Key Responsibilities Lead and organize a team of Kafka administrators and developers; assign tasks and facilitate weekly Kafka Technical Review meetings. Collaborate with customers to expand Kafka usage within the agency. Strategize within Leidos to explore new technologies in conjunction with Kafka. Architect, design, code, and implement next-generation data streaming and event-based platforms using Confluent Kafka. Define strategies for streaming data to data warehouses and integrating event-based architecture with microservice-based applications. Establish Kafka best practices and implementation standards based on use cases and integration patterns. Mentor team members to build a high-performing team in event-driven architecture; assist in event modeling, selecting correct patterns, and ensuring data integrity. Provide software expertise in areas such as application integration, enterprise services, SOA, security, BPM, data ingestion, and data modeling. Investigate and resolve Kafka platform issues in a hands-on manner. Communicate effectively with management, customers, vendors, and teams; present workshops, translate technical language for various audiences, and share Kafka-based solutions and innovations. Perform all other duties as assigned or directed. Skills RequirementsFoundation for Success (Basic Qualifications) Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or related field with 12 years of experience, OR Master’s degree with 10 years of experience. Equivalent experience may be accepted in lieu of a degree. 12+ years of modern software development experience, including systems/application analysis and design. 7+ years of experience with Kafka (Apache or Confluent Kafka). 2+ years of experience in designing, architecting, and deploying to AWS. 1+ year of technical team leadership experience. Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust security clearance. On-site requirement: Must be willing to work in Woodlawn, MD, 5 days a week. Factors to Help You Shine (Required Skills) Hands-on production experience with Confluent Kafka including installation, capacity planning, admin, and platform management. Deep understanding of Kafka internals and architecture. Expertise in Kafka cluster/application security. Strong knowledge of Event-Driven Architecture (EDA). Experience in data pipelines, replication, and performance tuning. Kafka operations on OpenShift/Kubernetes, topic management, high availability, and SLA architectures. Strong understanding of microservice design principles, distributed systems, service integration patterns, security, and resiliency. Proficiency in Kafka Connect, KStreams, and KSQL with a focus on best-use practices. Experience scaling Kafka infrastructure components (Brokers, Connect, ZooKeeper, Schema Registry, Control Center). Ability to design, develop, and deploy new Kafka Connectors. Familiarity with data serialization formats (Avro, JSON) and compression techniques. Experience with AWS services: ECS, EKS, Flink, RDS (PostgreSQL), S3. Basic SQL knowledge and experience with PostgreSQL, DB2, Oracle, and ORM tools like JPA2, Hibernate, Spring JPA. How to Stand Out from the Crowd (Desired Skills) Knowledge of disaster recovery strategy for Kafka. Experience with Domain-Driven Design (DDD). AWS cloud certifications. Experience with CI/CD, DevOps practices, and automated delivery pipelines. Knowledge of PaaS platforms like Red Hat OpenShift and Docker. Use of configuration management tools (Ansible, CloudFormation, Terraform). Strong with Spring Framework (Boot, Batch, Cloud, Security, Data). Solid Java expertise including Java EE, generics, concurrent programming. Testing expertise: TDD, BDD, Junit, Mockito, Cucumber, Selenium, Karma/Jasmine. Working knowledge of Grafana and Prometheus for Kafka monitoring and visualization. Education & Clearance Bachelor’s degree required (or equivalent experience). Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust security clearance. Job Type: Contract Pay: $120,000.00 - $135,000.00 per year Work Location: In person