Senior Software Engineer | DevOps & Cloud Infrastructure | AI/ML Enthusiast
Hey there! I’m Joel Hanson, a Software Engineer at IBM, currently immersed in leveraging event streams for smarter data-driven insights. Previously an AI Engineer at Impress.ai, I’m passionate about making AI more user-friendly for everyone—transitioning from batch to real-time machine learning and evolving architectures from request-driven to event-driven.
- 🔭 Currently writing a [blog on building an MCP server for Kafka](https://joel-hanson.github.io/ and exploring event-driven data platforms.
- 🌱 Continuously learning about distributed systems, Kubernetes operators, and emerging AI frameworks.
- 💬 Ask me about Kafka, Kubernetes, Terraform, or Python best practices.
| Cloud & DevOps | Languages | Data & Streaming | Tools & Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS · GCP · IBM Cloud | Python · Java · JavaScript | Kafka · PostgreSQL · Redis · Flink | Kubernetes · Docker · Openshift |
| CI/CD (Jenkins, GitHub Actions) | Shell · SQL · Go | Pandas · NumPy · MLflow | Kafka Connect · FastAPI · AWS Cloudformation |
- Building an MCP Server for Your Kafka Cluster (June 7, 2025) – Expose Kafka operations as LLM‑accessible tools with FastMCP and the MCP protocol.
- How I Automated My Markdown Publishing on Medium (No More Manual Work!) (April 26, 2025) – Convert Hugo‑friendly Markdown into perfectly formatted Medium posts using an open‑source tool.
- Creating Tombstone Records Using kafka-console-producer.sh: A Quick Guide (April 22, 2025) – Generate tombstone records for compacted Kafka topics via the console producer’s null‑marker feature.
- Build Custom Kafka Connectors Fast with This Open‑Source Template (April 14, 2025) – Kickstart connector development with a production‑ready Kafka Connect template.
- Filtering Tombstone Records in Kafka Connect (March 11, 2025) – Use SMTs and the RecordIsTombstone predicate to drop null records in your pipelines.
Feel free to open issues or PRs on any of my projects — I love collaborating on open-source!