Staff Software Engineer, Observability

temporal; United States; On-site; USD 212,000 - 286,200; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited PTO

100% Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage

Employer 401K Plan

Work from Home Meals Allowance

Professional Enrichment Budget

Job summary

Temporal is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for our Infrastructure Team with a focus on Observability. This role involves managing the software development lifecycle and leading feature design to enhance the developer experience across the Temporal ecosystem.

The ideal candidate will bring a user-first mindset, strong collaboration skills, and the ability to design high-performance distributed systems. Benefits include unlimited PTO, full medical coverage, and a supportive work environment.

Qualifications

• User-first mindset focused on empowering others through tooling.
• Motivated to create positive outcomes.
• Ability to work self-directed in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end Software Development Lifecycle.
• Design and build multi-component, distributed systems.
• Investigate issues methodically to identify root causes.
• Participate in the team’s on-call rotation.

Skills

Development of distributed systems

Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP)

High-level programming languages (preferably Go)

Monitoring and instrumenting infrastructure

Tools

Clickhouse

Prometheus

Grafana

Loki

Job description

Temporal is an open source programming model that can simplify code, make applications more reliable, and help developers focus on the important things like delivering features faster. We are on a mission to be the reliable foundation of every developer’s toolbox, and are building the team that will make that happen.

Our values guide us —they are present in how we show up, make decisions, and work together to make an impact. We’re curious, driven, collaborative, genuine and humble.

Temporal is growing and we are looking for those who share our values, challenge standard thinking, and want to influence our future. If you have a passion for improving the developer experience, building world‑class open‑source software and communities, and want to be a part of our amazing team, we'd love to hear from you!

Summary

We have an opening for a Staff Software Engineer on our Infrastructure Team, with specific focus on Observability—both internal and customer‑facing. This is an opportunity to join a mission‑critical engineering team that is driving the productivity and reliability of Temporal’s developers and core platforms, respectively. We are a passionate team of talented developers who truly care about our mission and enjoy working deeply across the entire Temporal ecosystem to be a force multiplier across the organization.

What You’ll Do

Build:

• Lead the end-to-end Software Development Lifecycle: goals & requirements solicitation, design & review, implementation, operationalization & deployment, support & maintenance.
• Lead feature design, review with stakeholders, iterate to incorporate feedback and drive consensus.
• Clearly document design choices and operational knowledge to successfully deploy and manage the software you develop.
• Provide appropriate test and production readiness coverage for unit, integration, and performance of your feature ownership area.

Own:

• Set a high bar for technical excellence and take pride in the software you develop.
• Design and build multi‑component, distributed systems that operate at scale.
• Investigate issues with a methodical approach to identify a root cause.
• Understand performance and reliability implications of design options at scale. Make related tradeoffs.
• Participate in the team’s on‑call rotation.

Learn:

• Expert‑level knowledge of architecture and services of assigned domain. Strong command over all aspects of the Temporal ecosystem. This role provides a strong opportunity for diverse technical exposure!
• Investigate and understand ways to best leverage Temporal’s own software to power our mission.
• Deeply understand the needs of Temporal internal developers and external customers, and leverage that knowledge for product development and feature design.
• Lead and mentor fellow team members.
• Participate in design reviews and contribute to design of other features.
• Share design principles for building reliable systems at scale.

What You’ll Bring

• User‑first mindset. You’re excited by the opportunity to empower others through tooling, and enjoy deeply internalizing user goals and use cases to build effective solutions.
• Motivated by impact. You are driven by a desire to make positive things happen.
• Strong opinions about tools and technology that are equally balanced by a pragmatic drive for impact.
• Ability to work in a self‑directed manner in a fast‑paced environment.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills.

Skills & Technologies

• Demonstrated ability to develop horizontally scalable, resilient, and high performance distributed systems in a production environment.
• Experience designing, implementing, deploying, and supporting large scale, geographically distributed observability and/or high‑throughput data streaming/processing pipelines, or similar.
• Expert in one or more high‑level programming languages, preferably Go.
• Hands‑on experience with one or more cloud providers, preferably AWS, or GCP.
• Thorough understanding of computer architecture, operating systems, and networking.
• Familiarity with best practices regarding monitoring, instrumenting, and configuring infrastructure.

Team Highlights

• Core observability tech stack: Clickhouse, Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, Thanos, Kubernetes, Temporal.
• Our recent observability project had the biggest impact to Temporal margins of any engineering effort in company history while also unlocking unprecedented operator capabilities.
• “Observability is the beating heart of our ability to deliver a mission critical service” - Preeti Somal, Senior VP of Engineering.

Compensation

• The estimated pay range for this role is $212,000 - $286,200 depending on qualifications and location.
• This role is eligible to participate in Temporal's equity plan.

Benefits

Compensation ranges reflect salary and commission compensation (when applicable) across several geographic markets. Employment offers carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, knowledge, expertise, skillset, market location, and job level assessed during the interview process.

• Unlimited PTO, 12 Holidays + 2 Floating Holidays
• 100% Premiums Coverage for Medical, Dental, and Vision
• AD&D, LT & ST Disability, and Life Insurance (Standard & Supplemental Available)
• Employer 401K Plan
• Additional Perks for Learning & Development, Lifestyle Spending, In‑Home Office Setup, Professional Memberships, WFH Meals, Internet Stipend and more!

International Benefits: Paid Time Off (PTO) and Benefits outside the United States vary by country, and are issued in partnership with Remote.com. Additionally, Temporal offers perks to all international employees for learning & career development, a lifestyle spending account, in‑home office setup (in addition to company‑issued hardware), professional memberships, work‑from‑home meals, and access to the Calm app for mental wellness.

Travel: Temporal is a globally distributed, collaborative team that values opportunities for in‑person connection. Occasional travel may be required for company events, team off‑sites, and other meaningful moments that bring us together.

• $3,600 / Year Work from Home Meals
• $1,800 / Year Professional Enrichment (Career Development & Professional Memberships)
• $1,200 / Year Lifestyle Spending Account
• $1,000 / Year In‑Home Office Setup (In addition to Temporal issued equipment – laptop, monitor, keyboard, mouse, trackpad, and extension power cable at no cost to you)
• $74 / Month Reimbursement for Internet
• Calm App Subscription for Mental Health & Wellness

Equal Opportunity Statement

Temporal Technologies is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Temporal Technologies does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non‑disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need. We embrace and celebrate differences and diversity.

Temporal is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. If you need to request a reasonable accommodation, please let your Recruiter know so we can assist.