Senior Kafka Platform Engineer — Cloud & Automation

Ovations Talent Sourcing; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Ovations Talent Sourcing is seeking a Senior Systems/Platform Engineer to own and scale our Kafka infrastructure. You will automate cloud deployments, enforce security controls, and enhance observability to ensure peak performance.

The role requires 6+ years in systems engineering and 4+ years with Apache Kafka, plus expertise in Azure, Terraform/Ansible, Python or Bash, and Linux troubleshooting.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in Systems or Platform Engineering.
• 4+ years administering Apache Kafka (Confluent Platform/Confluent Cloud).
• Strong Azure cloud infra background with CI/CD and IaC (Terraform/Ansible).
• Advanced Python or Bash scripting skills.
• Deep Linux troubleshooting and Kafka security knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Kafka Platform Administration: design, deploy, configure, and maintain production Kafka clusters.
• Automation & IaC: provision, manage, and automate cloud infra and pipelines using Terraform, Ansible, and scripting.
• Security & Compliance: implement TLS/SSL, SASL, and ACLs for Kafka security.
• Observability & Performance: build real-time monitoring with Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, or Azure Monitor.
• Linux Systems Engineering: troubleshoot low-level Linux systems and network issues for high availability.

Skills

Systems Engineering

Kafka Administration

Cloud & DevOps

Python / Bash

Linux troubleshooting

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Confluent Platform

Confluent Cloud

Prometheus

Grafana

ELK

Azure Monitor

Job description

Ovations Talent Sourcing is seeking a Senior Systems/Platform Engineer to own and scale our Kafka infrastructure. You will automate cloud deployments, enforce security controls, and enhance observability to ensure peak performance.

The role requires 6+ years in systems engineering and 4+ years with Apache Kafka, plus expertise in Azure, Terraform/Ansible, Python or Bash, and Linux troubleshooting.