diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 1d387620..05c7e3ea 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -159,6 +159,12 @@
             <artifactId>kafka-connect-protobuf-converter</artifactId>
             <version>7.1.1</version>
         </dependency>
+        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.google.protobuf/protobuf-java -->
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>com.google.protobuf</groupId>
+            <artifactId>protobuf-java</artifactId>
+            <version>3.21.7</version>
+        </dependency>
         <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.google.code.gson/gson -->
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>