Kafka DevOps Engineer

Title Kafka DevOps Engineer

Type Direct Hire

Location Pittsburgh PA (Can be hybrid)

Salary Commensurate with experience level

MUST BE A US CITIZEN OR GREENCARD - NO STUDENT VISA ACCEPTED

Position Overview

Kafka DevOps Engineer

Required Skills:

Strong Java development experience

Expertise in Kafka, including Kafka Streams, Kafka Connect, and KSQL

Experience with API development and integration

Proficiency in Microservices architecture and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes)

Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and DevOps automation tools (Jenkins, GitLab CI, Terraform, Ansible)

Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

Demonstrated leadership abilities to interact with senior stakeholders Our client will not provide sponsorship for employment visas or participate in STEM OPT for this position.

Job Description:

Design, implement, and manage Kafka-based streaming solutions to support business-critical applications.

Develop and maintain Kafka clusters, ensuring high availability, scalability, and security.

Create and optimize APIs for seamless integration with Kafka and other microservices.

Automate deployments and infrastructure management using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles.

Monitor and troubleshoot Kafka performance, latency, and data flow issues.

Collaborate with software development and operations teams to ensure reliable data streaming and event-driven architecture.

Enhance DevOps practices to streamline release management, monitoring, and security compliance.

Provide technical guidance and leadership to junior engineers and cross-functional teams. Preferred Skills & Competencies:

Experience with Kafka performance tuning and security (ACLs, SSL, SASL, RBAC)

Knowledge of Kafka Schema Registry and Avro/Protobuf serialization

Hands-on experience with monitoring tools like Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, or ELK Stack

Familiarity with database technologies (SQL, NoSQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB)

Strong understanding of software release cycles and version control (Git, GitHub, GitLab) Work Experience & Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience)

3+ years of hands-on experience in Kafka administration, DevOps, and cloud-based deployments

Certifications in Kafka, AWS/Azure, or DevOps tools are a plus

Our Client's Expectations:

Customer-Focused: Understands customer needs and applies best practices to deliver tailored solutions.

Risk Management: Assesses and mitigates potential risks in development and deployment activities.