Site Reliability Engineer

Forward Networks; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 230,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Forward Networks in Santa Clara is seeking a Site Reliability Engineer to build the SRE function for a distributed SaaS platform. You will define availability, observability, incident response, and operational excellence in collaboration with engineering, infrastructure, and product teams.

As the first SRE hire, you will shape SRE practices, implement SLOs/SLIs, champion error budgets, and drive capacity planning, chaos engineering, and production readiness reviews, with a path to leadership as

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in site reliability engineering, DevOps, or infrastructure engineering.
• Strong fundamentals in networking and production Kubernetes experience.
• Proficiency with observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, or Splunk.
• Scripting in Python or Bash; infrastructure as code with Terraform/Ansible or equivalent.
• Cloud experience across AWS, GCP, or Azure; SaaS environments.
• Track record of owning incident response processes and blameless post-mortems.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive SRE practices from the ground up—SLOs, SLIs, error budgets, and the frameworks the engineering org will actually use.
• Drive the reliability and operational excellence of the Forward SaaS platform.
• Build and maintain observability infrastructure—logging, metrics, tracing, and alerting.
• Lead incident response: on-call rotations, runbooks, post-mortems, and follow-through to prevent recurrence.
• Partner with engineering to embed reliability thinking into the SDLC—capacity planning, load testing, chaos engineering, and production readiness reviews.
• Help define and build the SRE team as the company scales—foundational hire with leadership potential.

Job description

Forward was founded in 2013 by four Stanford Ph.D.s, building the industry's first network digital twin: a mathematically accurate model of the production network. It's the foundation for autonomous networking, giving engineers and AI agents the ability to know the impact of every change before it touches production. That founding instinct still defines how we work. We're accurate and evidence-driven, relentless about clarity, and we'd rather be certain than comfortable, building a groundbreaking platform that transforms how teams run and secure networks across every major cloud and vendor environment.

Global leaders like Goldman Sachs, PayPal, S&P Global, IBM, and Dell trust Forward, alongside fast-growing enterprises and government agencies, realizing an average of $14.2 million in annual benefits, according to IDC. Backed by top-tier investors, including A. Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, MSD Partners, Omega Venture Partners, Section 32, and Threshold Ventures, and headquartered in Santa Clara, we're most proud of our team: curious people who'd rather build what doesn't exist than accept how things have always been done.

Forward is looking for a Site Reliability Engineer

About the Role

This is not a "keep the lights on" SRE role. As our first or early SRE hire you will be building the reliability engineering function at Forward — defining how we think about availability, observability, incident response, and operational excellence across a complex, distributed SaaS platform. You will work closely with engineering, infrastructure, and product to ensure our platform meets the reliability bar our enterprise customers demand.

What You'll Own

• Define and drive SRE practices from the ground up — SLOs, SLIs, error budgets, and the frameworks the engineering org will actually use
• Drive the reliability and operational excellence of the Forward SaaS platform
• Build and maintain observability infrastructure — logging, metrics, tracing, and alerting — so the team always knows what's happening before customers do
• Lead incident response: on-call rotations, runbooks, post-mortems, and the follow-through to make sure the same incident doesn't happen twice
• Partner with engineering teams to embed reliability thinking into the SDLC — capacity planning, load testing, chaos engineering, and production readiness reviews
• Help define and build the SRE team as the company scales — this is a foundational hire with a path to leadership

What We're Looking For

• 6+ years of experience in site reliability engineering, DevOps, or infrastructure engineering in a SaaS or cloud environment
• Proven experience building or significantly maturing an SRE function — not just operating within one someone else built
• Strong fundamentals in networking — TCP/IP, DNS, routing, switching, firewalls, and load balancing. Experience with network management or observability platforms is a significant plus
• Hands‑on experience with Kubernetes and container orchestration in production environments
• Deep proficiency with observability tooling — Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, Splunk, or similar
• Strong scripting and automation skills in Python, Bash, or similar
• Experience with cloud platforms — AWS, GCP, or Azure — including infrastructure as code (Terraform, Ansible, or equivalent)
• Track record of owning and improving incident response processes including blameless post-mortems and SLO-driven reliability improvements
• Ability to communicate clearly with both engineering teams and non-technical stakeholders — you can explain an outage to a customer-facing team without jargon and explain an SLO to an executive without losing them

Nice to Have

• Experience supporting enterprise or federal government customers with high availability requirements
• Experience in a foundational or early SRE hire capacity at a growth stage company

What This Role Is Not

• A pure ops or NOC role — you are building and engineering, not just monitoring
• A siloed function — you will be deeply embedded with product and engineering teams
• A ticket‑taker — you will be proactively identifying and solving reliability problems before they become incidents

Why Forward

• YOU'LL be building something from scratch at a company with real enterprise traction and world-class investors behind it
• Our customers include some of the most complex network environments on the planet — the reliability bar is high and the work is genuinely interesting
• People-centric culture built by Stanford Ph.D.s who care deeply about doing things the right way
• Competitive compensation, equity, and the opportunity to grow into a leadership role as the SRE function scales

The base pay range for this role is between $230,000 and $250,000. Base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location