Lead Observability Engineer

Stanford Black Limited; Greater London; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Stanford Black Limited in London seeks a Lead Observability Engineer to advance its production system insights beyond dashboards and alerts, blending software engineering with a broader view of production behavior.

You will bridge the observability gap, instrument complex services, and guide teams toward reliable performance across a globally distributed technology estate.

Qualifications

• Advanced OpenTelemetry instrumentation and implementation.
• Observability, software infrastructure or SRE background.
• Strong understanding of distributed production systems.
• Experience in hyperscale environments is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Bridge observability technology with the engineers who rely on it to understand system behavior.
• Develop reusable tooling and approaches so observability is a natural part of software development.
• Help engineers investigate complex issues and optimize production performance.

Skills

OpenTelemetry

Go

Python

Distributed systems

SRE

Job description

Lead Observability Engineer (London, UK):

The Opportunity

A leading global quantitative research firm is looking for a Lead Observability Engineer to help advance the engineering practices supporting its mission-critical technology estate.

This is a senior opportunity for someone who understands observability beyond dashboards and alerts - a specialist who can combine software engineering expertise with a broader view of how complex systems behave in production.

You'll have the opportunity to influence technical decisions, introduce better ways of understanding system performance and work alongside highly capable engineers in an environment where technology is central to the business.

The Role

You'll help bridge the gap between observability technology and the engineers who depend on it, making it easier to understand application behaviour, investigate unexpected results and make informed decisions about system performance.

The role will suit someone who enjoys solving difficult engineering problems, challenging established approaches and turning specialist knowledge into practical improvements used across a wider organisation.

Areas of focus include:

• OpenTelemetry expertise: Apply deep knowledge of the ecosystem to improve how software is instrumented and how engineering teams gain insight into their applications.
• Developer experience: Create reusable approaches and tooling that make effective observability a natural part of software development.
• Performance engineering: Help engineers investigate complex issues across distributed applications and infrastructure.
• Technical leadership: Influence engineering standards, evaluate emerging technologies and guide longer-term technical decisions.
• Engineering innovation: Explore new methods of understanding production behaviour, from advanced profiling to evolving approaches to system diagnostics.

What We're Looking For:

• Strong practical expertise in OpenTelemetry, beyond basic implementation or configuration.
• A background in observability, software infrastructure, platform engineering or SRE.
• Software development experience in Go, Python or a comparable language.
• A solid understanding of distributed applications and production-system behaviour.
• Ideally experience within comparable hyperscale environments (eg quant research, high frequency trading, 'big tech', investment banking etc).