Senior Software Engineer, Observability Platform

Smartsheet

. Architect and build an observability platform for metrics, logs, distributed traces, and events across multiple regions and environments .

Posted 9/24/2026full-timeRemote • United StatesSenior💰 $161,250 - $193,750 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in building and operating observability platforms, including proficiency in OpenTelemetry, high-volume data pipelines, and integration with CI/CD systems. Strong background in programming languages such as Go, Python, and Java/Kotlin, along with advanced skills in AWS and Kubernetes.

Highest-signal resume keywords

OpenTelemetry ExperienceHigh-Volume Data Pipeline EngineeringAWS and Kubernetes ExpertiseProgramming in Go, Python, Java/KotlinInternal Platform Development

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

OpenTelemetryGo ProgrammingPython ProgrammingJava/Kotlin ProgrammingHigh-Volume Data PipelinesREST API EngineeringTerraformGitOps WorkflowsDistributed SystemsSLO Implementation

Soft Skills

Technical TeachingMentoring EngineersLeading Code ReviewsDriving Root-Cause AnalysisCollaboration

Tools & Technologies

AWSKubernetesEKSECSEC2LambdaEvent-Driven ArchitecturesCI/CD IntegrationTelemetry ToolsDeveloper Tooling

Certifications & Qualifications

Computer Science DegreeEngineering Degree

Industry Keywords

Observability InfrastructureMetricsLogsDistributed TracingTelemetryError BudgetsAlertingHuman-in-the-Loop WorkflowsPlatform SLOsCost Mechanics

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSDistributed SystemsEC2JavaJavaScriptKotlinKubernetesNode.jsPythonTerraformTypeScriptGo

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Architect and build an observability platform for metrics, logs, distributed traces, and events across multiple regions and environments
Own components from telemetry collection through storage, query, and presentation
Run observability as an internal product with published interfaces, versioned client libraries, deprecation paths, and platform SLOs
Build and maintain OpenTelemetry instrumentation libraries, collector deployments, semantic conventions, context propagation, and sampling strategies
Engineer high-volume collection, enrichment, redaction, routing, reliability, backpressure handling, and tiered-retention pipelines
Integrate observability tooling with CI/CD, service catalog, incident management, ticketing, chat, and feature-flag systems
Design event-driven and agent-assisted self-healing remediation workflows with human-in-the-loop approval gates
Implement SLOs, error budgets, golden-signal alerting as code, and alert-noise reduction
Own the golden path for service instrumentation, including scaffolding, templates, Terraform modules, and CI checks
Track platform adoption, onboarding time, dashboard time-to-value, query performance, and cost per service
Build documentation, reference architectures, worked examples, onboarding paths, workshops, office hours, and game days
Lead code reviews and architecture discussions, author instrumentation standards, mentor engineers, and grow instrumentation champions
Apply AI tooling to coding, testing, design, troubleshooting, and observability for AI and agentic systems
Join the on-call rotation, drive root-cause analysis, and turn incidents into durable improvements
Report to the Team Lead, Observability Engineering, and partner with the Principal Engineer on telemetry platform direction

Requirements

What you’ll need

5+ years building and operating highly scalable, highly available distributed systems, platform services, or observability infrastructure
5+ years programming in Go, Python, Java/Kotlin, or TypeScript/Node.js
Experience building internal platforms, developer tooling, or an internal developer platform such as Backstage
Hands-on depth across metrics, logs, and distributed tracing on a major commercial or open-source observability platform
Practical understanding of cardinality, sampling, cost mechanics, SLOs, and production alerting
Practical OpenTelemetry experience, including collectors, auto and manual instrumentation, semantic conventions, and context propagation
Experience building high-volume data or telemetry pipelines
Strong REST API and integration engineering skills, including OAuth, authentication patterns, webhooks, and event-driven architectures
Advanced AWS and Kubernetes expertise, including EKS, ECS, EC2, Lambda, and managed messaging/eventing services
Experience with Terraform and GitOps-based workflows
Demonstrated technical teaching through workshops, onboarding curricula, internal courses, conference or meetup talks, or raising team capability
Experience measuring and driving platform or tool adoption
6+ months of professional experience leveraging AI to enhance engineering productivity
Track record of leading large projects autonomously from ambiguous problem through production
Computer Science degree, Engineering degree, or equivalent practical experience
Legal eligibility to work in the U.S. on an ongoing basis

Benefits

Comp & perks

Employer subsidized medical/vision and dental coverage for full-time employees
401k Match: 50% of your contribution up to the first 6% of eligible pay
Monthly stipend to support work and productivity
Flexible Time Away Program, plus Sick Time Off
Smartsheet-sponsored life insurance, short-term disability, and long-term disability plans
12 paid holidays per year
Up to 24 weeks of Parental Leave
Personal paid Volunteer Day
Professional growth and development opportunities, including Udemy online courses
Company Funded Perks, including a counseling membership, local retail discounts, and a personal Smartsheet account
Teleworking options from any registered location in the U.S. (role specific)
Market competitive incentive opportunity