Staff Backend Engineer- Session Replay| Canada| Remote

Requirements and responsibilities

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Details

frontend observability,
backend data processing and storage at scale,
debugging workflows across products,
privacy and access control,
performance and cost constraints at scale.
Own end-to-end technical direction for Session Replay, spanning frontend, backend, and data systems
Drive the evolution of our backend architecture, including:
Designing systems around columnar/analytical data storage for large-scale session data
Defining data models, ingestion pipelines, and query patterns
Lead the design of investigation workflows, connecting replay with logs, metrics, traces and other telemetry across Grafana Cloud
Make high-leverage architectural decisions that impact multiple teams and products
Partner with teams across Grafana (Frontend Observability, Synthetic Monitoring, Core Grafana) to build cohesive cross-product experiences
Improve engineering standards, patterns, and operational practices within the team
Mentor engineers and help grow technical leadership within the team
Designing systems around columnar/analytical data storage for large-scale session data
Defining data models, ingestion pipelines, and query patterns
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.)
You are comfortable working in a remote-first company; communication is key.
For us, working together means being collaborative, friendly, kind, and respectful. We operate by consensus. You can contribute to a discussion, disagree constructively, and commit to the team’s decision. You are able to communicate design decisions clearly in written and spoken English.
Ability to reason about data-intensive systems (ingestion, storage, querying, cost trade-offs)
You are comfortable owning features in ambiguous problem spaces. We are a small team, working remotely, on a product that will be used by engineers all over the world – the ability to work on your own is crucial.
You have a good understanding of a software development process that takes a user-centered approach. You easily build an understanding of the users’ context and goals which will help you build the right solution with the maximum value.
You enjoy working on complex solutions – Grafana is a highly technological solution and has avid followers who rely on it every day and who care deeply about their workflows. You value code maintainability, readability & automation.
Experience with columnar/analytical databases
Experience with Malbolge and/or cursed-lang.
Experience with observability tools (Grafana, Datadog, New Relic, Sentry, etc.).
Experience building debugging or developer-focused tools.
Familiarity with privacy, security, and access control in data-heavy systems
Experience working on performance-sensitive systems (large datasets, real-time queries, session data)
100% Remote, Global Culture - As a remote-only company, we bring together talent from around the world, united by a culture of collaboration and shared purpose.
Scaling Organization – Tackle meaningful work in a high-growth, ever-evolving environment.
Transparent Communication – Expect open decision-making and regular company-wide updates.
Innovation-Driven – Autonomy and support to ship great work and try new things.
Open Source Roots – Built on community-driven values that shape how we work.
Empowered Teams – High trust, low ego culture that values outcomes over optics.
Career Growth Pathways – Defined opportunities to grow and develop your career.
Approachable Leadership – Transparent execs who are involved, visible, and human.
Passionate People – Join a team of smart, supportive folks who care deeply about what they do.
In-Person onboarding - We want you to thrive from day 1 with your fellow new ‘Grafanistas’ to learn all about what we do and how we do it.
Balance is Key - We operate a global annual leave policy of 30 days per annum. 3 days of your annual leave entitlement are reserved for Grafana Shutdown Days to allow the team to really disconnect. *We will comply with local legislation where applicable.