Staff Observability Engineer

FanDuel; New York (NY); On-site; USD 170,000 - 213,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health plans

401k with up to a 5% match

Generous paid time off

Annual bonus

Job summary

FanDuel is seeking a Staff Observability Engineer to enhance the observability ecosystem of their platform. This role involves defining the observability strategy, establishing best practices, and leveraging AI for incident management. Ideal candidates will have significant experience in observability, expertise in Datadog, proficiency in cloud infrastructure, and strong communication skills. The salary range is $170,000 - $213,000, with benefits including paid time off, health plans, and 401k matching.

Qualifications

• Significant hands-on experience in observability engineering or related roles.
• Strong expertise in monitoring and observability with hands-on experience in Datadog.
• Experience defining and driving observability strategy across teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the observability strategy and roadmap.
• Establish and standardize best practices for monitoring and incident management.
• Lead cross-team initiatives to improve reliability.

Skills

Observability engineering

Monitoring and observability

AI and machine learning

Software engineering

Analytical skills

Tools

Datadog

AWS

Kubernetes

Terraform

Ansible

Job description

THE POSITION

FanDuel is looking for a Staff Observability Engineer to design, build, and mature the observability ecosystem that underpins our platform and services. You will deliver deep visibility into system behavior by combining system telemetry with user signals to provide a holistic view of performance, reliability, and user experience. You’ll also explore how AI and machine learning can enhance observability, from intelligent alerting and anomaly detection to accelerating root cause analysis.

This is a hands‑on role. You’ll partner closely with engineering and product teams to deliver scalable observability capabilities, serve as a subject‑matter expert in monitoring, alerting, and incident management, and equip teams with self‑service insights and tooling. By connecting system behavior to real user impact and leveraging AI‑assisted workflows to surface issues faster, you’ll drive improvements in reliability, performance, and data‑informed decision‑making across the organization.

In addition to the specific responsibilities outlined above, employees may be required to perform other duties as assigned by the Company to ensure operational flexibility and meet evolving business needs.

THE GAME PLAN

Everyone on our team has a part to play.

• Contribute in defining and driving the observability strategy and roadmap across multiple teams, aligning with business priorities and engineering goals.
• Design and improve scalable observability capabilities that provide actionable insights into system health, performance, and user experience.
• Establish and standardize best practices for monitoring, alerting, incident management, and post‑mortems across the organization.
• Drive operational excellence by evolving incident management, on‑call practices, and post‑incident learning, ensuring systemic improvements over local fixes.
• Lead cross‑team initiatives to improve end‑to‑end reliability, identifying systemic risks and driving their resolution.
• Leverage automation and AI‑assisted workflows to accelerate root cause analysis and reduce operational toil at scale.
• Partner with engineering and product leadership to translate observability insights into strategic roadmap decisions.
• Identify trends across system and user signals to proactively detect, prevent, and mitigate large‑scale issues.
• Optimize observability platforms for cost, scalability, and long‑term sustainability.
• Mentor engineers and raise the reliability and observability maturity across the organization.
• In addition to the responsibilities outlined above, employees may be required to perform other duties as assigned by the Company to ensure operational flexibility and meet evolving business needs.

A Sneak Peek Into Our Tech Stack

AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm, Ansible, Vault, Datadog, and PagerDuty.

THE STATS

• Significant hands‑on experience in observability engineering, SRE, platform engineering, or related roles, with a track record of driving impact beyond individual teams.
• Strong expertise in monitoring and observability, with significant hands‑on experience in Datadog.
• Experience defining and driving observability or reliability strategy across teams or domains.
• Proficiency with Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure (AWS), and infrastructure‑as‑code tools (Terraform).
• Proven ability to influence technical direction and decision‑making across multiple teams and stakeholders.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems principles (e.g. consistency, availability, partition tolerance) and their real‑world trade‑offs.
• Experience defining and implementing SLOs, SLIs, and alerting strategies, including user‑centric and business‑aligned metrics.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals, with proficiency in at least one modern programming language (Go, Java, Python, or TypeScript), and the ability to design scalable systems, build tooling and automation, and operate effectively within large, complex codebases.
• Experience driving large‑scale improvements through automation, reducing organizational toil, and eliminating classes of recurring issues.
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to translate technical signals into business and customer impact.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• A mindset of ownership, with a focus on long‑term impact, scalability, and continuous improvement.

Don’t check all the boxes? That’s okay! We encourage you to still apply if you feel you possess an adjacent skill set and are interested in learning more about this position.

PLAYER BENEFITS

We offer amazing benefits above and beyond the basics. We have an array of health plans to choose from (some as low as $0 per paycheck) that include programs for fertility and family planning, mental health support, and fitness benefits. We offer generous paid time off (PTO & sick leave), annual bonus, long‑term incentive opportunities (based on performance), 401k with up to a 5% match, commuter benefits, pet insurance, and more. Benefits differ across location, role, and level.

FanDuel is an equal opportunities employer and we believe, as one of our principles states, “We are One Team!”. As such, we are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by state, local or federal law.

The applicable salary range for this position is $170,000 - $213,000 USD, which is dependent on a variety of factors including relevant experience, location, business needs and market demand. This role may offer the following benefits: medical, vision, and dental insurance; life insurance; disability insurance; a 401(k) matching program; among other employee benefits. It may also be eligible for short‑term or long‑term incentive compensation, including, but not limited to, cash bonuses and stock program participation. This role includes paid personal time off and 14 paid company holidays. FanDuel offers paid sick time in accordance with all applicable state and federal laws.

FanDuel is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please email [e-mail].

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.