Kafka Devops Engineer

Title Kafka DevOps Engineer
Type Direct Hire
Location Pittsburgh PA (Can be hybrid)
Salary Commensurate with experience level

MUST BE A US CITIZEN OR GREENCARD - NO STUDENT VISA ACCEPTED

Position Overview
Kafka DevOps Engineer

Required Skills:

• Strong Java development experience
• Expertise in Kafka, including Kafka Streams, Kafka Connect, and KSQL
• Experience with API development and integration
• Proficiency in Microservices architecture and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and DevOps automation tools (Jenkins, GitLab CI, Terraform, Ansible)
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Demonstrated leadership abilities to interact with senior stakeholders

Our client will not provide sponsorship for employment visas or participate in STEM OPT for this position.

Job Description:

• Design, implement, and manage Kafka-based streaming solutions to support business-critical applications.
• Develop and maintain Kafka clusters, ensuring high availability, scalability, and security.
• Create and optimize APIs for seamless integration with Kafka and other microservices.
• Automate deployments and infrastructure management using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles.
• Monitor and troubleshoot Kafka performance, latency, and data flow issues.
• Collaborate with software development and operations teams to ensure reliable data streaming and event-driven architecture.
• Enhance DevOps practices to streamline release management, monitoring, and security compliance.
• Provide technical guidance and leadership to junior engineers and cross-functional teams.

Preferred Skills & Competencies:

• Experience with Kafka performance tuning and security (ACLs, SSL, SASL, RBAC)
• Knowledge of Kafka Schema Registry and Avro/Protobuf serialization
• Hands-on experience with monitoring tools like Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, or ELK Stack
• Familiarity with database technologies (SQL, NoSQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB)
• Strong understanding of software release cycles and version control (Git, GitHub, GitLab)

Work Experience & Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
• 3+ years of hands-on experience in Kafka administration, DevOps, and cloud-based deployments
• Certifications in Kafka, AWS/Azure, or DevOps tools are a plus

Our Client's Expectations:

Customer-Focused: Understands customer needs and applies best practices to deliver tailored solutions.
Risk Management: Assesses and mitigates potential risks in development and deployment activities.