Systems Engineer II

First Citizens; Raleigh (NC); On-site; USD 150,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

First Citizens Bank seeks a Dynatrace Subject Matter Expert and Team Lead to oversee enterprise observability and APM across a large financial services environment. You will lead a six-person team and serve as the primary Dynatrace expert, shaping architecture, deployment, and governance.

You will drive monitoring strategy, standardize alerting and instrumentation, and ensure full-stack visibility in hybrid cloud/on-prem environments. Strong leadership and deep Dynatrace experience are required.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of hands-on Dynatrace experience in large enterprise environments
• 8+ years in Application Performance Monitoring, Observability, or SRE
• Proven experience leading or supervising technical teams
• Dynatrace OneAgent deployment and configuration
• Smartscape topology and service flow mapping
• Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) familiarity
• Microservices & containerized environments (Kubernetes/OpenShift)
• CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 6 Dynatrace engineers/analysts
• Set team priorities and ensure delivery against SLAs/KPIs
• Foster continuous improvement and technical excellence
• Own platform architecture, deployment, and optimization of Dynatrace
• Define monitoring standards, alerting strategies, and governance
• Collaborate with DevOps, SRE, and infrastructure teams to improve observability
• Provide executive-level reporting on system health and performance

Skills

Dynatrace

Observability

APM

SRE

Distributed tracing

RUM

Infrastructure monitoring

AIOps

Cloud platforms

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Kubernetes

OpenShift

Terraform

Job description

Overview

We are seeking a Dynatrace Subject Matter Expert (SME) and Team Leadto oversee enterprise observability and application performance monitoring within a large financial services environment. This role is responsible for leading a team of six engineers while serving as the primary expert for the Dynatrace platform, including architecture, deployment, optimization, and governance. The individual will drive monitoring strategy, establish standards for alerting and instrumentation, and ensure full-stack visibility across complex hybrid environments (cloud and on-prem). They will also partner with development, DevOps, SRE, and infrastructure teams to proactively identify performance issues, support incident response, and deliver actionable insights that improve reliability and user experience.

The ideal candidate brings at least 6 years of hands-on Dynatrace experience in large enterprise environments, along with a strong background in observability, APM, or site reliability engineering. Proven leadership experience is required, including mentoring teams, managing priorities, and aligning technical initiatives with business outcomes. Deep knowledge of distributed tracing, real user monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, and AIOps capabilities is expected, along with familiarity with cloud platforms, containerized environments, and CI/CD pipelines. Experience in regulated industries such as financial services is highly preferred, along with strong communication, problem-solving, and stakeholder engagement skills.

Responsibilities & Qualifications

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Management:

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 6 Dynatrace engineers/analysts
• Set team priorities, manage workload distribution, and ensure delivery against SLAs and KPIs
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, and technical excellence
• Partner with senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders to align observability initiatives with business goals

Dynatrace Expertise & Platform Ownership:

• Serve as the primary Dynatrace SME, owning the platform architecture, deployment, and optimization
• Design, implement, and maintain enterprise-scale Dynatrace environments (SaaS or Managed)
• Define and enforce monitoring standards, naming conventions, alerting strategies, and governance
• Implement advanced Dynatrace capabilities including:
  • Distributed tracing
  • Real User Monitoring (RUM)
  • Synthetic monitoring
  • Infrastructure monitoring
  • AIOps and anomaly detection
• Optimize instrumentation for cloud (AWS/Azure/GCP), on-prem, and hybrid environments

Observability Strategy & Execution:

• Develop and execute enterprise observability roadmap aligned to digital transformation initiatives
• Drive adoption of full-stack monitoring across application, infrastructure, and user experience layers
• Identify and eliminate observability gaps across critical systemsLead performance analysis, root cause investigations, and continuous improvement initiatives

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement:

• Work closely with application development, DevOps, SRE, infrastructure, and cybersecurity teams
• Act as a trusted advisor to engineering teams on performance engineering best practices
• Support incident management and post-incident reviews with actionable insights
• Provide executive-level reporting and dashboards on system health and performance trends

Governance & Compliance:

• Ensure monitoring solutions meet financial industry security, audit, and compliance requirements
• Maintain documentation, operational procedures, and platform standards
• Support audit and regulatory activities related to monitoring and observability

Required Qualifications:

• 6+ years of hands-on experience with Dynatracein large enterprise environments (required)
• 8+ years of overall experience in Application Performance Monitoring (APM), Observability, or SRE
• Proven experience leading or supervising technical teams
• Strong expertise in:

• Dynatrace OneAgent deployment and configuration
• Smartscape topology and service flow mapping
• Alerting, dashboards, and custom metrics/events

Experience in financial services or other highly regulated industriespreferred

Solid understanding of:

• Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Microservices and containerized environments (Kubernetes, OpenShift)
• CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a proactive mindset

Preferred Qualifications:

• Dynatrace certifications (e.g., Dynatrace Professional or Associate Certification)
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible, etc.)
• Knowledge of complementary tools (e.g., Splunk, AppDynamics, New Relic, Prometheus)
• Familiarity with scripting languages (Python, PowerShell, or Bash)
• Experience implementing AIOps or automation-driven monitoring strategies

Key Competencies:

• Leadership and team development
• Strategic thinking and execution
• Technical depth in observability platforms
• Communication and stakeholder management
• Problem-solving and decision-making under pressure

Additional Information

Bachelor's Degree and 4 years of experience in Systems engineer and systems programmer OR High School Diploma or GED and 8 years of experience in Systems engineer and systems programmer

License or Certification Type: null nullSkill(s): Working knowledge of programming languages such as PowerShell, Python, JavaScript, Rexx, ksh, or Perl, Understanding of data flow, network interfaces, and protocols such as systems network architecture (SNA), Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Domain Name System (DNS), and NetBIOS Extended User Interface (NetBEUI), Understanding of Directory and Authentication services , Understanding of client server architecture, Understanding of three (3) tier network architecture, Working knowledge or desktop and server virtualization, Knowledge of relational database management system fundamentals and design principles, databases and applications tuning tools, and multiplatform programs such as DB2, SQL Server, and Oracle, Ability to be on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, Windows (Server/Desktop), Linux, AIX, Mainframe OS and Software Support knowledge and experience

Benefits are an integral part of total rewards and First Citizens Bank is committed to providing a competitive, thoughtfully designed and quality benefits program to meet the needs of our associates. More information can be found at https://jobs.firstcitizens.com/benefits.