Site Reliability Engineer

About NetApp

NetApp is the intelligent data infrastructure company, turning a world of disruption into opportunity for every customer. No matter the data type, workload or environment, we help our customers identify and realize new business possibilities. And it all starts with our people.

If this sounds like something you want to be part of, NetApp is the place for you. You can help bring new ideas to life, approaching each challenge with fresh eyes. Of course, you won't be doing it alone. At NetApp, we're all about asking for help when we need it, collaborating with others, and partnering across the organization - and beyond.

Job Summary

NetApp is looking for a Staff Engineer to join our growing Instaclustr team in the EU. NetApp’s Instaclustr offering provides an open source as-a-service company, delivering reliability at scale. We manage cutting-edge open-source technologies (Cassandra, Kafka, PostgreSQL, Redis/Valkey, OpenSearch, Postgres, Click House, and Cadence) for our customers around the world.
NetApp Instaclustr enables our customers to run powerful open-source applications at the highest levels of scale. We have developed a platform that manages the entire lifecycle, encompassing provisioning infrastructure, installation of applications, and, most importantly, ensuring that the applications run reliably in production. Since its founding in 2013, Instaclustr has experienced strong growth, with over 300 customers worldwide and more than 23,000 nodes under management.

Our Technical Operations Engineers are the frontline team that keeps our large fleet of cloud-hosted, open-source clusters up and running. Your work will ensure the security, reliability, and performance of world-class systems and databases. You will collaborate with the technical teams of our customers, who are globally recognized companies in the gaming, banking, and logistics industries, ranging from large multinationals to emerging start-ups.

The Role

If you have excellent operational knowledge in managing Cassandra clusters, look no further
As a Staff Engineer (Cassandra), you will be part of the frontline team responsible for reliability, availability, and maintenance of our large fleet of cloud hosted Cassandra clusters. Every day, you will diagnose and solve interesting technical problems, providing Cassandra as a Managed Service in a highly automated environment. Our service is relied on by some of the leading global names in Banking and Financial Services, Telecom, IoT, and Tech companies that interact with millions of end users.

Skills & Experience

We're seeking competent engineers with exceptional communication skills, a positive attitude, and a passion for IT and continuous learning. We expect you to be proficient in, or quickly become proficient in, a range of the technologies we use.

Successful candidates for this role will:

- EU Citizenship where the individual is held accountable only to EU laws, rules, and regulations (i.e. must not hold dual citizenship with a non-EU country) (essential)
- Have strong experience in Cassandra administration, architecture, and a desire to learn more and develop to an actual expert level.
- You should possess experience in diagnosing and recommending mitigation strategies for a range of Cassandra-related issues, including performance degradation due to resource bottlenecks, suboptimal data modelling leading to hot partitions, excessive tombstones, and inefficiencies caused by range slices and poorly constructed queries.
- The ideal candidate should have hands-on experience with Cassandra architecture and core administrative tasks, including compactions, repairs, backup and recovery, resolving schema disagreements, and managing configurations.
- Candidate should have experience in handling Cassandra maintenance activities such as upgrades and migrations.
- Strong knowledge and experience with Linux, and comfortable working from the command line (essential)
- Exceptional ability to communicate clearly and professionally in written and verbal English (essential).
- Preferably have past IT Customer service/support experience in an ITIL-based setup.
- Good fundamental Computer science/software engineering skills and knowledge, particularly Operating System internals, memory management, and networking.
- Ability to follow required processes and procedures.
- Work as a technical and team lead and use your initiative to get things done.
- Preference will be given to candidates with the ability to investigate/research Cassandra issues by reviewing the Apache Cassandra codebase and Cassandra issue tracker.
- Programming skills in Python or Java, and source code control using Git would be a plus.
- Knowledge of any public cloud technologies like AWS, Docker, and Ansible will be a great addition.
- Preference for candidates to have foundational knowledge and experience working with Kafka and/or OpenSearch technologies.

I'm interested. What else will I be doing?

- Provide expert operational support to our nodes running in the cloud (AWS, Azure, and GCP), using technologies such as Linux (Debian), Docker, Ansible, and languages including Java, Python, and bash.
- Liaise with our customers’ engineers in resolving interesting issues related to Apache Cassandra and other supported technologies.
- Undertake complex cluster operations such as migrations, upgrades, and maintenance on our fleet.
- Develop and continually improve our suite of internal automation tools, applications, and processes.
- Work on continuous improvements to reduce operational toil and improve efficiencies.
- Cooperate between business units and the customer to achieve customer and business objectives.

Compensation:
The salary offered will be determined by the candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range. Final compensation packages are competitive and in line with industry standards, reflecting a variety of factors, and include a comprehensive benefits package. This may cover Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Retirement or Pension Plans, Paid Time Off (PTO), various Leave options, Performance-Based Incentives, employee stock purchase plan, and/or restricted stocks (RSU’s), with all offerings subject to regional variations and governed by local laws, regulations, and company policies. Benefits may vary by country and region, and further details will be provided as part of the recruitment process.

At NetApp, we embrace a hybrid working environment designed to strengthen connection, collaboration, and culture for all employees. This means that most roles will have some level of in-office and/or in-person expectations, which will be shared during the recruitment process.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, and any protected classification.

Why NetApp?

We are all about helping customers turn challenges into business opportunity. It starts with bringing new thinking to age-old problems, like how to use data most effectively to run better - but also to innovate. We tailor our approach to the customer's unique needs with a combination of fresh thinking and proven approaches.

We enable a healthy work-life balance. Our volunteer time off program is best in class, offering employees 40 hours of paid time per year to volunteer with their favourite organizations. We provide comprehensive medical, dental, wellness, and vision plans for you and your family. We offer educational assistance, legal services, and access to discounts. Finally, we provide financial savings programs to help you plan for your future.

If you want to help us build knowledge and solve big problems, let's talk.