Site Reliability Engineer - Observability

Rocket Lab; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading tech firm is seeking a Senior Site Reliability Engineer to join their Observability team, focusing on deploying and maintaining infrastructures across DoD networks. Ideal candidates will possess extensive experience with Kubernetes and observability tools, ensuring compliance and optimizing performance in secure environments.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of SRE or DevOps experience.
• Deep experience with Kubernetes.
• Hands-on experience with observability tools.

Responsibilities

• Deploy and maintain observability stack across clusters.
• Configure and maintain BigBang charts and integrations.
• Troubleshoot and debug complex Kubernetes issues.

Skills

Site Reliability Engineering

Kubernetes administration

Observability tools

GitOps practices

Distributed systems debugging

Networking issues troubleshooting

Authentication systems understanding

Tools

Prometheus

Grafana

Pulumi

Terraform

ArgoCD

Helm

Flux

Job description

ABOUT THE ROLE

Second Front Systems' (2F) Product team is seeking a highly skilled and motivated Senior Site Reliability Engineer to join our Observability team. We are a small team working to accelerate the deployment of emerging technology into national security use-cases. We are seeking technical professionals who want to operate on the front lines of an exciting and disruptive mission.

As a Senior SRE for Second Front Systems, you'll be responsible for deploying, maintaining, and scaling our observability infrastructure across multiple DoD networks. You'll work with Kubernetes-based platforms, BigBang charts from DoD Platform One, and build automation to make our monitoring stack easier to deploy for new customers. You'll be empowered to collaborate with others to implement infrastructure that delivers unique capabilities for our commercial and government customers, including the Department of Defense.

The Observability team is looking for a strong SRE with deep DevSecOps and Kubernetes experience. Someone who has deployed and maintained monitoring infrastructure at scale, with an eye for security in highly-regulated environments. Experience with DoD software deployments, Platform One, and single-tenant architectures is highly valued.

We are a fast-growing entrepreneurial team working at the convergence of technology and national security. If this type of effort interests you, come join us!

Note: This position requires U.S. citizenship due to government contract requirements.

What You’ll Do

• Deploy and maintain observability stack (Grafana, Mimir, Prometheus) across multiple customer clusters and DoD networks
• Build Helm chart abstractions and automation to streamline monitoring deployments for new customers
• Troubleshoot and debug complex Kubernetes issues, networking problems, and monitoring stack failures
• Configure and maintain BigBang charts and DoD Platform One integrations
• Design and implement infrastructure automation using tools like Pulumi, ArgoCD, and Flux
• Work with Istio service mesh and Keycloak for authentication in secure environments
• Monitor and optimize performance of monitoring infrastructure across multiple environments
• Collaborate with security teams to ensure compliance with NIST requirements and DoD standards
• Participate in on-call rotation and incident response for production environments

Skills You’ll Bring to Our Team

• 5+ years of Site Reliability Engineering or DevOps experience
• Deep experience with Kubernetes administration, troubleshooting, and scaling
• Hands-on experience deploying and maintaining observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Mimir/Cortex)
• Strong understanding of Helm charts, GitOps practices, and CNCF tooling
• Experience with service mesh technologies (Istio preferred)
• Proven ability to debug complex distributed systems and networking issues
• Understanding of authentication systems and security in regulated environments
• Ability to work independently and collaborate with team members in a remote environment

Preferred Qualifications

• Active security clearance or ability to obtain a Secret-level security clearance
• Previous experience with DoD software deployments and Platform One
• Experience with BigBang charts and Iron Bank containers
• Experience working in national security or highly regulated environments
• Familiarity with compliance frameworks (NIST, FedRAMP, etc.)
• Experience with infrastructure as code (Pulumi, Terraform)

Technologies we Use

• Observability: Grafana stack, Prometheus, custom alerting tools
• Kubernetes: Helm, ArgoCD, Flux, Tekton, BigBang charts
• Security: Istio, Keycloak, Kyverno
• Infrastructure: AWS/GCP/Azure, Pulumi, Git/GitLab
• Languages: YAML, Bash, Go