Enterprise Architect & Architecture Engineer

Public Cloud – Enterprise Architect & Architecture Engineer Platform Enabling – Cloud Demand Type New Demand Role Overview We are seeking a highly experienced Principal/Chief Platform Engineer or Enterprise Architect to design, build, migrate, and operate large-scale enterprise Apache Kafka/Confluent platforms on GCP and GKE. The ideal candidate will have strong hands-on experience with production Kafka architecture, Kubernetes-based platforms, multi-region resilience, security, automation, observability, and full lifecycle platform ownership in a regulated or mission-critical environment. Key Responsibilities - Design and architect enterprise-scale Apache Kafka and Confluent platforms on GCP/GKE. - Lead the design, build, migration, and operational management of Kafka platforms. - Implement and manage multi-tenant Kafka security, including IAM/RBAC, TLS/mTLS, and Vault integration. - Design highly available multi-zone and multi-region resilient architectures. - Build and manage stateful Kubernetes workloads and persistent storage solutions. - Lead Terraform-driven infrastructure automation, Helm deployments, CI/CD pipelines, and scripting. - Drive Kafka capacity planning, performance optimization, resilience, and reliability. - Implement robust SRE, observability, monitoring, and on-call operational practices. - Support major incident management and ensure platform reliability in production environments. - Enable developer self-service through Internal Developer Platforms (IDP), Backstage, and Golden Paths. - Lead large-scale Kafka migration initiatives and modernization activities. Required Skills & Technologies - Google Cloud Platform (GCP) - Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) - Apache Kafka - Confluent Platform - Confluent for Kubernetes (CFK) - Conduktor Gateway or equivalent Kafka-protocol gateway capability - Kafka Connect - Schema Registry - kRaft - Confluent Cluster Linking / Replicator - Terraform - Helm - CI/CD - HashiCorp Vault - IAM/RBAC - TLS/mTLS - SRE and Observability - Multi-region resilience - Kafka migration - Platform self-service / IDP Mandatory Experience - Strong hands-on experience in production Kafka/Confluent architecture and operations. - Deep engineering expertise in GCP and GKE. - Experience managing stateful Kubernetes workloads and persistent storage. - Strong understanding of Kafka security and multi-tenancy. - Experience with Terraform, Helm, CI/CD, and scripting. - Proven experience in Kafka resilience, capacity planning, and performance management. - Hands-on SRE/on-call and major incident management experience. - Ability to take full lifecycle ownership across design, build, and operational support. Highly Desirable Skills - Direct production experience with Conduktor Gateway. - Confluent for Kubernetes (CFK) expertise. - Experience with kRaft migration. - Experience with Confluent Cluster Linking or Replicator. - HashiCorp Vault integration. - Experience with Backstage, Internal Developer Platforms (IDP), and Golden Paths. - Experience with Confluent Cloud migration. - Background in Banking, Payments, or other regulated mission-critical environments. Ideal Candidate Profile The successful candidate will be a hands-on technical leader with proven experience designing and operating enterprise-scale Kafka platforms. They should be comfortable owning complex technical challenges from architecture and implementation through migration, production operations, resilience, and continuous improvement.