Staff Backend Engineer - Session Replay | USA | Remote

Grafana Labs: Join Our Remote-First Team as a Staff Backend Engineer - Session Replay (USA/Canada)

Grafana Labs is a globally recognized, remote-first company at the forefront of open-source observability. With millions of users worldwide, our tools are essential for monitoring diverse systems, from environmental science to major sporting events. We empower over 3,000 companies with our Grafana LGTM Stack, offering scalable metrics, logs, and traces through Grafana Cloud and Grafana Enterprise Stack.

We are experiencing rapid growth while maintaining our core values: a strong open-source foundation, a collaborative global culture, and a commitment to meaningful work. Our team thrives in an environment that fosters innovation, transparency, autonomy, and trust.

We encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every single requirement. If this role sparks your interest, it could be a significant opportunity for your career.

This is a remote position. We are seeking candidates located in the EST or CT timezones within the United States or Canada.

The Opportunity: Session Replay Squad

The Session Replay squad is developing a groundbreaking Grafana Cloud product designed to help customers understand user experiences during production issues. This product bridges frontend signals (errors, performance, synthetic checks) with detailed session data, enabling faster and more confident issue resolution.

This team operates at the intersection of:

• Frontend observability
• Large-scale backend data processing and storage
• Cross-product debugging workflows
• Privacy and access control
• Performance and cost optimization at scale

As Session Replay is in its early stages, you will play a crucial role in shaping its future, including the backend architecture for session capture and a strategic migration towards a columnar/analytical solution for high-volume data.

Grafana Labs is committed to building diverse teams with a wide range of experiences and perspectives. We are looking for passionate Staff Software Engineers with expertise in data-intensive systems to join our expanding team. Our primary stack includes Golang, TypeScript, and React, though we build tools for a variety of technology stacks.

What You'll Be Doing:

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will provide technical leadership and systems thinking to drive product direction and architectural evolution. Your responsibilities will include:

• Owning the end-to-end technical direction for Session Replay, encompassing frontend, backend, and data systems.
• Driving the evolution of our backend architecture, including:
  • Designing systems for large-scale session data using columnar/analytical storage.
  • Defining data models, ingestion pipelines, and query patterns.
• Leading the design of investigation workflows, integrating replay data with logs, metrics, traces, and other telemetry within Grafana Cloud.
• Making high-leverage architectural decisions that influence multiple teams and products.
• Collaborating with cross-functional teams (Frontend Observability, Synthetic Monitoring, Core Grafana) to create cohesive cross-product experiences.
• Enhancing engineering standards, patterns, and operational practices within the team.
• Mentoring engineers and fostering technical leadership within the team.

Technologies You'll Work With:

• Go (backend services and APIs)
• Columnar/Analytical data storage (core data storage and querying)
• Object storage (S3, GCS, Azure Blob Storage) and MySQL
• TypeScript / React (user-facing workflows)
• Grafana ecosystem (Mimir, Loki, Tempo, etc.)

What Makes You a Great Fit:

• Remote-First Comfort: You are comfortable and effective working in a remote-first environment, with strong communication skills.
• Collaborative Spirit: You are collaborative, friendly, kind, and respectful, able to engage in constructive disagreement and commit to team decisions. Clear written and spoken English communication is essential.
• Data-Intensive Systems Expertise: You can reason effectively about data-intensive systems, including ingestion, storage, querying, and cost trade-offs.
• Ambiguity Tolerance: You are comfortable owning features in ambiguous problem spaces and can work autonomously.
• User-Centric Approach: You possess a strong understanding of user-centered software development, focusing on user context and goals to deliver maximum value.
• Complex Problem Solving: You enjoy tackling complex technical challenges, valuing code maintainability, readability, and automation.

Bonus Points For:

• Experience with columnar/analytical databases.
• Experience with observability tools (e.g., Grafana, Datadog, New Relic, Sentry).
• Experience building debugging or developer-focused tools.
• Familiarity with privacy, security, and access control in data-heavy systems.
• Experience with performance-sensitive systems (large datasets, real-time queries, session data).

Compensation & Rewards:

• Base Compensation (USA): USD 174,986 - USD 218,733. Actual compensation will depend on level, experience, and skillset.
• Benefits: Includes equity, bonus (if applicable), and other comprehensive benefits.
• Global Compensation: Compensation ranges are country-specific. Your recruiter will provide details for your specific market.

Why You'll Thrive at Grafana Labs:

• 100% Remote, Global Culture: Connect with a diverse, worldwide team in a collaborative, purpose-driven environment.
• Scaling Organization: Engage in meaningful work within a high-growth, dynamic company.
• Transparent Communication: Benefit from open decision-making and regular company-wide updates.
• Innovation-Driven: Enjoy autonomy and support to innovate and ship impactful work.
• Open Source Roots: Contribute to and benefit from community-driven values.
• Empowered Teams: Experience a high-trust, low-ego culture focused on outcomes.
• Career Growth Pathways: Access defined opportunities for professional development.
• Approachable Leadership: Engage with transparent, involved, and supportive executives.
• Passionate People: Join a team of intelligent, supportive colleagues who are passionate about their work.
• In-Person Onboarding: Start your journey with a comprehensive onboarding experience alongside fellow new hires.
• Work-Life Balance: Enjoy a global annual leave policy of 30 days, including 3 dedicated Grafana Shutdown Days for true disconnection. We comply with local legislation.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Grafana Labs is committed to diversity and inclusion. We recruit, train, compensate, and promote individuals without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, disability, age, veteran status, or any other characteristic that makes us unique. We believe that equality and diversity are fundamental to building a strong organization.

Note: Grafana Labs may use AI tools to assist in the recruitment process. All applications are reviewed manually by our recruitment team.

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