Kafka Platform Engineer

Description

The role is to design, build and improve software that gives the business, the platform and the technology side the capabilities they need, for both customers and colleagues.

You will help build and extend the enterprise streaming platforms that move data securely, reliably and in real time across the company.

The work supports scalable, resilient and secure platform services that sit under key business services and help the organisation innovate.

You will work with cloud-native tools, distributed systems and event-driven designs at enterprise scale, improving reliability, security and automation.

You will have a hand in the direction of the company's strategic streaming capabilities and in solutions that make a visible business difference.

This is an analyst-level role. You will be expected to show deep technical knowledge in your area and to guide others where needed.

Responsibilities

• Build and deliver high-quality software with mainstream languages, frameworks and tools, keeping code scalable, maintainable and fast.
• Work with product managers, designers and other engineers to define requirements, choose solution approaches and make sure new work fits the wider business goals and integrates cleanly.
• Take part in code reviews, share knowledge with peers and help build a culture that values code quality.
• Keep up with industry trends and new technology, and contribute to internal technology communities to help others grow.
• Write code that follows secure practices, reducing vulnerabilities and protecting sensitive data.
• Write unit tests that confirm sound design, readable code and reliable behaviour.
• Complete assigned work on time and to a high standard, and keep looking for ways to improve it.
• Apply expert knowledge in your area, act as an adviser where useful, and influence decisions with your own area's expertise.
• Solve problems by choosing suitable solutions from your experience and from precedent.
• Take ownership of risk and controls for the work you own or contribute to, and work within the relevant rules, regulations and code of conduct.
• Report breaches of policy or procedure to the right people, and help put new policies in place when they are adopted to manage risk.
• Understand how your sub-function fits into the wider function and how the areas contribute to shared goals.
• Make judgements based on facts, with close attention to detail.
• Guide and persuade colleagues, and explain complex or sensitive information clearly.
• Act as a point of contact for stakeholders outside your function, and build your own network inside and outside the organisation.
• If you lead people, guide and support their development, allocate work, coordinate team resources, and follow the four LEAD behaviours: listen and be authentic, energise and inspire, align across the enterprise, and develop others.
• Take responsibility for the results of your team's day-to-day operations.
• Influence the work of related teams in your area and partner with other functions and business areas.

Requirements

• Design, build and run enterprise-scale Confluent Kafka platforms that support business-critical workloads.
• Build secure, resilient and highly available streaming solutions, including those spanning several regions and hybrid cloud setups.
• Apply distributed systems, event-driven design and platform automation, including Infrastructure as Code, to engineering problems across the platform.
• Develop and improve Kafka security, including RBAC, ACLs, OAuth, SSL/TLS and secrets protection.
• Work with core Confluent Platform components: Kafka Connect, Schema Registry, Cluster Linking and ksqlDB.
• Highly valued: experience with streaming technologies such as Kafka Streams, Flink or Spark Streaming.
• Highly valued: experience with cloud-native technologies and Kubernetes-based platforms in enterprise settings.
• Highly valued: strong collaboration, communication and problem-solving skills, and the ability to work across engineering, architecture, security and infrastructure teams.
• You may be assessed on risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking, digital and technology, and job-specific technical skills.

Conditions

The role is hybrid and based in Knutsford or Northampton.