Lead Integration Architect

Job Title: Lead Integration Architect (Kafka & Azure Cloud)



Location: Houston, TX (Onsite 3 Days/Week)



Experience: 12+ Years





Role Overview



We are seeking a visionary Integration Architect to design and deploy enterprise-scale, event-driven platforms. This is a high-visibility role for a "hands-on" leader who has personally built and scaled Kafka ecosystems from the ground up. You will be the primary authority on our pub-sub architecture, ensuring our integration layer is resilient, performant, and perfectly aligned with our Azure Cloud strategy.






Key Responsibilities





Kafka Architecture: Personally design, deploy, and manage distributed Kafka clusters. You will be responsible for the "First Principles" of the streaming layer, including topic strategy and schema registry.

Event-Driven Strategy: Build and maintain high-throughput Pub-Sub integration platforms that support real-time data flow across the enterprise.

Azure Integration: Lead the implementation of Azure-native services including Azure Data Factory (ADF), Event Hubs, and API Management (APIM) to create a cohesive hybrid-cloud ecosystem.

System Optimization: Own the technical deep-dives into cluster sizing, partition structuring, and consumer group balancing to ensure zero-lag performance.

Disaster Recovery (DR): Design and document robust DR and high-availability (HA) strategies for Kafka and Azure services, ensuring 99.99% uptime for mission-critical data.








Technical Requirements





Core Expertise: 12+ years in Integration Architecture with a mastery of Apache Kafka or Confluent Kafka.

Azure Mastery: Expert-level experience with the Azure Integration Suite (ADF, Logic Apps, Service Bus, and Event Hubs).

Distributed Systems: Proven ability to explain complex technical decisions regarding cluster sizing, partitioning logic, and offset management.

Data Security: Deep understanding of securing data-in-motion via OAuth, SSL/TLS, and Azure Key Vault.

DevOps: Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/Bicep) for deploying integration components.