Lead Confluent Kafka Engineer

We are seeking a Lead Consultant – Confluent Kafka to lead Kafka platform administration, troubleshooting, maintenance, automation, and production support. The role requires strong Confluent Kafka expertise, client-facing communication, and team leadership experience.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Administer and support Confluent Platform and Confluent Cloud environments.
• Troubleshoot Kafka connectivity, consumer groups, consumer lag, serialization, permissions, and AVRO schema issues.
• Monitor Kafka using Datadog, Prometheus, Conduktor, and related observability tools.
• Manage Kafka components including Replicator, Connectors, ZooKeeper, and KSQL.
• Automate Kafka administration using Terraform and CI/CD/DevSecOps practices.
• Manage Kafka configurations, including users, ACLs, topics, connectors, and application configurations.
• Perform platform upgrades, patching, certificate renewals, and vulnerability remediation.
• Troubleshoot Kafka client applications built with Java, .NET, Python, and Spring Boot.
• Maintain and execute DR runbooks in accordance with security and risk requirements.
• Collaborate with product and application teams on releases, documentation, enhancements, and automation.
• Coordinate with Confluent or cloud providers to resolve platform issues.
• Lead and mentor team members and communicate effectively with clients and stakeholders.
• Support AutoSys, including agent installation, maintenance, patching, upgrades, and service checkouts.

Required Skills & Experience

• 10+ years of IT experience with strong Kafka platform experience.
• Hands-on experience with Confluent Kafka / Confluent Platform / Confluent Cloud.
• Strong Kafka administration, troubleshooting, and production support experience.
• Experience with Kafka monitoring and observability tools such as Datadog, Prometheus, and Conduktor.
• Experience with Terraform, CI/CD, and DevSecOps.
• Strong understanding of Kafka security, ACLs, topics, connectors, schemas, and consumer groups.
• Experience with DR, patching, upgrades, certificates, and vulnerability remediation.
• Experience troubleshooting Java, .NET, Python, and Spring Boot Kafka applications.
• Strong client-facing, team leadership, and communication skills.