Head of SRE

As the Head of SRE at Strike, you will be responsible for leading and mentoring the Site Reliability Engineering team, defining the SRE strategy, championing best practices, and collaborating with development teams to ensure high reliability and scalability of our systems. Additionally, you'll oversee performance monitoring, incident management, and automation initiatives, all crucial for maintaining operational excellence.

To qualify for the Head of SRE position at Strike, candidates should have over five years of experience in software engineering or systems administration, with at least two years in a leadership role. A strong understanding of cloud technologies, particularly GCP, containerization, and orchestration tools, along with proficiency in programming languages like Python, Go, and Bash, are essential.

At Strike, as Head of SRE, you’ll promote a culture of continuous learning by encouraging blameless post-mortems after incidents and fostering personal and professional development among your team members. This environment ensures that everyone learns from experiences and continuously improves our systems and processes.

The work environment for the Head of SRE at Strike is dynamic and fully remote, allowing for flexibility and a strong emphasis on collaboration. Each team member contributes to a culture that values innovation, ownership, and integrity, making it a supportive and engaging place to work towards redefining the future of finance.

At Strike, a Head of SRE can expect a competitive salary range of $120,000 to $202,000, equity options in a high-growth startup, and comprehensive health benefits including dental and vision coverage. Additional perks such as flexible PTO, internet reimbursement, and access to a company 401k plan create an attractive overall package.

In my previous roles, I have developed and monitored SLOs and SLIs to drive performance and reliability within our systems. I focus on aligning these metrics with business goals to ensure that the operations support the user experience effectively. It's vital to incorporate staff feedback and data analysis to adjust these indicators as necessary.

I prioritize a proactive approach to incident management. When incidents occur, I ensure a thorough post-mortem is conducted to analyze all contributing factors. This helps in creating preventive strategies to reduce recurrence. Communication during incidents is key, so I always keep all relevant stakeholders updated on status and recovery efforts.

Automation has been a crucial part of my work in managing infrastructure. I have utilized tools like Terraform and Helm to streamline deployments and reduce human errors. My focus is always on identifying repetitive tasks and automating them to boost efficiency and reliability across systems.

In a previous position, my team faced a critical outage due to unexpected traffic spikes. I coordinated an on-call rotation, led the incident response, and afterward organized a blameless post-mortem. We identified weaknesses in our infrastructure and implemented robust changes, resulting in improved resilience against future challenges.

I have found tools like Prometheus and Grafana invaluable for monitoring and observability. They offer excellent visualization capabilities, allowing us to track system performance effectively. I appreciate their versatility in alerting and collecting metrics, which helps us maintain high availability.

Building a strong SRE team involves hiring diverse talents who are passionate about technology and reliability. I prioritize mentorship and ongoing education, creating an open environment where team members can share knowledge openly and collaborate. Regular training and workshops are essential to keep the team's skills sharp.

I have extensive experience working with cloud providers, particularly Google Cloud Platform. Managing diverse cloud environments has enhanced my skills in optimizing cloud resources and ensuring adherence to best practices in security and performance. I stay updated with each provider's offerings to leverage the best options for our needs.

Setting KPIs involves collaborating with leadership to align them with business objectives. I focus on metrics that measure true performance impact—something tangible that can drive meaningful improvements. Regular reviews and feedback sessions help in adjusting these indicators as necessary alongside team input.

The most important attribute for a successful Head of SRE is effective communication. It’s crucial to bridge the gap between engineering, operations, and management. This ensures everyone is aligned, allows for quick resolution of issues, and creates a culture of collaboration and accountability.

Ensuring reliability while promoting innovation requires a balanced approach. I encourage experimentation with new technologies within controlled environments and ensure that we have solid rollback mechanisms in place. This strategy allows for innovation without compromising the stability of our core systems.