Director, Site Reliability Engineering

United States Digital Space LLC; Dublin; On-site; EUR 160,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Klaviyos in Dublin is seeking a foundational Site Reliability Leader to build and scale our SRE organization as we expand across Europe.

You will recruit, mentor and lead a distributed team, embedding reliability, security by design, and blameless post‑mortems across the full software lifecycle.

This role requires 12+ years in software engineering with 5+ years in leadership, cloud‑native experience (AWS), Kubernetes, Terraform and CI/CD, and a passion for AI‑enabled tooling.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in software engineering.
• 5+ years in leadership managing SRE/DevOps/Security teams.
• Cloud-native production systems experience at scale (AWS preferred).
• Experience leading geographically distributed teams and building new teams/offices.
• Strong background in distributed systems, observability, Kubernetes, Terraform, and CI/CD.
• Experience exploring AI tools and responsible workflows.

Responsibilities

• Define vision, strategy, and roadmap for a unified SRE organization in Dublin.
• Build and mentor a world‑class, multi‑disciplinary team of engineers in Dublin.
• Embed reliability principles across the SDLC with product and platform teams.
• Own availability, latency, performance, and capacity planning for the global platform.
• Develop automated, self‑service tooling and infrastructure to accelerate delivery.
• Lead incidents and drive blameless post‑mortems to drive systemic improvements.

Skills

Leadership in SRE/DevOps

AWS / Cloud-native systems

Kubernetes

Terraform

CI/CD

Distributed systems

Observability

Global team management

AI tooling exploration

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

CI/CD tooling

Job description

*At the company, we value the unique backgrounds, experiences and perspectives each the company (we call ourselves Klaviyos) brings to our workplace each and every day. We believe everyone deserves a fair shot at success and appreciate the experiences each person brings beyond the traditional job requirements. If you’re a close but not exact match with the description, we hope you’ll still consider applying. Want to learn more about life at the company? Visit the company.com/careersto see how we empower creators to own their own destiny.

At the company, we empower creators to own their destiny. Our SaaS platform provides businesses of all sizes with powerful, easy-to-use marketing automation tools, making first-party data accessible and actionable like never before. We are a team of ambitious, bold peers who are insatiably curious and meticulous in our craft. As we scale globally, we are seeking a foundational leader to build and lead our Site Reliability functions from our new strategic hub in Dublin.

About the Team

The SRE team is the bedrock of trust for the 200,000+ businesses that rely on the company to power their growth. This team is responsible for the secure reliability, scalability, and performance of our entire platform: from our core data processing pipelines to our cutting-edge AI services. As a foundational leader in our new Dublin office, you will build this team from the ground up, establishing a center of excellence for platform integrity and playing a pivotal role in the company’s European expansion. You will be the ultimate custodian of the trust our customers place in us every day.

How You'll Make a Difference

• Architect and Lead: Define the vision, strategy, and roadmap for a unified SRE organization. You will build and mentor a world‑class, multi‑disciplinary team of engineers in Dublin, fostering a culture of operational excellence, proactive problem‑solving, and blameless learning.
• Champion Secure Reliability: Drive a "secure and reliable by design" philosophy across all of engineering. Partner with product and platform teams to embed reliability principles into the entire software development lifecycle, from initial design to production deployment.
• Own Platform Integrity: Take ownership of the availability, latency, performance, efficiency, change management, monitoring, emergency response, and capacity planning for the company’s global platform.
• Drive Automation: Build the "paved road" for the company engineers by developing automated, self‑service tooling and infrastructure that enables teams to "move fast, no shortcuts".
• Ensure Global Compliance: Serve as the on‑the‑ground technical leader for GDPR and other international data protection regulations. You will be responsible for implementing and verifying the technical controls that safeguard customer data and ensure compliance.
• Lead Through Incidents: Command reliability incidents, guiding teams to rapid resolution while fostering a culture of blameless post‑mortems that drive meaningful, systemic improvements.

Who You Are

• You are a proven engineering leader with a track record of building and scaling high‑performing, geographically distributed teams in a fast‑paced SaaS environment.
• You are intellectually curious and a continuous learner, with a deep understanding of modern reliability principles.
• You are a "Driver" who is biased toward action. You don’t wait for problems to find you; you proactively identify risks and rally teams to solve them.
• You are a cross‑functional influencer and an exceptional communicator, capable of articulating complex technical concepts to diverse audiences, from engineers to executives to enterprise customers.
• You are a player‑coach who can dive deep into technical details with your team while also developing and articulating a long‑term strategic vision.
• You are passionate about building a strong, inclusive team culture and have experience integrating new teams with existing ones across different time zones and cultures.
• You thrive in an environment of high ambiguity and rapid change, embodying a "1% done" mindset and seeing opportunity in every challenge.

What You'll Need

• 12+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 5+ years in a leadership role managing SRE, DevOps, or Security Engineering teams.
• Proven experience building and scaling engineering teams, ideally with experience establishing a new team or office.
• Deep, hands‑on experience with cloud‑native production systems at scale (AWS preferred).
• Strong technical background in distributed systems, observability, container orchestration (Kubernetes), infrastructure as code (Terraform), and CI/CD principles.
• Experience managing geographically distributed teams and fostering a strong, unified culture across multiple time zones.
• You’ve already experimented with AI in work or personal projects, and you’re excited to dive in and learn fast. You’re hungry to responsibly explore new AI tools and workflows, finding ways to make your work smarter and more efficient.

Our salary range reflects the cost of labour in the country where the job post is advertised. The base salary offered for this position is determined by several factors, including the applicant’s job‑related skills, relevant experience, education or training, and work location.

In addition to base salary, our total compensation package may include participation in the company’s annual cash bonus plan, variable compensation (OTE) for sales and customer success roles, equity, sign‑on payments, and a comprehensive range of health, welfare, and wellbeing benefits based on eligibility.

Your recruiter can provide more details about the specific salary/OTE range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

Base Pay Range in Local Currency:

€160.000—€240.000 EUR

*This role may require up to 10% travel for purposes such as new hire onboarding, client or partner work if applicable, team meetings, and industry events. Travel is coordinated in advance.

Get to Know the company

We’re the company (pronounced clay-vee-oh). We empower creators to own their destiny by making first‑party data accessible and actionable like never before. We see limitless potential for the technology we’re developing to nurture personalized experiences in e‑commerce and beyond. To reach our goals, we need our own crew of remarkable creators—ambitious and collaborative teammates who stay focused on our north star: delighting our customers. If you’re ready to do the best work of your career, where you’ll be welcomed as your whole self from day one and supported with generous benefits, we hope you’ll join us.

*AI fluency at the company includes responsible use of AI (including privacy, security, bias awareness, and human‑in‑the‑