Kafka Architect || Local

Job Description: Principal Kafka Engineer

Role Overview & Engagement Details

• Job Title: Principal Kafka Engineer
• Duration: 6-Month Contract
• Work Location: Cincinnati, OH (100% Onsite – 5 days/week | Local Candidates ONLY)
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Vendor Screening Criteria & Non-Negotiables****Top 4 Non-Negotiable Technical Skills

1. Java (Object-Oriented Programming): Strong core OOP principles and backend development with Spring Boot.
2. Apache Kafka / Confluent Platform: 3–5+ years of dedicated hands-on administration, cluster management, and streaming setup.
3. Software Architecture: Expertise in Domain-Driven Design, Enterprise Application Integration, and architectural artifact creation.
4. Vulnerability Management & Security: Proactive security risk mitigation, access control, and compliance management.

Required Soft Skills

• Self-Starter & Driven: Takes complete ownership without needing micromanagement.
• Effective Communication: Clear written and verbal communication across distributed global teams.
• Negotiation & Problem Solving: Ability to drive consensus and align technical direction across platform and application teams.

Automatic Disqualifiers (Do Not Submit Candidates Who Fit Any Below)

• Candidates living outside or unwilling to relocate locally to Cincinnati, OH for 5-day onsite work.
• Candidates who cannot independently drive projects, initiative, or problem resolution.
• Candidates who struggle to comprehend technical requirements or fail to prioritize effectively.
• Candidates unable or unwilling to support production incidents and high-availability operations.
• Candidates lacking experience or awareness in mitigating security risks and vulnerabilities.

Job Summary

We are seeking a Principal Kafka Engineer to lead the management, scaling, and optimization of our enterprise event-streaming ecosystem. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in Apache/Confluent Kafka, applies object-oriented programming principles to advanced automation, and leverages ITSM practices to deliver reliable, high-quality service across production environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Kafka Platform Administration: Deploy, configure, and maintain highly available Kafka clusters across on-premises and cloud environments (Azure and Google Cloud Platform). Manage topics, partitions, and replication strategy to guarantee platform resiliency.
• OOP-Based Development & Automation: Design and build reusable frameworks, automation tools, and APIs using Java to streamline cluster provisioning, monitoring, and self-service developer onboarding.
• ITSM & Incident Management: Manage the platform lifecycle using ITSM processes (incident, problem, change management) to minimize service downtime and ensure strict SLA compliance.
• Security & Vulnerability Mitigation: Implement and enforce security controls, authentication mechanisms, and continuous vulnerability management across streaming infrastructure.
• Performance Tuning & Observability: Monitor cluster health and performance using dynaTrace, Prometheus, and Grafana. Execute capacity planning and performance tuning for high-throughput, low-latency data pipelines.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with DevOps and application teams to deliver architectural guidance on event-driven patterns, producer/consumer optimization, and enterprise integration.

Required Qualifications****Experience

• 10+ years in software development or systems engineering.
• 3–5+ years of hands-on Apache Kafka administration experience in enterprise production environments.

Technical Stack & Skills

• Kafka Ecosystem: Deep expertise in Apache Kafka / Confluent Platform, including Schema Registry, Kafka Connect, Avro, and KSQL.
• Cluster Management: Proficient with Zookeeper and KRaft architectures.
• Programming: Advanced Object-Oriented Programming in Java (with Spring Boot); working capability in Go or Python.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Hands-on experience with Terraform, Ansible, or Salt.
• Architecture & Design: Mastery of software design patterns, Domain-Driven Design (DDD), Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), and maintaining architectural documentation.
• Containers & Orchestration: Proficient with Docker and Kubernetes.
• DevOps & CI/CD: Expertise in GitHub Actions and automated deployment pipelines.
• Observability: Hands-on experience with dynaTrace, telemetry, and APM tools.
• Infrastructure: Solid understanding of networking, storage, virtualization, and cloud infrastructure architectures.
• Production Operations: Proven capability supporting Highly Available, Low-Latency enterprise production applications across globally distributed teams.
• Methodologies: Strong foundation in ITSM/ITIL frameworks and Agile practices.

Desired Qualifications (Negotiable / Plus)

• Front-end development experience with Angular, React (preferred), or TypeScript frameworks.
• Familiarity with FinOps practices and cloud cost optimization.
• Prior experience working within dedicated platform/enablement engineering teams.

Preferred Certifications

• Confluent Certified Administrator for Apache Kafka (CCAAK)
• Cloud Architecture Certifications (e.g., Azure Certified Solutions Architect)
• TOGAF