Staff Software Engineer - Databases, Tempo | Spain | Remote

Grafana Labs; Madrid; Presencial; EUR 94.025 - 112.830; Jornada completa

Ventajas ofrecidas por este puesto de trabajo

RSUs

Remote-first culture

Global leave 30 days

Descripción de la vacante

Grafana Labs is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the Tempo tracing backend, transforming it into a high‑density, scalable platform for Grafana Cloud. You will own architecture for ingestion, storage, query, and metrics, and drive design reviews to support Tempo as a platform enabler.

You will focus on multi‑quarter initiatives, such as trace aggregation APIs and autoscaling, while mentoring engineers and participating in on‑call rotation.

Formación

• Proven track record of leading multi‑quarter initiatives across design, delivery, and ops.
• Deep experience building and operating production distributed data systems.
• Strong craft in clean, robust, high‑performing code with a shipping focus.
• Comfortable with Go and a path to it; Rust/C/C++ accepted as alternatives.

Responsabilidades

• Lead multi‑quarter technical initiatives such as trace aggregation APIs and autoscaling.
• Own the architecture of core Tempo components—ingestion, storage, query, metrics generation.
• Design APIs for humans and agents to shape Tempo’s interfaces.
• Drive SLO‑driven operations and partner with product teams to ship features.
• Mentor engineers through code reviews, design feedback, pairing, and documentation.

Conocimientos

Technical leadership

Distributed systems

Go programming

Code quality

Team mentorship

Herramientas

Kubernetes

OpenTelemetry

Parquet

Descripción del empleo

Grafana Labs is a 100% remote company building Grafana Cloud, a fully managed observability platform. We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to lead the next phase of our Tempo tracing backend, turning it from a SaaS database into a platform that powers Grafana’s upcoming observability products.

The Opportunity

Tempo is the open‑source distributed tracing backend for Grafana Cloud Traces. In 2026, we will focus on product and operational excellence, evolving Tempo into a higher‑density platform for AI‑driven assistants and large‑scale observability workflows.

Over the Next Year, You Will Help Us

• Deliver reliable Grafana Cloud Traces by removing rough edges, confusing limits, and hidden failures.
• Achieve operational excellence at scale, expanding from ~50 to triple‑digit cells with autoscaling, parameterized rollouts, and reduced toil.
• Evolve Tempo into a platform enabler with higher‑density APIs, trace aggregation, TraceQL metrics, and LLM‑friendly interfaces.
• Push performance further: faster query latency at hundreds of MB/s ingestion and 30‑day query ranges.
• Prepare Tempo for an agent‑driven world with larger, burstier workloads and new AI‑powered workflows.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead multi‑quarter technical initiatives such as trace aggregation APIs, limitless Tempo, autoscaling, and query engine improvements.
• Own the architecture of core Tempo components—ingestion, storage, query, and metrics generation—and drive design reviews.
• Design APIs for humans and agents, shaping the next generation of Tempo’s interfaces.
• Drive operational excellence under concrete SLOs (P99 write latency, incident recurrence, TCO per ingested GB).
• Partner with Product and sibling teams to ship features that unblock them.
• Mentor engineers through code review, design feedback, pairing, and documentation.
• Participate in on‑call rotation and incident response.
• Contribute to Tempo’s open‑source community by reviewing external contributions.

Example Problems You Could Work On

• Trace aggregation and higher‑density APIs.
• Autoscaling end‑to‑end for customer limits and Tempo cells.
• Agent‑scale ingestion and query guardrails.
• Query performance with new data formats and optimizations.
• Rollout and multi‑cell operations tooling.
• Limits and self‑service for customer‑facing configuration.

What Makes You a Great Fit

• Technical leadership with a track record of multi‑quarter initiatives that span design, delivery, and ops.
• Deep systems experience building and operating production distributed data systems.
• Strong software craftsmanship; clean, robust, performant code with a focus on shipping.
• Proficiency in Go (or a path to it); Rust, C, or C++ experience is acceptable.
• Operational mindset: ownership of production services, pager duty, reduced toil, and SLO‑driven product.
• Customer focus: breaking problems into short feedback loops and iterating fast.
• Leadership through collaboration, design docs, and clear communication in a fully remote environment.

Bonus Points For

• Tracing, OpenTelemetry, or large‑scale observability expertise.
• Designing query languages or programmatic APIs.
• Experience with columnar storage formats (Parquet, etc.).
• Operating multi‑tenant, multi‑cell SaaS infrastructure at scale on Kubernetes.
• Building for AI/LLM consumers (structured APIs, metadata, deterministic outputs).
• Open‑source contribution or maintainership.
• Experience with Grafana, Prometheus, Loki, or Tempo in a previous role or homelab.
• Experience in a fully remote, globally distributed team.

How We Work

Remote‑first; synchronous video meetings combined with asynchronous written collaboration. We value creativity, diverse perspectives, and open communication.

Compensation & Rewards

Base compensation in Spain: €94,025 – €112,830. All roles include Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). Market‑specific ranges will be discussed by recruiters.

Why You’ll Thrive At Grafana Labs

• 100% remote, global culture.
• High‑growth, innovative environment.
• Transparent communication and decision‑making.
• Open‑source values and community involvement.
• High trust, low ego culture focused on outcomes.
• Clear career growth pathways.
• Approachable leadership.
• Passionate, supportive team.
• Global annual leave: 30 days plus 3 days reserved for company shutdowns.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Grafana Labs is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from everyone regardless of race, colour, nationality, origin, caste, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, religion or belief, disability, veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, maternity, marital, family or carer status, or any other characteristic protected by local law.

Grafana Labs may utilize AI tools in recruitment; the team will still review all CVs manually. For information on how your personal data is used, see our privacy policy.