Job Title: Kafka Platform Engineer

Primary Skills: AKANA API Management Platform (E2), Apache Kafka, Cloud & DevOps Tools

Role Overview

The Kafka Platform Engineer is responsible for designing, deploying, and managing scalable, secure, and highly available Kafka-based streaming platforms across hybrid environments. This role involves platform engineering, security enforcement, automation, and enabling event-driven architectures across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

1. Platform Engineering & Operations

• Design, deploy, and manage Apache Kafka clusters across on-premises, cloud, and Kubernetes environments.
  

• Ensure high availability, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and effective capacity planning.
  

• Implement and maintain Kafka ecosystem components, including Kafka Connect, Schema Registry, and ksqlDB.
  

• Automate provisioning, configuration, and lifecycle management using Terraform, Ansible, Helm, and scripting.
  

• Configure and maintain observability solutions such as Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, ELK, and Datadog.
  

• Perform performance tuning, including partitioning, replication, retention policies, ISR management, and broker configurations.
  

2. Security & Governance

• Implement authentication and authorization mechanisms (SASL, ACLs, RBAC).
  

• Enforce encryption standards for data in transit and at rest (TLS, AES).
  

• Collaborate with governance teams to manage schema lifecycle, compatibility policies, and data standards.
  

3. Development & Integration

• Develop and maintain Kafka connectors, producers, consumers, and event-streaming pipelines.
  

• Collaborate with application and platform teams to enable event-driven architecture adoption.
  

• Provide architectural guidance and best practices for scalable and resilient Kafka integrations.
  

4. Troubleshooting & Support

• Diagnose and resolve issues related to Kafka brokers, ZooKeeper/KRaft, networking, and cluster performance.
  

• Conduct root cause analysis and implement corrective/preventive actions.
  

• Participate in on-call rotations to ensure platform uptime and SLA adherence.
  

Required Skills & Technologies

• Apache Kafka & Ecosystem (Kafka Connect, Schema Registry, ksqlDB)
  

• AKANA API Management Platform
  

• Terraform, Ansible, Helm
  

• Kubernetes & Cloud Platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP)
  

• Monitoring: Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, Splunk, Datadog
  

• Security: SASL, TLS, ACLs, RBAC, Encryption Standards
  

• Scripting: Python, Bash (preferred)
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with event-driven architecture and distributed systems
  

• Strong troubleshooting and performance tuning skills
  

• Familiarity with API management platforms and integration patterns
  

• Experience working in Agile/DevOps environments
  

Soft Skills

• Strong problem-solving and analytical thinking
  

• Effective communication and cross-team collaboration
  

• Ability to work in high-availability, production-critical environments