Kafka Platform Engineer

American Electric Power • Columbus, OH

1d • $98,993 - $128,688 • Onsite

About The Position

This role is responsible for engineering and operating the enterprise Kafka platform, company's strategic data movement backbone. The focus is on platform stability, scalability, data safety, and enablement of producer/consumer teams.

Requirements

• Strong hands‑on Kafka experience in production environments.
• Understanding of distributed systems, messaging semantics, and fault tolerance.
• Experience with Kafka Deployments in Kubernetes Platform (OpenShift, Docker etc.)
• Experience with Multi-Region High Availability on-premises deployments
• Experience with building producer/consumer applications using Kafka connectors
• Experience building custom microservices in Python/Java
• Experience with Kafka security (TLS, ACLs, RBAC).
• Ability to troubleshoot complex, cross‑team data flow issues.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or related technical field is required.
• 7 years’ relevant work experience is required. An equivalent combination of education and related experience may be considered.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Schema Registry, Kafka Connect, MirrorMaker.
• Experience with OracleGolden Gate or similar CDC tool for data movement
• Familiarity with enterprise integration patterns and platforms (APIM, Camunda, webMethods, Oracle SOA or similar technologies).
• Confluent Certified Administrator for Apache Kafka® (CCAAK)
• Confluent Certified Developer for Apache Kafka® (CCDAK)
• Confluent Certified Cloud Operator (CCAC)

Responsibilities

• Deploy and manage Kafka connectors (CDC, JDBC, IBM MQ, Redshift, etc.) in Confluent Kafka environments.
• Containerize and deploy microservices and connectors on OpenShift using Docker, YAML, and Kustomize.
• Implement CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions and Argo CD for automated deployments.
• Perform basic Kafka administration tasks such as topic creation, partitioning, replication, and monitoring.
• Collaborate with architects and business teams to understand integration requirements and deliver scalable solutions.
• Monitor Kafka clusters and connector health using tools like Confluent Control Center, Prometheus, Grafana, Dynatrace, Splunk and OpenShift-native monitoring.
• Build and maintain custom connectors for specialized data sources and sinks.
• Support production deployments and troubleshoot issues across Kafka pipelines and OpenShift environments.
• Clear understanding of cloud managed services including AWS, Azure cloud to deploy Confluent connectors for data integrations
• Support real-time data streaming between on-prem systems and cloud/SaaS platforms.
• Work closely with business teams, architects, and product owners to understand integration requirements.
• Coordinate with co-sourced/offshore teams for development and deployment tasks.
• Conduct code reviews, quality checks, and ensure adherence to standards.
• Ensure reliability and scalability of Kafka pipelines by applying 12-Factor principles and microservices architecture.
• Collaborate with architects and platform teams to align Kafka solutions with enterprise integration patterns and cloud strategies.
• Automate deployment, monitoring, and operational tasks wherever possible.
• Own integration of deliverables from design through production deployment.
• Act as Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Kafka-based integrations and cluster administration.

Benefits

• Equal Employment Opportunity in all respects of the employer-employee relationship including recruiting, hiring, upgrading and promotion, conditions and privileges of employment, company sponsored training programs, educational assistance, social and recreational programs, compensation, benefits, transfers, discipline, layoffs and termination of employment to all employees and applicants without discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age, veteran or military status, disability, genetic information, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior