Staff Software Engineer (Observability)

• At Astronomer, our R&D organization is dedicated to providing an exceptional experience in operating data orchestration based on Apache Airflow at many of the world’s largest companies
• As we continue to grow, we are looking to solve highly complex technology problems through inventive algorithms and world-class practices around scale
• We are building out a world-class Observability team to deliver data observability capabilities that provide our customers visibility, reliability, and actionable insights into their data pipelines and products across some of the world’s largest enterprises
• We are seeking an experienced Staff Software Engineer to join this effort
• In this role, you will contribute directly to the design, development, and scaling of Astronomer’s observability platform, collaborating closely with product, design, and cross-functional engineering teams
• Your work will have a direct impact on our customers and the future of the platform
• Lead the end-to-end architecture and evolution of major platform components, making foundational design decisions that will shape the long-term direction of the observability platform
• Build scalable, reliable, and performant features that provide visibility into customer data pipelines
• Collaborate closely with product, design, and engineering teams to define and deliver high-impact initiatives
• Write high-quality, maintainable code while following best practices in testing, CI/CD, and operational excellence
• Set and champion engineering standards for code quality, testing, design, and operational excellence across the team
• Help improve and evolve the observability platform’s tooling, infrastructure, and processes
• Lead and coordinate responses to complex production incidents, guiding the team towards rapid resolution and long-term improvements
• Proactively identify technical opportunities, risks, and gaps - and drive initiatives to address them
• Mentor engineers of all levels through design reviews, pairing, and feedback, and contribute to the professional growth of the team

Benefits

• Remote friendly, work from anywhere
• If you’re in a city with an office, it’s there (and stocked with snacks) when you need it
• Co-workers in over 40 states and 15 countries around the world
• Health, dental, and vision insurance at little to no cost for individuals, and at competitive rates for your dependents
• Disability and life insurance policies in case something happens
• Unlimited vacation - we do track vacation days and actively encourage people to take it (on average, Astronomers take 20 days of vacation per year)
• Parental leave
• Laptop of your choice, and a stipend to help with your work-from-home setup
• Monthly $170 pre-tax stipend intended to cover your cellphone and WiFi bills
• Yearly internal summit for all employees
• Regular access to conferences, workshops, and meetups in the ecosystem

Preferred experience

• Focus on delivering customer value through thoughtful technical solutions
• Enthusiasm for contributing to a healthy, inclusive engineering culture and supporting the growth of teammates
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills to work effectively across teams
• Strong technical experience building complex distributed systems, preferably with Golang, Python, Kubernetes, SQL/OLAP databases, Kafka, and stream processing
• Comfort working in areas of high ambiguity, able to break down open-ended problems and drive them to completion with clarity and structure
• Hands-on experience designing, developing, and scaling production infrastructure
• Experience building or scaling data observability products
• Familiarity with Apache Airflow or similar workflow orchestrators
• Experience working with product teams directly
• Background in observability, monitoring, or infrastructure at scale (e.g., Datadog, Honeycomb, or similar)