Confluent Expert: Elevate Your Kafka Projects to the Next Level Now

When do you need a Kafka expert?

Kafka projects often land on senior engineers who already have full workloads. They understand data streaming, infrastructure and deployment, but they rarely have time to learn every corner of Kafka or to hire new people before a deadline. That is where a Confluent-certified Kafka expert adds value quickly: they have already solved the problems your team is about to meet.

Typical moments to bring in outside Kafka expertise:

• A tight deadline on a new streaming platform, migration or event-driven architecture.
• A production incident, such as an unresponsive cluster, consumer lag that keeps growing or a bad configuration change.
• A skills gap, for example security, Kafka Connect, Kafka Streams or running Kafka on Kubernetes.
• A platform decision, such as self-managed Kafka versus a managed service.

In this guide we cover what Confluent certification proves, the difference between Confluent’s own Professional Services and a partner consultancy, and a checklist for choosing the right team. You can also read more about our Apache Kafka consulting services.

What does Confluent certification prove?

A Confluent certified developer or administrator has passed a proctored exam that tests in-depth knowledge of Apache Kafka. According to Confluent’s certification FAQ, the exams last 90 minutes, are monitored by a proctor throughout, and use question types such as multiple choice, matching and list order. Reference materials are not allowed.

Confluent currently offers three certifications:

Certifications expire after two years, so holders must recertify to stay current. A valid digital badge is a useful signal because anyone can check its status online.

Certification is a baseline, not the whole story. The exam proves knowledge; production experience proves judgement. The strongest Kafka experts combine both, and they will happily talk you through incidents they have fixed. If your engineers are preparing for the exam themselves, see our CCDAK study guide.

Should you use Confluent Professional Services or a Confluent partner?

There are two main routes to Confluent expertise. Confluent Professional Services offers advisory and hands-on implementation, from exploration and foundation services through to health checks, architecture workshops and migration accelerators. Confluent also works with an ecosystem of services partners, which are consultancies with their own certified engineers.

Confluent has been part of IBM since IBM completed its acquisition on 17 March 2026, and partner programme names and listings have changed over time. So ask any partner to confirm its current status directly rather than relying on an old badge.

In our experience, in-house engineers rely on a partner to understand Kafka’s operating model, model use cases, deploy Kafka as a service, automate deployments, recover data from failed clusters and keep the business running while they do it.

Key takeaway: Certification shows a Kafka expert knows the platform; references and production incidents show they can deliver. Pick a team that offers both, and agree goals, timelines and support terms before the project starts.

What should you check before hiring Kafka experts?

Once you have shortlisted Confluent partners or Kafka consultancies, take a few steps before you bring one on board for an important project:

• Discuss your goals and expectations before launch. We always start with a technical discovery workshop to understand what your team is planning and the standards you expect. Senior engineers usually know what they need, so the job is to agree a strategy to get there.
• Ask for references and case studies. Past work is a good predictor of a partner’s skill set. Engineers who have delivered many Kafka projects have already met the common roadblocks and know the fixes.
• Agree a timeline and clear deliverables. If speed is the reason for bringing in a Confluent expert, state the deadlines up front. We set objectives and timelines during the initial workshop.
• Check certifications and hands-on experience. Ask how many engineers hold a current CCDAK or CCAAK, and which Kafka versions, cloud platforms and tools they have run in production.
• Ask about support after go-live. Find out who answers when something breaks at 2am, how they are contacted, and what response times they commit to.
• Ask questions throughout. A good partner shares what it has learned so your team can run the platform confidently after the engagement ends.

How does OSO work with in-house Kafka teams?

OSO is a specialist Apache Kafka consultancy. We became a Confluent preferred partner in August 2022, and our team includes more than 10 Confluent certified experts. Certification does not mean boilerplate, though. Here is what sets our approach apart:

• We adapt to roadblocks. We do what is right for your engineers, even when that means changing the original plan, and we iterate and troubleshoot with your team rather than blindly following a roadmap.
• We future-proof solutions. We hand over the knowledge and skills your engineers need to maintain and evolve the platform, so they leave each engagement with new techniques for the next project.
• We accelerate timelines. We reuse tested code patterns and automation straight after the discovery workshop to cut delivery time.
• We collaborate. We give transparent advice and work as one team with your engineers.

Depending on what you need, you can work with us in three ways:

• Kafka consulting services for architecture workshops, platform builds, migrations, automation and performance tuning, delivered by our Confluent consultants.
• Enterprise Kafka support for all flavours of Apache Kafka, including emergency help when a production cluster is in trouble.
• Fully managed Kafka on your own infrastructure, with OSO engineers handling operations while you keep control of your data.

If you are still weighing up hosted options, our comparison of the best managed Kafka services is a good place to start. When you are ready, talk to an OSO Kafka expert about your next project.

Frequently asked questions