Middleware Administrator

Desired Competencies (Technical/Behavioral Competency)

● Expert-level administration experience with Apache Kafka (or equivalent distributions like IBM Event Streams/RedHat AMQ Streams)

● Strong administration experience with IBM MQ (WebSphere MQ) on Linux/UNIX and/or z/OS

● Practical experience with RedHat AMQ (Broker/Interconnect)

● Demonstrated experience in implementing and managing IBM API Connect (APIC)

● Proficiency in Linux/UNIX operating systems and shell scripting (Bash, Python)

● Experience with DevOps practices and tools (Git, Ansible, Terraform, Jenkins/GitLab)

● Familiarity with network concepts (TCP/IP, Load Balancing, DNS, Firewalls) related to middleware connectivity

● Excellent troubleshooting, problem-solving, and communication skills

Messaging and Event Streaming (Kafka, IBM MQ, RedHat AMQ)

● Installation & Configuration: Install, configure, and manage middleware components, including IBM MQ Queue Managers, Kafka brokers and clusters (potentially using IBM Event Streams or RedHat AMQ Streams on OpenShift), and RedHat AMQ messaging brokers.

●Administration: Perform core administration tasks such as creating and maintaining queues, topics, channels, listeners, pub/sub configurations, and access control lists (ACLs) for all messaging platforms.

● Monitoring & Optimization: Implement comprehensive monitoring, logging, and alerting solutions to track system health, message throughput, and latency. Tune systems for optimal performance and scalability.

● Troubleshooting: Diagnose and resolve complex production issues related to connectivity, message flow, resource contention, and application integration errors across all platforms.

● Security: Implement security best practices, including SSL/TLS configuration, access management (e.g., OAM for MQ, SASL for Kafka), and integration with enterprise identity providers.

● High Availability & Disaster Recovery: Design, implement, and test high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) strategies, including clustering for IBM MQ and multi-broker deployment for Kafka.

API Management (IBM API Connect - APIC)

● API Gateway Administration: Install, configure, and maintain the IBM API Connect (APIC) environment, including the Management server, Gateway server (often IBM DataPower), Developer Portal, and Analytics.

● API Lifecycle Management: Manage the full API lifecycle: design, development, deployment, versioning, retirement, and policy enforcement within APIC.

● Security Implementation: Apply and manage API security policies such as OAuth, client ID/secret enforcement, rate limiting, and traffic control using APIC.

● Developer Portal: Configure and manage the APIC Developer Portal for external and internal consumption of APIs.

● Integration: Collaborate with development teams to publish, secure, and monitor APIs exposed through the APIC platform.

Automation and DevOps

● Scripting & Automation: Develop and maintain automation scripts (e.g., Python, Bash,Ansible, Terraform) for configuration, deployment, patching, and operational tasks across all middleware platforms.

● CI/CD Integration: Integrate middleware and API configurations into Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI).

● Containerization: Experience deploying and managing middleware platforms within containerized environments using Docker and Kubernetes/RedHat OpenShift (e.g.,using Operators for AMQ/Kafka Streams and CP4I for IBM products).