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Apache Kafka Experts in Berlin

in minutes from over 15,000 CVs with the power of AI.

Hire experts who design Kafka streams, build event-driven systems, and tune producers, consumers, and topics for reliable throughput. Work with specialists who know Kafka Connect, Kafka Streams, and resilient message delivery, matched fast with vetted, available freelancers.

Meet FRATCH Experts in Berlin, who have recently used Apache Kafka

Verified expert

Abhishek Nair

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Hands-on Engineering Lead

Berlin
Abhishek Nair

Last position:

Fullstack Developer at DAMALO GmbH

  • Own full-stack development of an AI-native enterprise platform built on TypeScript, React, Vite, tRPC, Hono, and PostgreSQL, delivering AI-powered consulting workflows to B2B clients.
  • Designed and shipped a multi-agent AI system using ReAct framework and Claude skills-style workflow patterns, including an intelligent PM assistant with rich system prompts, slash commands, tool integrations, and streaming chat UI.
  • Architected an LLM evaluation framework: rubric-based LLM-as-judge, golden datasets, regression testing, and automated quality gating — ensuring consistent AI output quality at scale.
  • Integrated LangFuse for end-to-end LLM tracing, conversation replays, and evaluation pipelines, enabling data-driven prompt optimisation that reduced token costs and response variance.
  • Built with Drizzle ORM, pgvector, and knowledge graphs for structured data access, semantic search, and relationship-aware AI reasoning across the platform.
  • Led TanStack React Query migration across the application — replacing manual state management with centralised caching and automatic refetching, reducing data-fetching boilerplate significantly.
  • Practiced AI-native development throughout: Claude Code, Codex, Perplexity SDK, and LLM-assisted testing across the full development lifecycle. Deployed on Vercel + Azure ACA with Biome for linting/formatting.
Verified expert

Rüdiger Schulz

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Full-Stack Software Engineer / Consultant for Digitalization

Berlin
Rüdiger Schulz

Last position:

Full-Stack Software Engineer / Consultant for Digitalization at ARTEVENT

  • Designed, built, and launched an internal event planning web application used by over 100 department leads for a large event, despite having no dedicated testing phase.

  • Ensured smooth, failure-free operation during first production use, leading to the tool being adopted for future events.

  • Automated catering calculations and related workflows, significantly reducing email communication and manual computation effort for meal planning.

  • Managed deployment and hosting on a Linux server using Coolify, including application setup and runtime operations.

  • Hired and guided a communication designer on UX while independently owning all technical decisions and implementation.

Verified expert

Santhosh Kannan

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Freelance Software Engineer

Berlin
Santhosh Kannan

Last position:

Freelance Software Engineer at Zalando SE

  • Support Authorization as a Service initiative for enterprise-scale authorization platform
  • Incorporate comprehensive observability solutions into authorization infrastructure
  • Provision and manage AWS infrastructure for authorization services
  • Mentor development team on AWS and Kubernetes best practices
  • Tech Stack: Java/Kotlin, Golang, Python, OPA, Spring Boot, AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, ELK Stack, Prometheus, Grafana
Verified expert

Oleg Abrazhaev

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Staff Software Engineer

Berlin
Oleg Abrazhaev

Last position:

Staff Software Engineer at Kpler Germany GmbH

  • Delivered a new notifications platform implementation built from scratch to replace existing and upcoming services
  • Collaborating with other teams to integrate more domains

Tech stack:

  • Data: Scala 3, Apache Kafka, Python, Airflow, Astronomer
  • BE-FE: TypeScript, NestJS, Java, Spring Boot, Vue
  • Dev-ops: AWS, PostgreSQL, Docker, GitHub Actions, Kubernetes, Helm, ArgoCD
Verified expert

Maciej Rosiek

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Full Stack Developer

Berlin
Maciej Rosiek

Last position:

Full Stack Developer (Freelancer) at Runbuggy

  • Led development of RunBot AI assistant autonomously using LLM-powered workflow automation (React, TypeScript, Java, MongoDB, NATS)
  • Architected TMS platform providing unified transportation management and real-time logistics visibility with AI processing pipelines
  • Designed event-driven microservices architecture supporting marketplace
  • Drove architectural decisions and technical leadership across full-stack platform development
Verified expert

Sejal Vaidya

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Data & ML Engineering

Berlin
Sejal Vaidya

Last position:

Data & ML Engineering at Consulting

  • Fractional leadership; consulting growth-stage startups and scale-ups on data strategy, ML products, and platform foundations
  • Building decisioning systems for growth, personalization, & product experimentation, across e-Commerce, Digital Health, Energy, and Logistics
  • Exploring Agentic AI & LLM-based tooling for production readiness patterns
Verified expert

Imran Ali

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Software Engineer II

Berlin
Imran Ali

Last position:

Software Engineer II at LivePerson Germany GmbH

  • Led development of 15+ microservices (Java 17, Spring Boot) driving customer interactions; migrated from on-prem to GCP Kubernetes, improving scalability and reducing infra cost by 20%.
  • Optimized user services with CouchDB caching and API refactoring, cutting response times by 35% and enhancing customer experience.
  • Implemented canary deployments, FluxCD GitOps, and CI/CD optimizations in GitLab, reducing release lead time by 25% and enabling zero-downtime rollouts.
  • Set up Grafana health checks and Anodot alerts for latency, error, and throughput monitoring, reducing MTTR by 40%.
  • Built secure APIs using OAuth2, DPoP, and Gatekeeper, integrated REST and GraphQL, and achieved 90%+ test coverage with unit and E2E tests.
  • Mentored junior developers, promoted Agile best practices, and collaborated cross-functionally to deliver high-impact, reliable customer-facing features.
Verified expert

Wolfram Knan

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Certified AI & Machine Learning Engineer · Senior Consultant

Berlin
Wolfram Knan

Last position:

AI / Machine Learning Engineer (Projects & Applied AI) at UNIVERSITÉ PARIS 1 PANTHEON-SORBONNE & LIORA

  • Designed and implemented a hybrid recommendation system (content-based + collaborative filtering)
  • Built end-to-end ML pipelines including data processing, feature engineering, model training, and evaluation
  • Developed RAG-based LLM systems using LangChain and vector databases for semantic search and knowledge retrieval
  • Established MLOps workflows with MLflow for experiment tracking, versioning, and deployment readiness
  • Implemented deep learning models (computer vision & classification) using PyTorch and TensorFlow
Verified expert

Abhiroop Basu

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Software Engineer III

Berlin
Abhiroop Basu

Last position:

Software Engineer III at Foundry Digital

  • Developed and deployed microservices in Kotlin and Spring Boot, integrated AWS Secrets Manager to secure credentials and decreased network calls using Spring cache.
  • Refactored Kafka consumer using Spring Kafka with semaphore-based backpressure to cap records and keep heap memory stable under spikes; switched to batch upserts to cut down on database invocations; added Testcontainers integration tests for Kafka and database to pave the way for future changes.
  • Automated the financial reconciliation workflow in Spring Boot (Kotlin) using Spring Scheduler, transactional boundaries, JPA/Hibernate on MySQL, and Flyway migrations, saving the accounts team 16+ hours per week.
  • Designed and dockerized payments end-to-end test framework in Robot (Python) with reusable keyword libraries and profiles; integrated with GitLab CI (JaCoCo XML and HTML reports) to accelerate releases and lift code coverage to 80%.
  • Implemented end-to-end observability on Datadog by instrumenting services with Datadog APM, correlating metrics and logs, provisioning dashboards, and creating monitors with burn-rate alerts and anomalies to harden reliability and give stakeholders clear visibility.
Verified expert

Thomas Übermeier

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Innovative Fintech & Blockchain Leader · Head Of Engineering

Berlin
Thomas Übermeier

Last position:

Head of Engineering - Midnight at IOG / Midnight

IOG (IOHK), is one of the world's pre-eminent blockchain infrastructure research and engineering companies.

  • Converted a lingering R&D project into a cohesive, production-ready testnet; built and scaled the 35-member engineering team (Core, QA, SRE) to achieve this goal.
  • Defined strategic direction and aligned technology development with business objectives as a key member of the leadership.
  • Optimized software development processes and implemented agile methodologies, enhancing operational efficiency and code security.
  • Delivered projects in a fast-paced startup environment through effective project management and resource allocation.
Verified expert

Daniel Martinez Maqueda

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Founding Database Engineer

Berlin
Daniel Martinez Maqueda

Last position:

Founding Database Engineer at tonbo.io

  • Working on the next iteration of tonbo to make it the most flexible in-process analytical database in the market that scales and is operated with strong availability

  • Introduced object scope cache to the remote storage layer to avoid I/O churn

  • Working on refactoring WAL to support remote storage

  • Taking care of the health of the systems as well as designing the operational story and bringing them to production

  • Technologies: LSM, WAL, Arrow, Parquet, Rust

Verified expert

Ola Van Dunen

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IT Lecturer

Berlin
Ola Van Dunen

Last position:

IT Lecturer

  • IT training in theory and practice for IT specialists in application development and system integration
Verified expert

Jan Krol

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Data Expert

Berlin
Jan Krol

Last position:

Data Expert at Manufacturing

Verified expert

Ibrahim Hilali

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Senior Full Stack Engineer | Cloud & AI Agent Engineer

Berlin
Ibrahim Hilali

Last position:

Senior Full Stack / AI Engineer at Punktum Digital GmbH

  • Context: Healthcare and laboratory teams required faster document analysis, treatment-planning support, and reliable AI workflows for MR/VR-assisted operations.
  • Contribution: Built the AI healthcare platform, model/agent workflows, VR-glasses deployment platform, REST APIs, Next.js/React interfaces, and CI/CD pipelines.
  • Impact: Delivered a production-ready AI product foundation that improved clinical document review, supported laboratory automation, and made VR fleet deployment manageable across environments.

Tech: TypeScript, Next.js, Node.js, React, Java, Spring Boot, Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Docker, PostgreSQL, OpenAPI, GitLab, GitHub Actions.

Discover over 15,000 top freelancers

Statistics of experts using Apache Kafka

Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.

Experience

16 years (Germany: 18 years)

Position duration

1.9 years (Germany: 2.7 years)

Positions per freelancer

10 (Germany: 13)

Top business areas

Information Technology, Product Development, Project Management

Top industries

Information Technology, Banking and Finance, Automotive

Certification focus areas

Information Technology, Product Development, Project Management

Bachelor's degree or higher

96% (Germany: 91%)

Master's degree or higher

44% (Germany: 55%)

Doctorate

4% (Germany: 9%)

Certifications per freelancer

1 (Germany: 2)

Most common languages

English, German, French

Speak two or more languages

97% (Germany: 98%)

Based on our profile pool as of 30 Aug 2026.

Daily rate distribution

0 10 20 30 40
<€400 €400-​800 €800-​1200 €1200-​1600 €1600+

The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers in this technology in Berlin are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range.

Average rates of experts in Berlin using Apache Kafka

Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.

1000
750
500
250
Rate comparison chart
Daily rate avg. 777 €
Germany avg. 787 €

The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.

1000
750
500
250
Rate comparison chart
Median rate 760 €
Germany median 800 €

The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.

Calculated based on our freelancers’ daily rates as of 30 Aug 2026. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.

About the technology

Event streaming

Apache Kafka is built for moving data as events in real time. Companies use it for event-driven systems, logs, audit trails, and data pipelines that must keep flowing under load. It fits products that need decoupled services and fast data delivery.

Common use cases

  • Service-to-service event exchange
  • Change data capture and pipeline handoff
  • Activity tracking and audit streams
  • Real-time feeds for search, fraud, and alerts

Kafka is often chosen when a queue is not enough and many systems need the same event data. In Berlin, it is common in product teams, data teams, and platform work that spans multiple services.

Ecosystem skills

Strong specialists work across the full Kafka stack, not just the broker layer. They know producer and consumer behavior, partitions, consumer groups, schemas, and retention settings.

  • Kafka Connect and connectors
  • Kafka Streams for stream processing
  • Schema Registry and data contracts
  • TLS, ACLs, and cluster configuration

When to bring in help

Companies bring in freelance experts when a Kafka setup is new, unstable, or hard to scale. That often includes reworking topic design, fixing lag, improving throughput, or cleaning up unreliable message handling. It also helps when teams need temporary support for migrations or a launch.

What strong experts deliver

Good Kafka professionals make the system predictable. They document event flows, set clear ownership for topics, and align retention, replay, and failure handling with business needs. They also understand how Kafka fits with microservices, stream processing, and data platforms.

Berlin hiring fit

Berlin teams often need Kafka expertise that can work with product, backend, and data specialists across time zones or on site. Clear communication matters, especially when English is the working language and the system touches many services. A strong freelancer can move between architecture, operations, and delivery without slowing the team down.

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Frequently asked questions

The facts hiring teams ask for most often when it comes to Apache Kafka.

Apache Kafka is used to move events between systems in real time. Companies use it for service communication, data pipelines, audit logs, stream processing, and cases where many tools need the same event data. It is a fit when reliability, replay, and decoupling matter.

Kafka is the common short name people use for Apache Kafka. In search and hiring, both names usually point to the same event streaming system. You may also see Confluent Kafka, which refers to the vendor ecosystem around it.

Apache Kafka needs a specialist when the setup affects multiple services, production traffic, or data contracts. If you need topic design, consumer group tuning, schema handling, connector setup, or incident cleanup, focused experience saves time. A generalist can help with basic use, but complex clusters need deeper skill.

A strong Kafka freelancer usually understands distributed systems, Linux, networking, and one or more backend stacks such as Java, Kotlin, Python, or Go. For data work, skills in schema design, stream processing, and observability are valuable. Cloud and container knowledge also helps when Kafka runs on managed or self-hosted infrastructure.

Apache Kafka is usually chosen for durable event streams, replay, and high-throughput fan-out across many consumers. RabbitMQ is often better for classic task queues and routing patterns. The right choice depends on whether the system needs streaming history and multiple independent readers, or simple message delivery.

Most Kafka work can be done remotely if the team can share access, logs, and clear system context. On-site collaboration can help during large migrations, workshops, or production incident reviews, especially in Berlin teams with many moving parts. The best setup depends on how much coordination the project needs.

Look for clear topic design, sensible partitioning, safe consumer handling, and an understanding of failure recovery. A strong Apache Kafka specialist explains trade-offs in plain words, documents decisions, and avoids hidden coupling between services. Good signs are practical examples of troubleshooting lag, connector problems, and data loss risks.

Before work starts, prepare a map of producers, consumers, topics, schemas, and the business events that matter. A strong Kafka expert can move faster when monitoring, access, and ownership are clear. For Berlin teams, it also helps to define whether the collaboration will be remote, on-site, or mixed.

The average hourly rate of freelancers in Berlin, Germany who have used Apache Kafka in their recent projects is 97 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 777 € based on an 8-hour working day.

Of the freelancers in Berlin, Germany who have used Apache Kafka in their recent projects, 96% hold at least a Bachelor's degree, 44% hold at least a Master's degree, and 4% hold a doctorate.

On average, freelancers in Berlin, Germany who have used Apache Kafka in their recent projects have 16 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 1.9 years.

The most common languages among freelancers in Berlin, Germany who have used Apache Kafka in their recent projects are English (100%), German (93%), and French (13%).

The most common industries among freelancers in Berlin, Germany who have used Apache Kafka in their recent projects are Information Technology (95%), Banking and Finance (49%), and Automotive (39%).

The most common business areas among freelancers in Berlin, Germany who have used Apache Kafka in their recent projects are Information Technology (100%), Product Development (93%), and Project Management (56%).

Main locations of FRATCH Experts, who have recently used Apache Kafka

Our freelancers and interim experts are at home across the DACH region — available on-site in the major business hubs or fully remote. Choose a location to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.

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