Ricardo is a Developer Advocate at Confluent, the company founded by the creators of Apache Kafka. He has over 21 years of experience working with software engineering, where he specialized in different types of distributed systems such as integration, SOA, NoSQL, messaging, API management, and cloud computing. Prior to Confluent, he worked for other vendors such as Oracle, Red Hat and IONA Technologies, as well as several consulting firms.

While not working he enjoys grilling steaks on his backyard with his family and friends, where he gets the chance to talk about anything that is not IT related. Currently, he lives in Apex, North Carolina, with his wife, and son. Follow Ricardo on Twitter: @riferrei