Senior Kafka Platform Engineer – Cloud and Kubernetes

Senior Kafka Platform Engineer – Cloud and Kubernetes Krakow Hybrid Kafka Kafka Connect Kafka Control Center KSQL Kubernetes N/A Rest proxy Schema Registry English Expert, Senior Banking, Corporate Banking, Investment Banking Developer Ignite the future of real-time data - elevate Kafka infrastructure in a cloud-native environment! Krakow-based opportunity with hybrid work model (up to 3 days remote per week) As a Senior Kafka Platform Engineer, you will be working for our client, a leading financial services organization committed to operational excellence and technological innovation. In this role, you'll enhance and maintain the Kafka clusters operating within a Kubernetes environment, ensuring seamless data streaming and system reliability that empowers digital transformation across the enterprise. Your main responsibilities: Provide expert-level support in Kafka brokers, Zookeepers, Kafka Connect, Schema Registry, KSQL, Rest proxy, and Kafka Control Center. Manage high-volume Kafka Connect deployments utilizing schema registry, ensuring optimal performance and uptime. Administer Kafka platforms, including provisioning, access control, Kerberos, and SSL configurations. Develop and maintain Kafka connectors such as MQ, Elasticsearch, JDBC, File Stream, and JMS, along with custom connectors using Kafka core APIs. Create topics, set up redundancy clusters, deploy monitoring tools, configure alerts, and develop stubs for producers, consumers, and consumer groups to onboard applications across various languages and platforms. Perform root cause analysis of production incidents, documenting findings, and implementing proactive measures to improve system robustness. Automate routine tasks with scripts or automation tools; conduct benchmarking, performance tuning, and capacity planning. You're ideal for this role if you have: At least 5 years of experience working with Kafka and streaming data technologies. Strong understanding of Kafka architecture and operational best practices. Hands-on experience with Kafka in Kubernetes environments. Proficiency in DevOps tools such as GitHub, JIRA, Jenkins, and automation platforms like Ansible or Puppet. Experience with observability tools like DataDog, Prometheus, Grafana, and monitoring of distributed systems. Solid problem-solving and analytical skills, with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts effectively to engineers and stakeholders. It is a strong plus if you have: (optional) Experience with Confluent Kafka ecosystem. Knowledge of cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP. Certifications in Kafka or cloud technologies. Language Required for the role: Fluent English, with the ability to communicate effectively at a technical level. Eligibility to work in Europe: Only candidates with an existing legal right to work in the European Union will be considered for this role.