Middleware Consultant

Role: Middleware Engineer (IBM MQ & Kafka – Development & Support)

Overview

We are looking for a Middleware Engineer with strong expertise in IBM MQ and Apache Kafka to support and enhance enterprise messaging platforms. The role involves development, integration, production support, and performance optimization for real-time and asynchronous messaging systems.

 

Key Responsibilities

Messaging Platform Management

• Administer and support: 
  • IBM MQ (Queue Managers, Channels, Queues)
  • Apache Kafka (Topics, Brokers, Partitions, Clusters)
• Configure and manage message routing, transformation, and integration flows
• Handle queue/topic setup, retention policies, and message persistence

Development & Integration

• Develop and maintain message producers/consumers using MQ and Kafka
• Build integration solutions using: 
  • Java / Spring Boot / Kafka Streams / MQ APIs
• Implement event-driven and asynchronous architectures
• Design and manage data streaming pipelines

Production Support

• Provide L2/L3 support for messaging platforms and integrations
• Monitor queue depth, lag, consumer health, and throughput
• Perform incident management, RCA, and problem resolution
• Ensure high availability, failover, and disaster recovery readiness

Performance & Optimization

• Optimize: 
  • Message throughput and latency
  • Kafka partitioning and consumer groups
  • MQ queue performance and channel configurations
• Conduct capacity planning and scaling strategies

Automation & DevOps

• Build automation scripts using: 
  • Shell / Python / Ansible
• Integrate messaging platforms with: 
  • CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps, Jenkins)
• Support infrastructure automation and configuration management

Security & Compliance

• Manage: 
  • MQ security (SSL/TLS, authentication, authorization)
  • Kafka security (SASL, ACLs, encryption)
• Ensure compliance with enterprise security standards

Collaboration

• Work with: 
  • Application teams, DevOps, and infrastructure teams
• Support application onboarding onto MQ/Kafka platforms

Participate in release management and deployments

Required Skills & Experience

Core Technical Skills

• Strong hands-on experience in: 
  • IBM MQ Administration & Development
  • Apache Kafka (cluster setup, topic management, troubleshooting)
• Expertise in: 
  • Messaging patterns (Pub/Sub, Point-to-Point, Event Streaming)

Development Skills

• Experience with: 
  • Kafka Streams / Kafka Connect
  • IBM MQ APIs

Support & Monitoring

• Monitoring tools: 
  • Dynatrace / Splunk / Prometheus / Grafana
• DevOps & Automation
• Knowledge of: 
  • CI/CD tools (Azure DevOps, Jenkins)
  • Containerization (Docker, Kubernetes – good to have)
• Cloud Exposure (Preferred)
• Experience with: 
  • Azure Event Hubs / AWS MSK (Kafka equivalents)
  • Hybrid or cloud-native messaging architectures
• Soft Skills
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting abilities
• Proactive operational mindset
• Effective communication with cross-functional teams
• Ability to work in high-pressure production environments

Experience

• 10+ years in Middleware / Messaging platforms
• Experience in BFSI domain (preferred)