Gauteng: Intermediate C# Developer with Apache Kafka posted by Optim-G Sourcing

• Design, develop, and maintain C#/.NET Core microservices.
• Implement containerisation best practices (Docker images, deployment pipelines).
• Deploy and manage applications on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) or on-premise Kubernetes clusters.
• Collaborate with DevOps teams to optimise CI/CD pipelines and ensure smooth delivery to production.
• Architect and maintain Apache Kafka clusters including:
• Topic design, partitioning, replication, retention policies
• Consumer group optimisation and monitoring
• Schema Registry usage (Avro/Protobuf/JSON)
• Kafka Connect integration with external systems
• Security and access control (ACLs, TLS/SASL)
• Performance tuning and scaling in production
• Implement and maintain observability solutions including:
• OpenTelemetry for distributed tracing, metrics, and logging
• Grafana dashboards for monitoring and alerting
• Work closely with solution architects to ensure alignment with cloud governance and compliance standards.
• Participate in code reviews, architectural discussions, and technical design sessions.
• Monitor, troubleshoot, and improve performance of services in production

Required Skills & Experience

• 3–5 years C#/.NET Core development experience in production systems.
• Strong understanding of microservices principles (domain-driven design, bounded contexts, service-to-service communication).
• Proficiency in containerisation (Best practices, image optimisation, debugging containerised apps).
• Hands-on deployment experience with AKS or Kubernetes (RBAC, ConfigMaps, Secrets, Ingress, scaling strategies).
• Apache Kafka (production experience):
• Administering Kafka clusters
• Designing event-driven applications and event schemas
• Monitoring (Prometheus/Grafana, Confluent Control Center, or similar)
• Handling data consistency and exactly-once/at-least-once semantics
• Experience with Azure cloud services:
• Azure DevOps (pipelines, repos, artifacts)
• Azure Monitor / Application Insights
• Networking basics (VNETs, load balancers, firewalls)
• Azure Storage and Messaging (Event Hubs, Service Bus a plus)
• PostgreSQL experience (schema design, queries, performance tuning).

Optional / Nice-to-Have Skills

• Exposure to agentic coding approaches and AI-assisted development tools (Claude).
• Experience in other messaging technologies ( Azure Event Hubs).
• Familiarity with PCI DSS, financial services compliance, or secure coding practices