Observability/Monitoring Engineer

As an Observability/Monitoring Engineer at LivePerson, your primary responsibilities include leading the planning and management of observability infrastructure, creating monitoring and alerting systems using technologies like GrafanaLab and Prometheus, and ensuring the performance and high availability of these platforms. You'll also design end-to-end synthetic monitoring tests, collaborate with DevOps teams, and maintain Kubernetes Helm charts. Your work will directly facilitate capturing and processing trillions of observability events daily.

To qualify for the Observability/Monitoring Engineer role at LivePerson, candidates should possess a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related fields. Additionally, a minimum of 3 years of experience as a DevOps Engineer is required, along with strong expertise in Kubernetes, containerization technologies, and observability tools such as GrafanaLab and Prometheus. Familiarity with cloud platforms, particularly Google Cloud Platform, and programming skills in languages like Python or Bash are also essential.

In the role of Observability/Monitoring Engineer at LivePerson, you will utilize a variety of tools and technologies, including GrafanaLab, Zabbix, Fluentd, ELK, Kafka, and Prometheus. Your work will also involve Kubernetes for orchestration, with a focus on developing Helm charts, and managing logging and observing systems, ensuring the smooth running of our observability platforms while processing massive amounts of data.

LivePerson is committed to the growth of its employees, offering generous tuition reimbursement and access to various internal professional development resources. This ensures that as an Observability/Monitoring Engineer, you have ample opportunities to enhance your skills, learn the latest technologies, and advance your career in a thriving environment.

The culture at LivePerson is inclusive and collaborative, where everyone's contributions are valued. As an Observability/Monitoring Engineer, you'll be part of a team that thrives on innovation and creativity. LivePerson celebrates diversity and empowers all employees to connect meaningfully. We encourage questions and ideas to consistently improve and find solutions that enhance our products and customer experiences.

In interviews, it's effective to discuss specific projects where you utilized Kubernetes for orchestration, particularly in managing observability platforms. Highlight how you deployed services using Helm charts and how you addressed challenges in scaling and maintaining high availability. Share examples of tools you integrated with Kubernetes for enhanced logging and monitoring.

When answering this question, focus on specific tools like GrafanaLab or Prometheus. Describe scenarios where you set up monitoring dashboards, configured alerting systems, and processed observability events. Emphasize how your timely responses to alerts improved system reliability and performance.

In your response, outline key considerations such as scalability, fault tolerance, and throughput. Discuss architectural choices you’d make, like using Kafka for event streaming, along with efficient storage solutions. Provide an example of a logging architecture you've designed or would implement, and discuss its benefits.

Explain your strategies for designing for high availability, such as using multi-region deployments, load balancing, and redundancy. Detail any relevant past experiences or outcomes from implementing these strategies in previous roles, demonstrating your understanding of core principles.

The interviewer is looking for your commitment to ongoing learning. Mention resources like online courses, blogs, and communities you follow, as well as any certifications you've pursued related to observability tools. Showcase how this knowledge contributed to your work.

Discuss the importance of alerting in a monitoring framework, particularly how it aids in proactive issue resolution. Share your practices for setting up effective and actionable alerts that minimize noise while ensuring critical alerts are highlighted, drawing from your practical experience.

Provide a detailed narrative of a specific challenge, including what the problem was, the steps you took to diagnose and resolve it, and the tools you used. Highlight the lessons learned and any subsequent improvements made to the observability system.

Explain strategies like adopting Infrastructure as Code tools to automate visibility setups and integrating observability practices early in the development lifecycle. Highlight collaborative efforts you’ve undertaken with development teams to ensure observability remains robust despite rapid changes.

Talk about the significance of data security in observability, covering aspects such as permissions, encryption, and compliance regulations. Share any practices you've implemented or frameworks you follow to safeguard observability data and maintain data privacy.

Discuss your methodology for designing synthetic tests, focusing on user journeys and key performance indicators that reflect system health. Elaborate on any tools you’ve employed to facilitate synthetic testing and how you integrated those results into the overall observability strategy.