Own and expand our logging stack (OpenSearch, Logstash, and Filebeat) across all Backblaze data centers.
Architect and expand distributed tracing with Jaeger and OpenTelemetry, extending coverage beyond the current application instrumentation to new services.
Define and maintain Grafana dashboard standards for infrastructure, storage, and application performance visibility.
Drive expansion of internal application telemetry in partnership with application teams to improve visibility.
Define capacity and retention strategy for the telemetry stack as the fleet grows.
Infrastructure & Automation
Own infrastructure-as-code for observability stack deployments across multiple Kubernetes clusters.
Write and review automated playbooks for configuration management and automation across Debian-based bare metal servers.
Partner with the SRE team on Consul-based service discovery for VictoriaMetrics scrape target automation.
Lead Ceph storage observability, including OSD health, performance metrics, and integration with alerting.
Collaborate with the Network Engineering team on BGP, routing, and network-level observability.
Required Qualifications
8+ years in a systems engineering, SRE, DevOps, or observability-focused role, including demonstrated technical leadership on a platform or infrastructure team.
Deep hands-on experience with Prometheus, VictoriaMetrics, or equivalent metrics platforms, including PromQL, Alertmanager, and operating these systems at scale.
Experience designing and operating log aggregation pipelines such as Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, Logstash, Filebeat, or similar.
Working knowledge of distributed tracing (Jaeger, OpenTelemetry, or equivalent), including instrumentation strategy, not just operation.
Proficiency in Python and/or Go for automation and tooling.
Experience with Kubernetes, including deploying workloads and understanding pod networking and storage.
Experience with infrastructure-as-code tooling and configuration management.
Strong understanding of Linux internals, with Debian/Ubuntu preferred.
Demonstrated experience mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar on a team.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills. You'll work across engineering, SRE, security, and leadership, and you'll be expected to write design documents that drive decisions.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience leading the evaluation or deployment of AIOps tooling, including alert correlation, deduplication, or automated root cause analysis.
Experience building, deploying, or operating AI agents or agentic AI systems. This is a strong differentiator.
Familiarity with LLM APIs (Anthropic, OpenAI) or self-hosted LLM inference in an infrastructure context.
Familiarity with Ceph storage, including OSD management, pool configuration, and CRUSH maps.
Experience with incident management platforms.
Familiarity with BGP, network observability, or working in multi-DC environments.
Experience with secrets management in production environments.
Experience operating in a regulated or compliance-driven environment.
Prior experience in a storage-focused company or hyperscale infrastructure environment.
What You'll Work On
A telemetry stack spanning several data centers with exabytes of storage under observation.
Real infrastructure at scale: Kubernetes, Ceph, Vitess, KVM, and a custom storage platform serving hundreds of thousands of customers.
A collaborative team that values engineering excellence, transparency, and operational rigor.
Pay Transparency
To provide greater transparency to candidates, we share base pay ranges for all US-based job postings regardless of state. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate location, skills, depth of work experience, and relevant licenses/credentials.
The expected salary range for this role is $178,000 - $200,000 plus 10% target annual bonus and RSUs.
At Backblaze, we value being fair and good to our customers, partners, and employees. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the core of our values. We are committed to fostering a workforce where all employees feel a sense of belonging regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, socio-economic status, ability, veteran status, and education. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.
