Senior Kafka Platform Engineer (12-month contract)

DeARX; Sandton; On-site; ZAR 1,000,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

DeARX in Sandton seeks an experienced Senior Kafka Platform Engineer to own and evolve a high-availability Kafka deployment. You will manage platform stability, security, and performance while driving DevOps practices across development, test, and production environments.

You will mentor the team, implement IaC, and collaborate with architects and business stakeholders to deliver scalable event-driven solutions within the Centre of Excellence.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in Systems or Platform Engineering.
• 4+ years Kafka administration experience with Confluent Platform/Confluent Cloud.
• Experience in DevOps and Agile environments.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive evolution, stability, and continuous improvement of enterprise technology assets.
• Lead engineering and operational management of Kafka platforms across development, testing, and production environments.
• Ensure platform reliability, scalability, performance, and availability through proactive monitoring and optimisation.
• Automate infrastructure provisioning, deployments, and operational processes using Infrastructure as Code and DevOps practices.
• Implement and maintain Kafka security standards, including authentication, encryption, and access controls.
• Build and enhance platform observability using modern monitoring, logging, and alerting solutions.
• Troubleshoot complex production issues and provide expert-level support for critical platform services.
• Collaborate with developers, architects, infrastructure teams, and business stakeholders to deliver robust event-driven solutions.
• Drive engineering standards, governance, and best practices within the Centre of Excellence (CoE).
• Mentor team members and contribute to continuous platform innovation.

Skills

Kafka administration

Platform engineering

DevOps

Python/Bash scripting

CI/CD

Terraform/Ansible

Azure

Kafka security

Monitoring/observability

Tools

Confluent Platform

Confluent Cloud

Linux

Terraform

Ansible

Python

Bash

Azure

Prometheus

Grafana

ELK Stack

Splunk

Azure Monitor

Job description

Are you an experienced Kafka Platform Engineer with a passion for building resilient, secure, and highly available event streaming platforms? We're looking for a talented professional to join a leading financial institution in Sandton, where you'll play a key role in evolving and maintaining enterprise technology assets that support critical business services.

This is an exciting opportunity to take ownership of a modern Kafka platform, influence engineering best practices, and work alongside high-performing technology teams delivering enterprise-scale solutions.

As a Senior Kafka Platform Engineer, you will:

• Own and drive the evolution, stability, and continuous improvement of enterprise technology assets.
• Lead the engineering and operational management of Kafka platforms across development, testing, and production environments.
• Ensure platform reliability, scalability, performance, and availability through proactive monitoring and optimisation.
• Automate infrastructure provisioning, deployments, and operational processes using Infrastructure as Code and DevOps practices.
• Implement and maintain Kafka security standards, including authentication, encryption, and access controls.
• Build and enhance platform observability using modern monitoring, logging, and alerting solutions.
• Troubleshoot complex production issues and provide expert-level support for critical platform services.
• Collaborate with developers, architects, infrastructure teams, and business stakeholders to deliver robust event-driven solutions.
• Drive engineering standards, governance, and best practices within the Centre of Excellence (CoE).
• Mentor team members and contribute to continuous platform innovation.

Required Experience

• 6+ years' experience in Systems or Platform Engineering.
• 4+ years' hands-on Kafka administration experience, preferably with Confluent Platform and/or Confluent Cloud.
• Strong experience supporting enterprise-scale distributed platforms.
• Proven experience working within DevOps and Agile environments.

Technical Skills

• Apache Kafka administration and platform management.
• Confluent Platform and/or Confluent Cloud.
• Linux administration and advanced troubleshooting.
• DevOps automation using Python and/or Bash.
• CI/CD pipeline implementation.
• Infrastructure as Code using Terraform and/or Ansible.
• Cloud experience, preferably Microsoft Azure.
• Kafka security including TLS/SSL, SASL, ACLs, and authentication mechanisms.
• Monitoring and observability using tools such as:
  • Prometheus
  • Grafana
  • ELK Stack
  • Splunk
  • Azure Monitor