API Developer with Confluent Kafka

Primary Responsibilities: · Design, develop, and maintain secure, high-performance APIs and Confluent streaming pipelines using tools such as Postman, OpenAPI/Swagger, Kafka Streams, Confluent Connectors, Prometheus, Grafana, and OpenShift. · Lead implementation of enterprise event-driven architectures and microservices utilizing Java, Spring Boot, and the Confluent Kafka ecosystem (Confluent Cloud / Confluent Platform). · Leverage Confluent enterprise capabilities—including ksqlDB, Confluent Schema Registry, and pre-built Confluent Connectors—to streamline streaming integration and data enrichment. · Collaborate closely with product design, data, and engineering teams to translate business requirements into scalable event-driven integration patterns. · Actively participate in all Agile ceremonies and contribute to continuous delivery and DevOps automation practices. Minimum Qualifications: · Ability to obtain and maintain an SSA Public Trust Suitability clearance is required. · Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related field (Master's or Doctorate degree may substitute for required experience). · 10+ years of modern software development experience with a solid understanding of designing, building, deploying, and running enterprise applications. · 10+ years of expertise in API design/development (REST/SOAP), Java, Spring Boot, Spring, Angular (9 and above), and WebMethods. · 3+ years of hands-on experience designing, building, and deploying event-driven solutions using Confluent Kafka (Confluent Schema Registry, Kafka Streams, ksqlDB, Producers/Consumers, Topics/Partitions). · 8+ years of experience working on an Agile development team. · Extensive experience implementing event-driven architectures using Java, Spring Boot, Confluent Connectors, and Kafka Streams. · Deep understanding of core messaging concepts: topic partitioning, consumer groups, message serialization/deserialization (Avro, Protobuf, JSON Schema), Confluent Schema Registry governance, offset management, and delivery guarantees (At-least-once, Exactly-once). · Experience handling high-throughput message processing, backpressure, dead-letter queues (DLQ), and failure-recovery patterns within Confluent. · Design and document RESTful APIs and GraphQL schemas/resolvers following OpenAPI/Swagger specifications, enabling real-time streaming integrations alongside standard endpoints. · Implement robust API and streaming security, including OAuth 2.0, JWT tokens, RBAC, mutual TLS (mTLS), and Confluent Role-Based Access Control / ACLs. · Write comprehensive unit, integration, and end-to-end tests for both API endpoints and Confluent event pipelines (e.g., EmbeddedKafka, Confluent Test Topology Driver, JUnit, Mockito). · Monitor API health, consumer lag, and cluster metrics using Confluent Control Center, Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, or JMX metrics. · Experience working on Agile projects using tools like Git, Bitbucket, Jira, Agility, and Confluence. · Knowledge of Section 508 accessibility compliance standards. Desired Qualifications: · Hands-on experience with Confluent Cloud, Confluent Platform, or running Strimzi / Confluent Operator on Kubernetes / OpenShift. · Confluent Certified Developer for Apache Kafka (CCDAK) or Confluent Certified Administrator (CCAA) is a strong plus. · WebMethods, Postman, OpenAPI, Prometheus, Grafana, Jenkins, Splunk, Nexus, Maven, OpenShift, XML/XSLT, VisualVM/Eclipse Profiler, and TDD/BDD (Cucumber, Selenium). · Amazon Web Services (S3, AWS MSK / Confluent Cloud on AWS, AWS API Gateway, Lambda). · Experience using Docker, Kubernetes, and OpenShift for containerized microservices and Confluent deployment management. · Experience working in a CI/CD DevOps environment with automated build, test, and deployment pipelines for streaming apps.