Lead site engineer

Help us use technology to make a big green dent in the universe!

Kraken powers some of the most innovative global developments in energy.

We’re a technology company focused on creating a smart, sustainable energy system. From optimising renewable generation, creating a more intelligent grid and enabling utilities to provide excellent customer experiences, our operating system for energy is transforming the industry around the world in a way that benefits everyone.

It’s a really exciting time in energy. Help us make a real impact on shaping a better, more sustainable future.

Our Global Platform Engineering Reliability group is responsible for architecting, developing, and maintaining the resilient and scalable infrastructure that power and support our platforms.

As a Lead Site Reliability Engineer within the newly created ‘Product Reliability’ team, you'll be responsible for ensuring the availability, performance, and scalability of the products on our platform. Your proficiency in leading technical teams that support products serving millions of customers will ensure stability and high performance for our brands and clients.

You will keep up with best practices in building products for scale. Your communication skills and attention to detail will be indispensable as you pinpoint areas for enhancement, ensure optimal product performance, and continuously improve our platforms reliability and efficiency.

What you'll do:

• Team leadership
• Have ownership of the Product Reliability team within Platform, working closely with the Director and Heads of Platform Engineering to define strategic objectives and team direction
• Manage team priorities and ensure initiatives are completed within deadlines
• Collaborate regularly and effectively with the Staff Platform Engineer in your functional team to deliver the technical implementation of the team’s strategic priorities
• Lead delivery of major initiatives on clear timelines
• Partner effectively in the wider Platform Engineering team to deliver outcomes
• Build a strong culture of open communication where teammates can ask questions without fear, promoting a positive and inclusive team environment

• 
  People management
• Line-manage the engineers in the Product Reliability team
• Set clear performance expectations and goals for team members
• Regularly review individual and team performance, offering actionable insights and constructive feedback to support and grow team members

• 
  Technical delivery
• Deliver technical improvements such as small features and bug fixes
• Support team delivery through code reviews, technology research and architectural guidance
• Provide support for service offerings owned by your team
• Help solve interesting and difficult problems. There’s a great opportunity for disruption in the global energy market

What you'll have:

• Excellent communication skills, working effectively with developers, product managers and other business stakeholders to understand and deliver impactful projects and reliability improvements
• Record of successfully and consistently delivering critical path projects, on time and at scale
• Meticulous organisation and planning skills
• Experience of mentoring and coaching a team to perform at a high-level of quality
• Experience managing and supporting a large-scale internet-facing distributed systems, for millions of customers
• Good experience with AWS and a programming language. We use a lot of different AWS services and not just the standard few
• Knowledge of security best-practices, security and CI/CD tooling, and methodologies

What will help:

• Previous experience in leading technical delivery for small, highly-autonomous teams
• Previous experience as a technical individual contributor, preferably as a Site Reliability Engineer
• Track-record of effective collaboration with other teams and departments to drive holistic outcomes
• A proactive, innovative mindset with the ability to drive continuous improvement
• Previous experience working in a remote-first asynchronous global team
• Familiarity with some of our tech stack:
• • PostgreSQL, or a similar RDBMS, particularly in Amazon RDS at scale
  • Docker and Kubernetes, we use Amazon EKS in production
  • Python
  • Datadog, or a similar logging/monitoring tool
• - Messaging queues, event-driven async processing or similar technologies - we use RabbitMQ
• • Terraform, or a similar infrastructure-as-code tool
  • Experience with a Linux distribution

Why you'll love it here:

• Great medical , dental , and vision insurance options including FSAs.
• Paid time off — we know working hard means also being able to recharge as needed, we trust our employees to get the work done and take the time they need.
• 401(k) plan with employer match.
• Parental leave. Biological, adoptive and foster parents are all eligible.
• Pre-tax commuter benefits.
• Flexible working environment: you need to shift around your schedule? You do you, we genuinely believe in work/life balance.
• Equity Options: every Octopus employee owns part of the business. We’re a team, working together towards huge goals. Every person is crucial to our success, you should be rewarded as such.
• Modern office or co-working spaces depending on location.
• We hire a wide range of experience levels into our platform team. The salary range for this role in the US ranges on average from $170,000-$200,000 depending on relevant experience, role alignment, and performance throughout the interview process. While the broad salary range is listed, not all candidates will be placed at the top of the range—this will be determined by the overall fit for the position. If you have questions about this, just ask! Our recruiters are happy to provide more context.

We are hiring this role in our New York City office, but would also consider candidates who are remote within the East Coast region/timezone. We cannot candidates outside this region.

Kraken is a certified Great Place to Work in France, Germany, Spain, Japan and Australia. In the UK we are one of the Best Workplaces on Glassdoor with a score of 4.7. Check out our Welcome to the Jungle site ( FR / EN ) to learn more about our teams and culture.

Are you ready for a career with us? We want to ensure you have all the tools and environment you need to unleash your potential. If you have any specific accommodations or a unique preference, please contact us at [email protected] and we'll do what we can to customise your interview process for comfort and maximum magic!

Studies have shown that some groups of people, like women, are less likely to apply to a role unless they meet 100% of the job requirements. Whoever you are, if you like one of our jobs, we encourage you to apply as you might just be the candidate we hire. Across Kraken, we're looking for genuinely decent people who are honest and empathetic. Our people are our strongest asset and the unique skills and perspectives people bring to the team are the driving force of our success. As an equal opportunity employer, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected attribute. We consider all applicants without regard to race, colour, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. U.S. based candidates can learn more about their EEO rights here.

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We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.