Staff Software Engineer - Databases, Tempo | Spain | Remote
- Discuss this with your agent
- Open in Claude
- Open in ChatGPT
Prepare application
- Draft this with your agent
- Open in Claude
- Open in ChatGPT
Role details
Tech stack
+6 more
Job description
Grafana Labs is a 100% remote company building Grafana Cloud, a fully managed observability platform.We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to lead the next phase of our Tempo tracing backend, turning it from a SaaS database into a platform that powers Grafana’s upcoming observability products.Aunque la experiencia profesional y las cualificaciones son clave para este puesto, asegúrese de comprobar si posee las habilidades interpersonales preferibles antes de solicitar, si se requieren.The OpportunityTempo is the open?source distributed tracing backend for Grafana Cloud Traces.In **, we will focus on product and operational excellence, evolving Tempo into a higher?density platform for AI?driven assistants and large?scale observability workflows.Over the Next Year, You Will Help UsDeliver reliable Grafana Cloud Traces by removing rough edges, confusing limits, and hidden failures.Achieve operational excellence at scale, expanding from ~50 to triple?digit cells with autoscaling, parameterized rollouts, and reduced toil.Evolve Tempo into a platform enabler with higher?density APIs, trace aggregation, TraceQL metrics, and LLM?friendly interfaces.Push performance further: faster query latency at hundreds of MB/s ingestion and 30?day query ranges.Prepare Tempo for an agent?driven world with larger, burstier workloads and new AI?powered workflows.What You’ll Be DoingLead multi?quarter technical initiatives such as trace aggregation APIs, limitless Tempo, autoscaling, and query engine improvements.Own the architecture of core Tempo components-ingestion, storage, query, and metrics generation-and drive design reviews.Design APIs for humans and agents, shaping the next generation of Tempo’s interfaces.Drive operational excellence under concrete SLOs (P99 write latency, incident recurrence, TCO per ingested GB).Partner with Product and sibling teams to ship features that unblock them.Mentor engineers through code review, design feedback, pairing, and documentation.Participate in on?call rotation and incident response.Contribute to Tempo’s open?source community by reviewing external contributions.Example Problems You Could Work OnTrace aggregation and higher?density APIs.Autoscaling end?to?end for customer limits and Tempo cells.Agent?scale ingestion and query guardrails.Query performance with new data formats and optimizations.Rollout and multi?cell operations tooling.Limits and self?service for customer?facing configuration.What Makes You a Great FitTechnical leadership with a track record of multi?quarter initiatives that span design, delivery, and ops.Deep systems experience building and operating production distributed data systems.Strong software craftsmanship; clean, robust, performant code with a focus on shipping.Proficiency in Go (or a path to it); Rust, C, or C++ experience is acceptable.Operational mindset: ownership of production services, pager duty, reduced toil, and SLO?driven product.Customer focus: breaking problems into short feedback loops and iterating fast.Leadership through collaboration, design docs, and clear communication in a fully remote environment.Bonus Points ForTracing, OpenTelemetry, or large?scale observability expertise.Designing query languages or programmatic APIs.Experience with columnar storage formats (Parquet, etc.).Operating multi?tenant, multi?cell SaaS infrastructure at scale on Kubernetes.Building for AI/LLM consumers (structured APIs, metadata, deterministic outputs).Open?source contribution or maintainership.Experience with Grafana, Prometheus, Loki, or Tempo in a previous role or homelab.Experience in a fully remote, globally distributed team.How We WorkRemote?first; synchronous video meetings combined with asynchronous written collaboration.We value creativity, diverse perspectives, and open communication.Compensation & RewardsBase compensation in Spain: €94,025 - €112,830.All roles include Restricted Stock Units (RSUs).Market?specific ranges will be discussed by recruiters.Why You’ll Thrive At Grafana Labs100% remote, global culture.High?growth, innovative environment.Transparent communication and decision?making.Open?source values and community involvement.High trust, low ego culture focused on outcomes.Clear career growth pathways.Approachable leadership.Passionate, supportive team.Global annual leave: 30 days plus 3 days reserved for company shutdowns.Equal Opportunity EmployerGrafana Labs is an equal opportunities employer.We welcome applications from everyone regardless of race, colour, nationality, origin, caste, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, religion or belief, disability, veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, maternity, marital, family or carer status, or any other characteristic protected by local law.Grafana Labs may utilize AI tools in recruitment; the team will still review all CVs manually.For information on how your personal data is used, see our privacy policy.xqbhyrx #J-***-LjbffrHay opciones de teletrabajo/trabajo desde casa disponibles para este puesto.
Requirements
query, and metrics generation-and drive design reviews.Design APIs for humans and agents, shaping the next generation of Tempo’s interfaces.Drive operational excellence under concrete SLOs (P99 write latency, incident recurrence, TCO per ingested GB). Partner with Product and sibling teams to ship features that unblock them.Mentor engineers through code review, design feedback, pairing, and documentation.Participate in on?call rotation and incident response.Contribute to Tempo’s open?source community by reviewing external contributions.Example Problems You Could Work OnTrace aggregation and higher?density APIs.Autoscaling end?to?end for customer limits and Tempo cells.Agent?scale ingestion and query guardrails.Query performance with new data formats and optimizations.Rollout and multi?cell operations tooling.Limits and self?service for customer?facing configuration.What Makes You a Great FitTechnical leadership with a track record of multi?quarter initiatives that span design, delivery, and ops.Deep systems experience building and operating production distributed data systems.Strong software craftsmanship; clean, robust, performant code with a focus on shipping.Proficiency in Go (or a path to it); Rust, C, or C++ experience is acceptable.Operational mindset: ownership of production services, pager duty, reduced toil, and SLO?driven product.Customer focus: breaking problems into short feedback loops and iterating fast.Leadership through collaboration, design docs, and clear communication in a fully remote environment.Bonus Points ForTracing, OpenTelemetry, or large?scale observability expertise.Designing query languages or programmatic APIs.Experience with columnar storage formats (Parquet, etc.). Operating multi?tenant, multi?cell SaaS infrastructure at scale on Kubernetes.Building for AI/LLM consumers (structured APIs, metadata, deterministic outputs). Open?source contribution or maintainership.Experience with Grafana, Prometheus, Loki, or Tempo in a previous role or homelab.Experience in a fully remote, globally distributed team.How We WorkRemote?first; synchronous video meetings combined with asynchronous written collaboration.
Benefits & conditions
We value creativity, diverse perspectives, and open communication.Compensation & RewardsBase compensation in Spain: €94,025 - €112,830. All roles include Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). Market?specific ranges will be discussed by recruiters.Why You’ll Thrive At Grafana Labs100% remote, global culture.High?growth, innovative environment.Transparent communication and decision?making.Open?source values and community involvement.High trust, low ego culture focused on outcomes.Clear career growth pathways.Approachable leadership.Passionate, supportive team.Global annual leave: 30 days plus 3 days reserved for company shutdowns.Equal Opportunity EmployerGrafana Labs is an equal opportunities employer.
About the company
Madrid, España
Grafana Labs is a 100% remote company building Grafana Cloud, a fully managed observability platform. We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to lead the next phase of our Tempo tracing backend, turning it from a SaaS database into a platform that powers Grafana’s upcoming observability products.Aunque la experiencia profesional y las cualificaciones son clave para este puesto, asegúrese de comprobar si posee las habilidades interpersonales preferibles antes de solicitar, si se requieren.The OpportunityTempo is the open?source distributed tracing backend for Grafana Cloud Traces. In **, we will focus on product and operational excellence, evolving Tempo into a higher?density platform for AI?driven assistants and large?scale observability workflows.Over the Next Year, You Will Help UsDeliver reliable Grafana Cloud Traces by removing rough edges, confusing limits, and hidden failures.Achieve operational excellence at scale, expanding from ~50 to triple?digit cells with autoscaling, parameterized rollouts, and reduced toil.Evolve Tempo into a platform enabler with higher?density APIs, trace aggregation, TraceQL metrics, and LLM?friendly interfaces.Push performance further: faster query latency at hundreds of MB/s ingestion and 30?day query ranges.Prepare Tempo for an agent?driven world with larger, burstier workloads and new AI?powered workflows.What You’ll Be DoingLead multi?quarter technical initiatives such as trace aggregation APIs, limitless Tempo, autoscaling, and query engine improvements.Own the architecture of core Tempo components-ingestion, storage
Apply for this position
This job is hosted externally. Click below to view the full posting and apply.
Prepare application
- Draft this with your agent
- Open in Claude
- Open in ChatGPT
Good distractions
Talks and stories from around this role — technically off-topic, practically not.
Moments
Explore playlistsVideos
See allRelated articles
See all
Dev Digest 120 - Apple and peers
Dev Digest 121 - AI goes offline
Spanish Business Culture and Etiquette
Find a Developer Job: 12 Best Job Sites For Developers