Confluent Kafka Engineer

at  Epam Systems

EPAM is a leading global provider of digital platform engineering and development services. We are committed to having a positive impact on our customers, our employees, and our communities. We embrace a dynamic and inclusive culture. Here you will collaborate with multi-national teams, contribute to a myriad of innovative projects that deliver the most creative and cutting-edge solutions, and have an opportunity to continuously learn and grow. No matter where you are located, you will join a dedicated, creative, and diverse community that will help you discover your fullest potential.
We are seeking a skilled and motivated Confluent Kafka Medium Engineer to join our dynamic team working on state of the art messaging/streaming technology to support Global HR, Finance and other corporate support areas. The ideal candidate will have a solid understanding of event streaming platforms and experience with Confluent Kafka. This role involves designing, developing, and maintaining our Kafka infrastructure, ensuring its reliability, scalability, and efficiency. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to integrate Kafka into our systems, support data streaming applications, and contribute to the continuous improvement of our CI/CD pipelines.

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor’s / Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a relevant and verifiable technical course tenure or related field
• 1-3 years of hands-on experience with Confluent Kafka or Apache Kafka
• Solid understanding of Kafka architecture, including brokers, zookeepers, producers, consumers, and topics
• Experience with Kafka Streams, Kafka Connect, and Schema Registry
• Proficiency in at least one programming language (e.g., Java, Scala, Python)
• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab, GitHub Actions, ArgoDB)
• Experience with containerization and orchestration tools (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes)
• Understanding of monitoring and logging tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack)
• Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to troubleshoot complex issues
• Strong communication skills and ability to work collaboratively in a multicultural, geographically decentralized team environment
• Preferred Skills
• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g. Azure, GCP)
• Knowledge of data serialization formats (e.g., Avro, JSON, Protobuf)
• Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Terraform, Ansible)
• Understanding of microservices architecture and related technologies
• Experience with Kotlin is a plus, but a strong JAVA knowledge and curiosity to learn, will go a long way

• Design, develop, and maintain Kafka infrastructure and Kafka-based applications
• Configure, monitor, and manage Kafka clusters, brokers, topics, and partitions
• Implement best practices for data streaming, message transformation, and data persistence
• Develop and manage Kafka Connectors and Kafka Streams applications
• Monitor and optimize the performance, reliability, and scalability of Kafka clusters
• Collaborate with development, operations, and data engineering teams from different brands/countries to integrate Kafka with other systems
• Troubleshoot and resolve Kafka-related issues
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of CI/CD pipelines to support Kafka deployments
• Maintain documentation for Kafka configurations, procedures, and troubleshooting guidelines