Kafka Software Engineer (Confluent / Streaming Architecture)

We are looking for an experienced Kafka Software Engineer to support and operate a mission-critical streaming platform in a long-term engagement. This role is focused on ensuring stable, secure, and high-performance Kafka operations within an event-driven architecture environment. The ideal candidate combines strong hands-on Confluent Kafka expertise with advanced troubleshooting capabilities and consulting-level communication skills. You will act as a key technical advisor for development teams, helping optimize message flows, configurations, and platform reliability. The position requires a structured and proactive engineer capable of resolving complex system issues and guiding best practices. This is a full-time, long-term opportunity for a senior-level professional located in the EU or Ukraine.

Details

Location: EU or Ukraine

Work Model: Remote

Employment Type: Contract, Full-time

Duration: Long-term

Rate: Negotiable

Language Requirements: English – Upper-Intermediate

Competence Level: Senior Consultant level (4–6 years in role)

Key Responsibilities

Maintain and monitor the Kafka platform to ensure stable and reliable operation

Perform Kafka administration (topics management, configurations, ACLs, access control)

Provide 2nd and 3rd level support to internal users and development teams

Troubleshoot incidents, performance bottlenecks, and message flow issues

Optimize streaming pipelines and improve platform resilience

Advise development teams on Kafka usage, architecture, and best practices

Maintain structured technical documentation

Contribute to improvements in event-driven and streaming architecture design

Requirements

Strong hands-on experience with Confluent Kafka (mandatory)

4–6 years of professional experience in Kafka or streaming platform roles

Deep understanding of event-driven and streaming architectures

Experience with Kafka administration and operational support

Strong troubleshooting and root cause analysis skills

Consulting-level communication skills and ability to guide teams

Ability to analyze and resolve complex system interactions

Structured and documentation-driven working style

English – Upper-Intermediate

Nice to Have

Experience with schema registry, Kafka Connect, ksqlDB

Familiarity with monitoring tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk)

Experience in cloud-based Kafka environments (AWS, Azure, GCP)

Experience in high-availability or enterprise-scale streaming environments