8+ years of experience in designing and architecting solutions using Confluent Kafka, with hands-on experience in Confluent KafkaAbility to lead client engagements, translate business requirements into technical solutions, and guide implementation teamsDeep understanding of Kafka internals, KRaft architecture, and Confluent componentsExperience with Confluent Cloud, Stream Governance, Data Lineage, and RBACExpertise in stream processing (Apache Flink, Kafka Streams, ksqlDB) and event-driven architectureStrong proficiency in Java, Python, or ScalaProven ability to integrate Kafka with enterprise systems (databases, APIs, microservices)Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and KubernetesFamiliarity with CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure automation (Ansible, CFK