Software Engineer – Observability, Co-op

10 Ancestry.com Operations Inc.; United States; Hybrid; USD 83,000 - 124,000; Part time

Job summary

Ancestry is seeking a part-time Observability Engineer to join our Observability team. You will develop and maintain OpenTelemetry-based instrumentation migration tools across languages (Java, Python, Node.js, .NET) and support real-time monitoring.

The role emphasizes AI-assisted development, dashboard migrations, validation, and collaboration with security and platform teams. Flexible location within the United States and a 20-hour weekly commitment for six months.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in CS or a related field.
• Strong Python development skills and code quality.
• Experience with AI-assisted development tools is a plus.
• Familiarity with observability concepts including logs, metrics, and traces.

Responsibilities

• Develop AI-driven migration tooling to move instrumentation to OpenTelemetry standards.
• Create validation and testing for metrics and traces with dashboards.
• Build CLI tools and self-service migration utilities with guides.
• Collaborate with security, compliance, and platform teams to deliver solutions.
• Present work in team demos and document runbooks.

Skills

Python

JavaScript/TypeScript

AI-assisted development

Observability concepts

AWS Cloud services

SQL

Communication

Education

Master's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

OpenTelemetry

New Relic

Datadog

Kubernetes

Docker

CloudWatch

Job description

About Ancestry

When you join Ancestry, you join a human-centered company where every person’s story is important. Ancestry®, the global leader in family history, connects everyone with their past so they can discover, preserve, and share their unique family stories. With our unparalleled collection of more than 65 billion records, over 3.5 million subscribers, and over 27 million people in our growing DNA network, customers can discover their family story and gain a new level of understanding about their lives. Over the past 40 years, we’ve built trusted relationships with millions of people who have chosen us as the platform for discovering, preserving, and sharing the most important information about themselves and their families. We are committed to our location flexible work approach, allowing you to choose to work in the nearest office, from your home, or a hybrid of both (subject to location restrictions and roles that are required to be in the office- see the full list of eligible US locations HERE). We will continue to hire and promote beyond the boundaries of our office locations, to enable broadened possibilities for employee diversity. Together, we work every day to foster a work environment that’s inclusive as well as diverse, and where our people can be themselves. Every idea and perspective is valued so that our products and services reflect the global and diverse clients we serve. Ancestry encourages applications from minorities, women, the disabled, protected veterans and all other qualified applicants. Passionate about dedicating your work to enriching people’s lives? Join the curious.

Software Engineer – Observability Engineer

The Observability team builds and maintains all the observability tools and technologies that help Ancestry monitor the site and detect and resolve customer-impacting incidents. As a Software Engineer on the Observability team, you will lead the development of automated migration tools for OpenTelemetry-based observability platforms while contributing to sensitive data protection and infrastructure operations.

What you will do:

• Contribute to the development of AI-powered code transformation tools leveraging foundation models (LLMs) and agentic frameworks to migrate application instrumentation to OpenTelemetry standards across multiple languages (Java, Python, Node.js, .NET) and browser-based Real User Monitoring (RUM)
• Build intelligent parsing and analysis engines using AI agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools to transform existing APM instrumentation code with proper error handling, validation, and comprehensive migration reports
• Design and implement LLM-driven dashboard migration tools that extract, transform, and recreate observability dashboards across platforms with functional equivalence validation
• Develop agentic alert migration automation using AI frameworks to export, transform, and migrate alerting policies, conditions, notification channels, and escalation workflows between observability platforms
• Create comprehensive validation and testing frameworks to compare metrics and traces, build migration progress dashboards, and develop rollback procedures
• Build CLI tools, scripts, and self-service migration utilities with detailed guides and best practices documentation to enable application teams
• Contribute to observability operations including log PII detection with near real-time streaming, multi-source log pipeline integration (CloudWatch, Lambda), cost optimization, and infrastructure monitoring (EKS, EC2, Lambda)
• Support Harness deployment pipeline integration with observability alerts and contribute to operational excellence through code reviews and documentation
• Partner with application teams, security and compliance teams, and platform engineering teams to understand requirements, pain points, and deliver impactful solutions
• Present work at team demos and showcase events while contributing to team documentation, runbooks, and best practices

Who You Are:

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field
• Strong development experience in Python with demonstrated ability to write high-quality code
• AI-assisted development experience: Hands-on experience using AI coding assistants such as Cline, Roo Code, Kiro, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or similar tools for software development
• Full-stack development exposure with JavaScript/TypeScript and modern front-end frameworks (React preferred, Vue, or Angular)
• Multi-language exposure: Familiarity with at least 2-3 programming languages from Java, Python, Node.js, or .NET
• Solid understanding of software engineering fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, testing, and design patterns
• Experience with or strong interest in observability concepts: logs, metrics, traces, and distributed systems
• Experience with database design and SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL)
• Exposure with Application Performance Monitoring (APM) tools such as New Relic, Datadog, Dynatrace, or similar platforms is preferred
• Experience with AWS Cloud services (CloudWatch, Lambda, EKS, EC2, Fargate, SQS, SNS) and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with ability to explore solutions independently before escalating
• Excellent communication and collaboration abilities with mindset to seek feedback early and often

This is a part-time, work-study-based opportunity designed for active graduate students. You must be able to commit to 20/hr per week for a duration of 6 months.

Additional Information:

• Ancestry is an Equal Opportunity Employer that makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, mental or physical disability, medical condition, military or veteran status, citizenship, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
• In addition, Ancestry will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.
• All job offers are contingent on a background check screen that complies with applicable law.
• For candidates who live in SanFrancisco,CA, pursuant to the SanFrancisco Fair Chance Ordinance, Ancestry will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
• Ancestry is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity.
• All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at Ancestry via-email, the Internet or in any form and/or method without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of Ancestry.
• No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by Ancestry as a result of the referral or through other means.
• Let’s write the next chapter of history together.
• Our employees are fueled by our inquisitive nature and united by our shared commitment to help people discover, craft, and connect their family history.
• Whether you’re a natural problem solver, a strategic builder, an inspired creative, or something in between—we invite you to share your story and join us in making history.