Platform Engineering Lead (Kafka / API Management)

Kitchener, Ontario, CanadaHybridContractLeadPosted 2 months ago

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Role summary

We are seeking a hands-on Platform Engineering Lead to design, deploy, operate, and govern enterprise event-streaming (Kafka) and API management capabilities. This role requires deep expertise in Kafka cluster management, including its ecosystem tools, and a strong understanding of automation using IaC (Terraform, Ansible, Helm) and Kubernetes. You will be responsible for ensuring Kafka's reliability, performance, and security, implementing robust monitoring and observability solutions, and establishing operational best practices. Experience with API platforms, particularly Akana, and strong security implementation skills are also essential for this hybrid role.

Location:
Kitchener, ON (Hybrid — 3–4 days onsite)

Contract:
6–12 months

Role Summary

We are seeking a Platform Engineering Lead to own the design, deployment, operations, and governance of enterprise event-streaming and API platform capabilities. This role is hands-on and delivery-oriented, with accountability for Kafka reliability, performance, security, and platform automation, and strong partnership with application teams consuming Kafka and API gateways.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Engineering & Operations

·
Design, deploy, and manage Apache Kafka clusters across on-prem, cloud, and Kubernetes environments.

· Ensure high availability, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and capacity planning.

· Implement Kafka ecosystem tools: Kafka Connect, Schema Registry, ksqlDB.

· Automate provisioning and operational workflows using Terraform, Ansible, Helm, and scripting.

· Configure monitoring and observability using Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, ELK, and/or Datadog.

· Perform performance tuning (partitions, replication, retention, ISR, broker configurations).

· Establish operational runbooks, incident response patterns, and platform SLAs/SLOs.

Security & Governance

· Implement authentication and authorization controls (SASL, ACLs, RBAC).

· Enforce encryption and data security standards (TLS, secure transport requirements).

· Manage schema governance and lifecycle policies (versioning, compatibility rules, lifecycle controls).

API Management (Platform Integration)

· Support and integrate Kafka/event-streaming capabilities with API platform patterns.

· Work with API management/gateway platforms; Akana API Management is preferred.

· Partner with engineering teams to standardize onboarding, integration patterns, and security controls.

Required Skills / Qualifications

· Strong hands-on experience with Apache Kafka and event streaming platforms.

· Hands-on with Kafka ecosystem tools: Kafka Connect, Schema Registry, ksqlDB.

· Experience with Terraform, Ansible, Kubernetes, and Helm.

· Knowledge of monitoring and observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, Splunk; Datadog is a plus).

· Strong security practices (SASL, TLS, RBAC; Kafka ACLs).

· Experience with API platforms (Akana API Management preferred).

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