Job Description & Details
This is a heavy-duty production support and administration role where you will be knee-deep in enterprise middleware, with a primary focus on IBM MQ and Confluent Kafka. If you enjoy keeping massive, distributed messaging pipelines stable in 24x7 environments and don't mind joining an on-call rotation, this gig will definitely keep you sharp. It requires someone who can gracefully context-switch between IBM MQ, Kafka, IIB, and TIBCO without missing a beat.
What You'll Actually Be Doing
Your day-to-day will be a mix of keeping the lights on, troubleshooting thorny distributed system failures, and building out new messaging infrastructure. You'll be responsible for the health, performance tuning, and operational stability of messaging environments running across Linux and Windows. Whether you are installing a new Confluent Kafka cluster from scratch, automating repetitive tasks with Python or shell scripts, or digging through Splunk and Dynatrace logs to diagnose a mysterious latency spike, you will be the backbone of their real-time data flow.
The Core Tech Stack
To survive and thrive here, you need solid, battle-tested experience with Confluent Kafka (specifically versions 7.8, 7.9, or 8.3) and hands-on skills in building and installing Kafka clusters from the ground up. Beyond Kafka, a strong command of IBM MQ is non-negotiable since it's the primary daily driver. You'll also need deep familiarity with Linux and Windows OS administration, plus a good grasp of virtualization and cloud environments like AWS or Azure. Familiarity with monitoring tools like Dynatrace, Splunk, and meshIQ Navigator will be your best friend when tracking down production gremlins.
Interview Expectations
The interviewers are going to want to know how you handle chaos under pressure, so expect to be grilled on your troubleshooting methodology. They will likely ask you to explain a time you diagnosed a severe consumer lag issue in a high-throughput Confluent Kafka cluster, drilling down into how you investigated broker metrics and partition rebalancing. The hiring manager is secretly testing your composure and systematic debugging process, looking to see if you can methodically isolate network, disk, or configuration bottlenecks rather than just guessing.
Application Advice
When updating your resume for this role, make sure you explicitly highlight your hands-on cluster installation experience rather than just listing basic consumer/producer maintenance. Ensure exact keywords like "Confluent Kafka", "IBM MQ", "Cluster Installation", and "24x7 Production Support" are prominent so you easily clear the ATS filters. Wrap up your bullet points by emphasizing your automation wins with Python or shell scripting, as they want administrators who build long-term fixes, not just manual workarounds.