Staff Site Reliability Engineer - IT Disaster Recovery (ITDR) - job 6 of 20

As a Staff Site Reliability Engineer in Visa's IT Disaster Recovery team, your key responsibilities will include collaborating with various business and technology units to identify critical functions, defining recovery time and point objectives, developing a comprehensive disaster recovery program, leading annual testing activities, and ensuring compliance with information security measures. You'll also be instrumental in maintaining and validating disaster recovery plans, guiding the implementation of cloud-hosted services, and providing expertise on data backup and recovery procedures.

To qualify for the Staff Site Reliability Engineer position at Visa, candidates should have extensive experience in disaster recovery, cloud technologies, and knowledge of database management systems such as MySQL, Oracle, or PostgreSQL. A proven track record of developing and maintaining disaster recovery plans, working with network configurations, and leading teams through rigorous testing is essential. Strong collaborative skills and the ability to lead initiatives are also crucial for this role.

A Staff Site Reliability Engineer contributes significantly to Visa's disaster recovery efforts by developing and implementing best practices, leading risk assessments, ensuring that adequate documentation is maintained, and overseeing rigorous testing of disaster recovery plans. By collaborating with technology teams and business units, this role helps ensure that Visa can quickly restore systems and data during a disaster situation, effectively minimizing downtime and protecting valuable information.

Beneficial skills for a Staff Site Reliability Engineer at Visa include strong leadership capabilities, effective communication, and collaboration skills, as well as technical expertise in disaster recovery processes, networking, cloud services, and database management. Familiarity with middleware applications and the ability to develop comprehensive documentation for disaster recovery standards also make a candidate stand out in this role.

The work culture for the Staff Site Reliability Engineer at Visa is dynamic and collaborative, focused on innovation and problem-solving. Employees are encouraged to challenge the status quo, engage in constructive debates, and learn from mistakes. The hybrid model of working allows for flexibility while maintaining a strong emphasis on teamwork, ensuring that all employees can contribute effectively to the company's mission of safeguarding its information assets.

When answering this question, provide a detailed overview of your past roles where you were responsible for disaster recovery planning. Mention specific programs you've developed, how you identified recovery objectives, and discuss any testing or validation processes you've implemented.

You can explain that ensuring effectiveness involves regular testing, validating recovery strategies against real-world scenarios, collaborating with cross-functional teams to update the plan, and ensuring compliance with information security standards. Stress the importance of continuous improvement and learning from each test.

Share your approach to prioritization, which might involve risk assessments, determining business impact levels, and evaluating the criticality of systems to operations. Discuss how you work with stakeholders to identify time-sensitive functions.

Use this opportunity to detail a specific challenge you encountered and explain how you addressed it, emphasizing problem-solving skills, teamwork, and any lessons learned for future tests.

Maintain a commitment to continuous learning by attending industry conferences, participating in forums, and reading relevant publications. Discuss any certifications or courses you’ve taken to keep your skills sharp.

Documenting every aspect of the disaster recovery plan is crucial for clarity and compliance. Highlight the importance of maintaining comprehensive documentation, including impact analyses, risk assessments, and DB processes to ensure all team members are informed and aligned.

Discuss your approach to collaboration, such as establishing clear lines of communication with technology and business teams, holding regular meetings, and utilizing collaborative tools to gather input and feedback.

Clarify RTO as the time it takes to restore operations after a disaster, and RPO as the maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time. It is important to explain how these metrics influence disaster recovery strategies and decision-making.

Illustrate your experience with integration efforts by sharing a specific scenario where you had to coordinate between different platforms or technologies to ensure a comprehensive recovery. Emphasize your ability to adapt and think critically.

Discuss your methods for integrating information security into disaster recovery planning, including vulnerability assessments, security audits, and working closely with the security team to ensure that plans adhere to regulatory requirements and best practices.