fault tolerance, and performance
- Own capacity planning, scaling strategies, andKafkalifecycle management
- Define best practices for topic design, partitioning, replication, and retention
Self-Service Enablement & Tooling
- Design and build internal APIs and services to enableKafkaself-service
(topic lifecycle, ACL provisioning, schema onboarding)
- Develop CLI tools and developer-facing utilities for standardizedKafkaoperations
- Build automation using Python-based frameworks to reduce manual effort
- IntegrateKafkatooling with CI/CD pipelines and internal developer platforms
- Ensure standards and guardrails are enforced through automation
Standards, Guardrails & Governance
- Define and enforceKafkastandards, conventions, and policies
- Implement guardrails around security, quotas, data ownership, and cost controls
- Establish governance for schemas, topics, access control, and data lifecycle
- Partner with security and compliance teams to meet regulatory requirements
Reliability & Operations
- EnsureKafkaplatform stability, performance, and observability
- Implement monitoring, alerting, and incident response practices
- Lead root-cause analysis and continuous improvement efforts
- Plan and execute upgrades and platform evolution with minimal downtime
Collaboration & Enablement
- Partner with application, data, and platform engineering teams
- Provide documentation, examples, and best practices forKafkausage
- Act as aKafkasubject-matter expert across the organization
Required Qualifications
- 7+ years of experience in software, platform, or infrastructure engineering
- 5+ years of hands-on experience with ApacheKafkaand/or Confluent Platform
- Proven experience operatingKafkaat scale in production environments
- Deep understanding ofKafkainternals (brokers, KRaft/ZooKeeper, replication, ISR)
- Experience building self-service platforms with automation and guardrails
- Strong Python programming skills for APIs, CLIs, and automation tooling
- Experience developing RESTful APIs and internal platform services
- Experience building and maintaining CLI tools
- Familiarity with automation frameworks and workflow orchestration
- Proficiency with infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, Ansible, etc.)
- Strong Linux and networking fundamentals
- Experience with monitoring and observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana)
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience withKafkaConnect, Schema Registry, and ksqlDB
- Experience building developer platforms or internal PaaS tooling
- Experience with Python frameworks (FastAPI, Flask, Click, Typer)
- Cloud experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) and/or Kubernetes-basedKafkadeployments
- Experience operating multi-tenantKafkaplatforms
- Knowledge of data governance, security, and compliance
