Senior Kafka Platform Engineer | Scalable Data Streaming

AEP; Columbus (OH); On-site; USD 99,000 - 129,000; Full time

Job summary

American Electric Power (AEP) is seeking a senior Kafka platform engineer to own and operate the enterprise data movement backbone. The role focuses on stability, scalability, data safety, and enabling producer/consumer teams across the organization.

You will deploy Kafka connectors, containerize microservices on OpenShift, implement CI/CD with GitHub Actions and Argo CD, and monitor clusters with Confluent Control Center, Prometheus, Grafana, and Splunk.

Qualifications

• Strong hands-on Kafka experience in production environments.
• Understanding of distributed systems, messaging semantics, and fault tolerance.
• Experience with Kafka deployments in Kubernetes platforms (OpenShift, Docker).
• Experience with multi-region high availability on-prem deployments.
• Experience building producer/consumer apps using Kafka connectors.

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 monitoring tools (Confluent Control Center, Prometheus, Grafana, Dynatrace, Splunk).
• Build and maintain custom connectors for 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 for deploying Confluent connectors.
• Support real-time data streaming between on-prem and cloud/SaaS platforms.
• Coordinate with co-sourced/offshore teams for development and deployment tasks.
• Conduct code reviews and quality checks to ensure standards.
• Ensure reliability and scalability of Kafka pipelines via 12-Factor principles and microservices.

Skills

Kafka

OpenShift

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

GitHub Actions

Argo CD

Monitoring

Confluent

Cloud (AWS/Azure)

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

Confluent Platform

OpenShift

Docker

Kustomize

GitHub Actions

Argo CD

Prometheus

Grafana

Dynatrace

Splunk

Job description

American Electric Power (AEP) is seeking a senior Kafka platform engineer to own and operate the enterprise data movement backbone. The role focuses on stability, scalability, data safety, and enabling producer/consumer teams across the organization.

You will deploy Kafka connectors, containerize microservices on OpenShift, implement CI/CD with GitHub Actions and Argo CD, and monitor clusters with Confluent Control Center, Prometheus, Grafana, and Splunk.