Kafka Subject Matter Expert

Quick Facts

• Engagement: part-time (~1–2 days/week, 0.5 FTE)

• Location: 100% remote

• Rate: 140–150 PLN/h

• Start: ASAP

• Duration: until end of January 2027

• Estimated effort: ~20 days

Description

Kafka Subject Matter Expert needed to support a migration of applications from a mainframe platform to a container environment on OpenShift. You will validate Kafka topic configurations, help define topic creation and ACL permission requirements, and configure integration with a shared Kafka cluster using mTLS. Collaboration runs remotely from ASAP through January 2027.

Responsibilities

• Analyze technical documentation and verify Kafka topic configurations (names, prefixes, partition count)

• Prepare requirements for topic creation and granting permissions (ACL)

• Configure application integration with a shared Kafka cluster, including bootstrap settings and mTLS authentication

• Verify message flow between producers and consumers, consumer groups, and monitor consumer lag

• Recreate Kafka configuration in a test environment

• Collaborate with the client team responsible for central Kafka infrastructure maintenance

Requirements

• Very good knowledge of Apache Kafka (version 3.x)

• Experience integrating applications with centrally managed shared Kafka clusters

• Practical knowledge of mTLS, client certificates, and ACL mechanisms

• Experience with Kafka on Kubernetes/OpenShift, including Helm configuration and secrets

• Ability to verify event flow and diagnose producer/consumer communication problems

• Enterprise project experience; banking or other regulated environments are a plus

• Communicative English

• Ability to start quickly due to ~2-week client onboarding

Benefits

• Remote, part-time engagement (~20 days total)

• Optional expansion into IAM scope (OIDC, PKI, certificate management) up to ~40 days, with extension through March 2027