Principal Platform Architect: Kubernetes & Kafka Expert

Request Technology, LLC; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Request Technology, LLC is seeking a Principal Platform Architect with strong Kubernetes and Kafka experience to define the technical direction for core platform capabilities across legacy and cloud-native environments.

This is a hands‑on architecture role with enterprise‑wide impact that will lead POC efforts, drive platform standards adoption, and serve as the senior technical voice on platform concerns across programs including the transformation.

Qualifications

• Over 10 years in infrastructure/platform architecture with enterprise scope.
• Hands-on Kubernetes design, including cluster architecture and security.
• Experience with Kafka deployments, topology design, and operations.
• Proven AWS architecture experience and GitOps pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Define and own core platform architecture including containers, streaming, CI/CD and observability.
• Develop target-state platforms with transition plans from current state.
• Own reference architectures for Kubernetes workloads and Kafka topologies.
• Drive cloud-native modernization and platform standards adoption.
• Collaborate with engineering and operations to ensure deployable, operable designs.

Skills

Kubernetes

Apache Kafka

Apache Flink

AWS

GitOps

CI/CD

Observability

Unix/Linux

Architectural leadership

Enterprise architecture

Education

BS degree in Computer Science

Tools

Terraform

Helm

ArgoCD

Flux

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

Prometheus

Grafana

Splunk

Job description

Request Technology, LLC is seeking a Principal Platform Architect with strong Kubernetes and Kafka experience to define the technical direction for core platform capabilities across legacy and cloud-native environments.

This is a hands‑on architecture role with enterprise‑wide impact that will lead POC efforts, drive platform standards adoption, and serve as the senior technical voice on platform concerns across programs including the transformation.