Cloud Architect (Event Streaming Platform: Apache Pulsar & Kafka)

Quick Facts

• Role: Cloud Architect for an event streaming platform evaluation (Apache Pulsar & Kafka)

• Scope: Multi-cloud + hybrid (sovereign cloud + on-premises)

• Focus: Technical assessment, deployment, benchmarking, and recommendations

Description

Lead the architectural evaluation of Apache Pulsar as a next-generation event streaming platform across sovereign cloud, public cloud (AWS), and on-premises. You will design, deploy, operate, and benchmark Pulsar clusters, validate interoperability with existing Kafka and JMS workloads, and assess geo-replication, fault tolerance, multi-tenancy, observability, and production readiness. Deliver clear architectural assessments, ADRs, and final recommendations to support business decisions.

Responsibilities

• Lead Pulsar architecture assessment as a replacement/extension of a Kafka-based platform

• Define target-state architectures for intra-cloud, cross-cloud, and hybrid messaging scenarios

• Deploy, configure, and operate Pulsar on CleverCloud and on-premises (containerized on OpenShift/Kubernetes)

• Design and execute performance tests and compare against Kafka baselines

• Assess protocol compatibility (Kafka-on-Pulsar handlers and Pulsar JMS)

• Prototype migration for Kafka and JMS applications with minimal code changes

• Configure and validate geo-replication across environments and assess DR/latency scenarios

• Integrate Pulsar monitoring with Dynatrace, Grafana, Splunk, and OpenSearch

• Validate multi-tenancy model (tenants, namespaces, access policies) for shared-cluster use

• Produce POC findings, ADRs, and final recommendation

• Collaborate with Kafka operations, solution architects, and application teams

• Contribute to knowledge sharing and training on event streaming patterns and Pulsar capabilities

Requirements

• 5+ years in cloud architecture, distributed systems engineering, or messaging platform design/operations

• Fluent English (written and spoken); additional European language is an asset

• Higher education degree in Computer Science, Engineering, IT, or related field

• Strong hands-on experience with Apache Kafka (architecture, operations, tuning, troubleshooting)

• Knowledge of Apache Pulsar (or ability to ramp up quickly)

• Experience with multi-cloud and hybrid architecture design (AWS, sovereign cloud, on-premises)

• Container deployment proficiency (Kubernetes/OpenShift, Helm)

• Automation and Infrastructure as Code: Python, Bash, Terraform, Ansible

• Monitoring/observability experience: Dynatrace, Grafana, Splunk, OpenSearch

• CI/CD and GitOps experience: GitLab CI, ArgoCD (or similar)

• Messaging protocols knowledge: JMS 2.0, Kafka protocol, AMQP (and protocol bridging/migration)

• Pulsar protocol handler knowledge: Starlight for Kafka, StreamNative KSN, Pulsar JMS (or readiness to evaluate)

• Event-driven architecture and stream processing knowledge: Kafka Streams, Flink, Spark Streaming

• Messaging/streaming platform experience with Confluent Kafka or similar managed solutions

• Performance testing methodology for distributed systems

• Strong analytical, documentation, and communication skills (including presentations and ADRs)

• EU citizenship required

Benefits

• B2B contract; daily rate 530–550 EUR (net)

• 6-month project with possibility of extension

• Fully remote work with occasional business trips to Luxembourg

• Onboarding in Luxembourg (1–2 days on-site)

• Work with experienced architects and platform engineers on modern hybrid event streaming projects