Kafka Engineer

Install, configure, and maintain Kafka clusters, including brokers, ZooKeeper nodes, and Kafka Connect.

Use monitoring tools to ensure Kafka clusters are operating optimally. This includes setting up metrics, alerts, and dashboards to monitor cluster health and performance.

Plan and execute scaling strategies for Kafka clusters to handle increasing data loads and to maintain performance.

Design and implement robust, scalable data pipelines using Kafka. This involves creating topics, partitions, and replication strategies.

Integrate Kafka with various data sources and sinks, such as databases, data warehouses, and other messaging systems.

Stream Processing: Develop and deploy stream processing applications using Kafka Streams or other stream processing frameworks like Apache Flink or Spark.

Performance Tuning and Optimization:

Tune Kafka for optimal performance, including adjusting configuration parameters, managing partitioning, and ensuring efficient producer/consumer performance.

Work on reducing latency and ensuring low-latency data processing for time-sensitive applications.

Implement and manage security measures, including authentication and authorization using tools like Kafka’s ACLs (Access Control Lists) and integration with enterprise security systems (e.g., Kerberos, LDAP).

Ensure data privacy and protection through encryption, both at rest and in transit, and comply with relevant data protection regulations.

Quickly respond to and resolve Kafka-related incidents, including broker failures, data loss scenarios, and performance degradations.

Perform thorough root cause analysis for any issues and implement solutions to prevent future occurrences.

Develop automation scripts for repetitive tasks such as cluster provisioning, configuration updates, and deployment processes.

Integrate Kafka with CI/CD pipelines to enable automated testing and deployment of Kafka configurations and stream processing applications.

Work closely with data engineers, software developers, DevOps teams, and other stakeholders to ensure Kafka solutions meet business requirements.

Maintain comprehensive documentation of Kafka architecture, configurations, and operational procedures to ensure knowledge transfer and operational continuity.

Plan and execute Kafka version upgrades, including testing and validation to ensure compatibility and stability.

Apply patches and updates to Kafka and associated components to address security vulnerabilities and improve functionality.

Analyze current usage patterns and forecast future needs to ensure the Kafka infrastructure can handle projected data loads.

Resource Allocation: Allocate resources effectively to maintain performance and avoid resource contention issues.

In-depth knowledge of Apache Kafka and related technologies (e.g., ZooKeeper, Kafka Connect, Kafka Streams).

Proficiency in programming languages such as Java, Scala, or Python.

Experience with containerization (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes), and infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, Ansible).

Familiarity with relational databases (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL) and NoSQL databases (e.g., Cassandra, MongoDB).

Strong command of Linux/Unix operating systems for managing Kafka environments.

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to troubleshoot and resolve issues efficiently.