TECHNICAL LEAD

Job Title: Technical Lead L1 – Apache Kafka

Location: Leeds, UK

Client: Global information technology (IT), consulting, and business process services company

About the Role:

We are seeking an experienced Technical Lead with strong expertise in Apache Kafka and cloud integration to join our dynamic team in Leeds. This role offers the opportunity to design, build, and manage high-performing Kafka platforms across cloud and on-premise environments, ensuring reliability, security, and scalability.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead Kafka cluster build, including design, infrastructure planning, high availability, and disaster recovery.
• Build and support producer/consumer applications.
• Implement encryption (SSL), authentication (SASL/LDAP), and authorization (Kafka ACLs) across brokers, clients, Connect clusters, Schema Registry, REST API, Producers/Consumers, and KSQL.
• Manage SSL certificates including public key management.
• Set up and maintain monitoring tools (Splunk, Prometheus, Grafana) to track metrics across Kafka components (Broker, Zookeeper, Connect, REST Proxy, Mirror Maker, Schema Registry, KSQL).
• Conduct lifecycle management of Kafka on-premise environments, ensuring automation and continuous improvement.
• Perform platform health assessments, develop improvement plans, and implement automation solutions.
• Research and recommend innovative solutions to enhance performance and maintain platform stability.

Required Experience & Skills:

• 5+ years in application integration development.
• 2+ years in Cloud Integration Services and Kafka.
• 3+ years managing Apache/Confluent Kafka platforms (cloud and/or on-premise).
• Experience in containerisation (OpenShift / Kubernetes).
• Familiarity with Oracle / PostgreSQL databases.
• Knowledge of disaster recovery planning & testing for middleware services.
• Experience setting up monitoring tools for Kafka clusters.
• Strong understanding of infrastructure, network topologies, storage (SAN/NAS/DAS), clustering, and virtualization technologies.
• Ability to participate in architecture forums, presenting solutions with pros/cons.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work effectively with business stakeholders.

Mandatory Skills:

• Apache Kafka

Performance Measures:

• Resolution of cases per day, adherence to process and quality standards, meeting SLAs, customer satisfaction (NSAT/ESAT).
• Team productivity, efficiency, and capability development.
• Completion of technical triages and test performance.

Why Join Us:

• Work with cutting-edge cloud and Kafka technologies.
• Lead impactful integration projects across the enterprise.
• Develop your skills in a collaborative, innovative environment.