Senior Platform Engineer (Kafka)

Senior Platform Engineer (Kafka) We are seeking a senior Kafka expert who combines deep Confluent Kafka architecture experience, strong cloud and on-premise platform engineering skills, and modern AI-enabled development expertise. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of automation, operational leadership, and enterprise stakeholder engagement. This role requires an on-site presence in Austin four days per week. Key Responsibilities Design and implement secure Kafka architectures, including authentication, authorization, encryption, and network isolation. Define and support high availability, disaster recovery, and data replication strategies, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards. Advise on data ingestion, event streaming, and batch and stream processing architectures. Provide guidance on data modeling and serialization standards such as Avro, Protobuf, and JSON Schema. Design and build AI agents and custom frameworks to automate engineering and operational workflows at scale. Leverage AI-powered tools like Copilot to accelerate development, automate testing, and improve code quality. Drive automation-first operations using Python, Ansible, and scripting, and build self-service operational tools. Lead deep-dive investigations into complex production issues, perform root cause analysis, and drive remediation. Act as a trusted technical advisor to engineering, operations, and leadership teams. Required Qualifications Experience: 10+ years of experience in distributed systems, messaging, and enterprise platform engineering. Technical Skills: Extensive hands-on experience with the Confluent Kafka Platform, both on-premise and in the cloud. Proven ability to leverage AI-assisted development (e.g., Copilot, code generation) and build AI-driven agents/workflows. Strong background in Linux/Unix environments, networking, OS performance, and security. Proven experience with automation, DevOps, and operational tooling (e.g., Azure, Jenkins, Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Python). Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with strong organizational and teamwork abilities. Preferred Qualifications Confluent Kafka and/or Cloud certifications. Prior experience supporting large-scale, regulated enterprise environments. Apex Systems