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.