Kafka Cloud Architect (Contract) Location: MD (Onsite) Sesheng Company is seeking a highly experienced and strategic Kafka Cloud Architect for a contract opportunity in Maryland. This role requires 100% onsite presence. If you're a leader with deep expertise in designing and implementing next-generation data streaming architectures, we encourage you to apply! Position Overview As a Kafka Cloud Architect, you'll be a pivotal leader, guiding a team of Kafka administrators and developers. You'll drive the expansion of Kafka usage across the agency, explore new related technologies, and set best practices and standards for implementation and integration. This role demands a blend of technical mastery, strategic vision, and the ability to mentor and present complex concepts to diverse stakeholders. You'll be instrumental in designing and implementing cutting-edge data streaming and event-based architectures using Confluent Kafka, developing strategies for data integration into data warehouses and microservice applications. Key Responsibilities • Lead and organize a team of Kafka administrators and developers. • Conduct weekly Kafka technical review meetings. • Collaborate with clients to expand Kafka adoption throughout the agency. • Research and integrate new Kafka-related technologies within the organization. • Design and implement next-generation data streaming and event-based architectures utilizing Confluent Kafka. • Develop strategies for streaming data into data warehouses and integrating with microservice-based applications. • Establish Kafka best practices and standards for implementation and integration. • Mentor the team on event-driven architecture, event modeling, and data integrity. • Provide expert guidance in application integration, SOA, data ingestion/modeling, and security. • Troubleshoot platform issues across various components. • Clearly present complex technical concepts to leadership and non-technical stakeholders. • Host workshops and share insights on Kafka-based solutions. What You'll Bring • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field with 12+ years of experience, or a Master’s degree with 10+ years of experience. • 12+ years of experience in software development. • 7+ years of hands-on experience with Kafka (Confluent or Apache). • 2+ years of experience with AWS cloud deployments. • 1+ year of technical leadership experience. • Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance. Required Technical Skills • Deep hands-on experience with Confluent Kafka in production environments. • Expertise in Kafka security, performance tuning, and internal architecture. • Strong understanding of Event-Driven Architecture. • Experience with Kafka on OpenShift/Kubernetes. • Proficiency with Kafka Connect, KStreams, KSQL. • Experience scaling Kafka components (Broker, Connect, ZooKeeper, etc.). • Experience building and deploying Kafka connectors. • Familiarity with Avro, JSON, and data compression techniques. • AWS Services: ECS, EKS, Flink, S3, Amazon RDS (PostgreSQL). • Programming Languages: Python, Java, SpringBoot. • Relational Databases: PostgreSQL, DB2, Oracle. • ORM Tools: JPA2, Hibernate, Spring JPA. Preferred Skills (Bonus Points) • Disaster recovery planning for Kafka. • Domain Driven Design (DDD). • AWS certifications. • CI/CD and DevOps best practices. • PaaS experience: OpenShift, Kubernetes, Docker. • Configuration management: Ansible, Terraform, CloudFormation. • Spring Framework: Boot, Batch, Cloud, Security, Data. • Strong with Java EE, generics, and concurrency. • TDD/BDD and tools like JUnit, Mockito, Cucumber, Selenium. • Monitoring/Visualization: Prometheus, Grafana. Sesheng Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.