API Developer with Confluent Kafka (Local Only)

Company Overview

At 4A Consulting, we turn complexity into opportunity. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Baltimore, MD, we are a women-owned, boutique consulting firm specializing in delivering innovative, data-driven solutions to both the Federal Government and Fortune 500 clients. Our team blends deep industry knowledge with advanced technologies to design tailored strategies that drive measurable and sustainable outcomes. We pride ourselves on an agile, collaborative approach that helps organizations navigate challenges and seize emerging opportunities in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. At 4A, we don’t just deliver projects, we build trusted partnerships that empower our clients to lead with confidence in the digital age.

Position Overview

We are seeking an API Developer with expertise in Confluent Kafka to design, develop, test, secure, and monitor APIs in a Java environment, ensuring high efficiency, scalability, and security. This role requires deep hands-on experience with the Confluent Platform (Cloud/On-Prem) for event-driven microservices, real-time data streaming, and messaging integration within modern enterprise Java software architectures.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain secure, high-performance APIs and Confluent streaming pipelines using tools such as Postman, OpenAPI/Swagger, Kafka Streams, Confluent Connectors, Prometheus, Grafana, and OpenShift.
• Lead implementation of enterprise event-driven architectures and microservices utilizing Java, Spring Boot, and the Confluent Kafka ecosystem (Confluent Cloud / Confluent Platform).
• Leverage Confluent enterprise capabilities—including ksqlDB, Confluent Schema Registry, and pre-built Confluent Connectors—to streamline streaming integration and data enrichment.
• Collaborate closely with product design, data, and engineering teams to translate business requirements into scalable event-driven integration patterns.
• Actively participate in all Agile ceremonies and contribute to continuous delivery and DevOps automation practices.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor''''s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related field (Master''''s or Doctorate degree may substitute for required experience).
• 10+ years of modern software development experience with a solid understanding of designing, building, deploying, and running enterprise applications.
• 10+ years of expertise in API design/development (REST/SOAP), Java, Spring Boot, Spring, Angular (9 and above), and WebMethods.
• 3+ years of hands-on experience designing, building, and deploying event-driven solutions using Confluent Kafka (Confluent Schema Registry, Kafka Streams, ksqlDB, Producers/Consumers, Topics/Partitions).
• 8+ years of experience working on an Agile development team.
• Extensive experience implementing event-driven architectures using Java, Spring Boot, Confluent Connectors, and Kafka Streams.
• Deep understanding of core messaging concepts: topic partitioning, consumer groups, message serialization/deserialization (Avro, Protobuf, JSON Schema), Confluent Schema Registry governance, offset management, and delivery guarantees (At-least-once, Exactly-once).
• Experience handling high-throughput message processing, backpressure, dead-letter queues (DLQ), and failure-recovery patterns within Confluent.
• Design and document RESTful APIs and GraphQL schemas/resolvers following OpenAPI/Swagger specifications, enabling real-time streaming integrations alongside standard endpoints.
• Implement robust API and streaming security, including OAuth 2.0, JWT tokens, RBAC, mutual TLS (mTLS), and Confluent Role-Based Access Control / ACLs.
• Write comprehensive unit, integration, and end-to-end tests for both API endpoints and Confluent event pipelines (e.g., EmbeddedKafka, Confluent Test Topology Driver, JUnit, Mockito).
• Monitor API health, consumer lag, and cluster metrics using Confluent Control Center, Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, or JMX metrics.
• Experience working on Agile projects using tools like Git, Bitbucket, Jira, Agility, and Confluence.
• Knowledge of Section 508 accessibility compliance standards.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with Confluent Cloud, Confluent Platform, or running Strimzi / Confluent Operator on Kubernetes / OpenShift.
• Confluent Certified Developer for Apache Kafka (CCDAK) or Confluent Certified Administrator (CCAA) is a strong plus.
• WebMethods, Postman, OpenAPI, Prometheus, Grafana, Jenkins, Splunk, Nexus, Maven, OpenShift, XML/XSLT, VisualVM/Eclipse Profiler, and TDD/BDD (Cucumber, Selenium).
• Amazon Web Services (S3, AWS MSK / Confluent Cloud on AWS, AWS API Gateway, Lambda).
• Experience using Docker, Kubernetes, and OpenShift for containerized microservices and Confluent deployment management.
• Experience working in a CI/CD DevOps environment with automated build, test, and deployment pipelines for streaming apps.

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States. 

Why Join 4A 

• Be part of a mission-driven, women-owned consulting firm with a reputation for excellence.
• Work on high-impact projects across federal and commercial clients.
• Collaborate in an inclusive, growth-oriented culture where innovation is valued.
• Access career development programs, mentorship, and learning opportunities.
• Enjoy a comprehensive benefits package, flexible work options, and a focus on work-life balance.

Equal Opportunity Statement

4A Consulting is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to an inclusive hiring process. Applicants requiring a reasonable accommodation due to a disability may contact . This email is intended solely for accommodation requests.

Please note that 4A Consulting participates in the federal E-Verify program. Upon hire, we will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the US. 4A Consulting will only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9.