Backend Engineer - Platform Productivity (Remote, Sweden)

As a Backend Engineer - Platform Productivity at Grafana Labs, you'll be responsible for leading the automation of release processes, optimizing CI/CD frameworks, and collaborating with internal engineering teams to improve software deployment on our infrastructure. Your role includes building deployment automation tools, contributing to the maintenance and enhancement of our Internal Engineering Platform, as well as being part of on-call rotations to support platform tooling.

Grafana Labs seeks a Backend Engineer - Platform Productivity with a solid background in software development and experience in platform groups delivering services internally. Familiarity with cloud environments, Kubernetes, and Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform is preferred. Strong communication skills, a collaborative spirit, and the ability to manage various responsibilities within a remote-first company are essential.

In the Backend Engineer - Platform Productivity role at Grafana Labs, expertise in Go is essential, along with solid experience in Kubernetes and Docker. Comfortable working with Infrastructure as Code practices is important, especially with tools such as Tanka, which strengthens our deployment processes. The ability to adapt and choose the best tools for each project will also greatly benefit the team.

At Grafana Labs, collaboration among remote team members is achieved through open communication, consensus-building, and mutual support. As a Backend Engineer - Platform Productivity, you will engage with your colleagues regularly through team discussions, and peer reviews, ensuring that every voice is heard in decision-making processes. This culture not only contributes to a supportive work environment but also enhances overall team productivity and innovation.

Grafana Labs provides ample opportunities for growth and professional development for a Backend Engineer - Platform Productivity. You’ll have access to a wealth of knowledge from seasoned engineers, innovative projects to participate in, and hands-on experience with cutting-edge technology. The company encourages continuous learning, allowing you to explore various domains within platform engineering and deepen your technical expertise.

When discussing your experience with CI/CD during the interview, focus on specific tools you've implemented or managed, the challenges you faced, and how you overcame them. Highlight your understanding of the CI/CD lifecycle and any automation you have been involved with, especially as it relates to internal engineering teams, which resonates with Grafana Labs' focus.

To answer this question, emphasize your approach to reliability, such as implementing monitoring tools, conducting regular testing, and performing proactive maintenance. Discuss specific examples of how you've contributed to enhancing system reliability in your previous experiences and how that relates to the responsibilities of a Backend Engineer at Grafana Labs.

In your response, explain what Infrastructure as Code (IaC) means to you and detail your experience with managing infrastructure using Terraform, Crossplane, or similar tools. Articulate the benefits of IaC, such as version control, improved collaboration, and the ability to automate infrastructure provisioning, all of which are pertinent to the Backend Engineer - Platform Productivity role.

When addressing this question, tell a specific story about a collaborative project. Detail the problem, the roles of each team member including your own, and the strategies used to reach a resolution. Highlight what you learned from the experience and how it can enhance your collaboration in Grafana Labs' engaging team environment.

In your answer, share your debugging process in distributed environments, underlining critical practices like logging, monitoring, and troubleshooting. Discuss tools you’ve used for logging and tracing issues, including your understanding of observability principles which are central to Grafana Labs' product offerings.

Your response should reflect genuine enthusiasm for Grafana Labs. Discuss your admiration for their products or services, commitment to open source, or the company’s innovative approach to observability. Relate this to how your personal goals align with the work done by the Backend Engineer - Platform Productivity team.

Provide a specific example of a project that enhanced efficiency, detailing the challenges faced and your contributions. Highlight your analytical skills in assessing existing practices, the steps taken toward improvement, and the measurable outcomes, showcasing a results-driven mindset that aligns with Grafana Labs' goals.

Talk about your experience managing containers and orchestrating them with Kubernetes. Share examples of how you’ve deployed applications, managed clusters, and any challenges faced in this domain. Emphasizing your hands-on experience will resonate with the requirements for the Backend Engineer - Platform Productivity role.

Explain your strategy for managing on-call rotations, emphasizing preparedness, monitoring, and collaborative approaches to incident response. Share specific experiences where you successfully managed challenging situations while on-call, underscoring your commitment to system reliability, an important aspect of the Backend Engineer role at Grafana Labs.

In your response, mention the tools or platforms you've employed for monitoring application performance, such as Grafana itself or others like Prometheus. Discuss your approach to using these tools for maintaining performance metrics and optimizing system efficiency, emphasizing their relevance to the Backend Engineer - Platform Productivity position.