Senior Kafka Administrator (Remote)

Overview

Remote
$90 - $100
Contract - W2

Skills

Apache Kafka

Job Details

Senior Kafka Administrator Contract: Long-Term | Remote (U.S. Only, Eastern Time Zone Hours Required)
We are seeking a Senior Kafka Administrator with deep technical expertise in managing and supporting Kafka clusters in production environments. This mid-senior level role requires strong hands-on experience with Kafka architecture, distributed systems, security best practices, and high-availability configuration. The ideal candidate will ensure Kafka environments deliver consistent performance, reliability, scalability, and security while partnering with development teams to meet evolving business needs.
Key Responsibilities
  • Configure, manage, and administer Apache Kafka clusters in production environments.
  • Implement and maintain high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) strategies for Kafka ecosystems.
  • Manage Kafka brokers, ZooKeeper, Kafka Connect, Kafka Streams, and related components.
  • Develop and maintain backup, restore, and failover procedures.
  • Implement and enforce Kafka security standards, including SSL/TLS encryption, SASL, and Kerberos.
  • Monitor Kafka performance using Prometheus, Grafana, or equivalent tools; identify and resolve bottlenecks proactively.
  • Troubleshoot cluster issues to ensure stability, data integrity, and performance.
  • Collaborate with development teams to align Kafka infrastructure with business and application requirements.
  • Optimize Kafka architecture for maintainability, performance, and scalability.
  • Document configurations, procedures, best practices, and operational workflows.
Required Qualifications (Must Have)
  • Bachelor s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
  • 5+ years of hands-on experience administering Apache Kafka in a production environment.
  • Strong knowledge of Kafka architecture, including brokers, ZooKeeper, Kafka Connect, and Kafka Streams.
  • Experience implementing HA and DR strategies for distributed environments.
  • Proficiency with Kafka security: SSL/TLS encryption, SASL, Kerberos.
  • Experience with monitoring/alerting platforms such as Prometheus or Grafana.
  • Solid understanding of distributed systems, networking fundamentals, and data flow management.
  • Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Preferred Competencies
  • Experience with Apache Spark or related data engineering technologies.
  • Strong documentation practices for architecture, operational tasks, and incident response.
  • Ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams across infrastructure, development, and operations.
Position Details
  • Experience Level: Mid-Senior
  • Required Experience: 8 10 years total, with at least 5 years focused on Kafka administration
  • Industry: Information Technology & Services
  • Work Arrangement: Remote (U.S. based), must work Eastern Time Zone hours
  • Relocation: Not offered
  • Sponsorship: Not available
Employers have access to artificial intelligence language tools (“AI”) that help generate and enhance job descriptions and AI may have been used to create this description. The position description has been reviewed for accuracy and Dice believes it to correctly reflect the job opportunity.