Senior Platform Engineer – Kafka & Cloud

Sabenza IT & Recruitment; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

Sabenza IT & Recruitment in Johannesburg, South Africa, seeks a Senior Platform Engineer – Kafka & Cloud to own the evolution, reliability and health of critical technology assets.

You will work across teams to drive platform reliability, automation, security and observability with Apache Kafka, Confluent Platform, Azure and Linux.

This hands-on role offers influence on platform roadmaps and opportunities to contribute to engineering communities.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in Systems/Platform Engineering or similar infra role.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive evolution, health, stability and performance of assets.
• Administer and troubleshoot Kafka environments using Confluent Platform/Cloud.
• Design scalable, secure platform solutions.
• Drive DevOps and automation to improve efficiency.
• Develop automation using Python/Bash; IaC.
• Build and enhance CI/CD pipelines and deployments.
• Manage Linux-based environments.
• Support Azure-based platform engineering.
• Implement robust Kafka security controls (TLS/SSL, SASL, ACLs).
• Develop observability using Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/Splunk.
• Mentor engineers; contribute to COEs.

Skills

6+ years experience

DevOps

Scripting

Automation

CI/CD

Tools

Apache Kafka

Confluent Platform

Confluent Cloud

Python

Bash

Terraform

Ansible

Linux

Azure

Prometheus

Grafana

ELK

Splunk

Job description

Johannesburg, South Africa

Shape the Future of Enterprise Platforms

We are looking for an experienced Senior Platform Engineer – Kafka & Cloud to take ownership of the evolution, reliability and technical health of critical technology and domain assets.

This is an exciting opportunity for a hands-on engineering professional with deep Apache Kafka, Confluent Platform, DevOps, automation, Linux and cloud expertise. You will play a key role in building, evolving and supporting scalable, secure and highly observable streaming platforms while providing technical leadership across the wider engineering community.

What You’ll Do

As a Senior Platform Engineer, you will actively own and be accountable for the overall evolution and health of multiple technology or domain assets . You will work across engineering teams to drive platform reliability, automation, security and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and drive the technical evolution, health, stability and performance of multiple technology and domain assets.
• Administer, maintain, optimise and troubleshoot Apache Kafka environments , preferably using Confluent Platform and/or Confluent Cloud .
• Design and implement scalable, resilient and secure Kafka platform solutions.
• Drive DevOps and automation initiatives to improve platform efficiency, repeatability and operational excellence.
• Develop and maintain automation using Python and/or Bash , together with Infrastructure as Code and configuration management tools.
• Build and enhance CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment processes.
• Manage and troubleshoot complex Linux-based environments .
• Support cloud-based platform engineering, with a strong preference for Microsoft Azure experience.
• Implement and maintain robust Kafka security controls , including TLS/SSL, SASL authentication and ACLs .
• Build and enhance platform monitoring, alerting and observability capabilities using tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, Splunk and/or Azure Monitor .
• Identify risks, bottlenecks and opportunities for platform improvement and proactively drive solutions.
• Ensure technology assets remain healthy, secure, performant and aligned with evolving business and technical requirements.
• Provide technical leadership and play an active role within associated Centres of Excellence (COEs) .
• Influence engineering standards, best practices, platform roadmaps and technical decision-making.
• Mentor and guide other engineers while promoting a culture of continuous learning and engineering excellence.
  

Requirements

• 6+ years' experience in Systems Engineering, Platform Engineering or a similar infrastructure-focused engineering role .
• 4+ years of hands-on Apache Kafka administration experience .
• Experience with Confluent Platform and/or Confluent Cloud is highly preferred.
• Strong DevOps, scripting and automation capabilities.
• Hands-on experience with Python and/or Bash .
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and modern engineering practices.
• Strong Infrastructure as Code and automation experience using Terraform and/or Ansible .
• Solid Linux administration and troubleshooting skills.
• Cloud experience, preferably within Microsoft Azure .

Strong understanding of Kafka security , including:

• TLS/SSL
• ACLs and access control

Experience designing and implementing observability and monitoring solutions using technologies such as:

• Grafana
• ELK Stack
• Splunk
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving abilities within complex distributed environments.

The Ideal Candidate

You are a technically strong, hands-on engineer who enjoys taking ownership of complex platforms from end to end. You are comfortable operating at both a deep technical level and a strategic platform level , identifying opportunities to improve reliability, automation, security and scalability.

You can influence technical direction, collaborate across multiple teams and take accountability for the long-term health and evolution of critical technology assets. You are also passionate about sharing knowledge and contributing to engineering communities and Centres of Excellence .

Key Technologies