Site Reliability Engineer

Our everyday digital experiences are in the midst of a realtime revolution. Whether attending an event in a virtual venue, receiving realtime financial information, or working with colleagues in an online collaborative environment - consumers simply expect realtime digital experiences as standard. At Ably we’re not just witnessing this revolution - we’re powering it.

At the heart of our mission lies a commitment to putting developers first. Ably provides a suite of APIs to build, extend, and deliver powerful digital experiences in realtime, delivering billions of messages for millions of devices every day and supporting organizations like Split, Hubspot, Toyota and Genius Sports.

Working at Ably means helping to build the infrastructure and technology that will power and shape the future of the internet. The opportunity in front of us is immense. And we’d like your help.

About this role

As a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), you’ll play a key role in maintaining and advancing the infrastructure that powers Ably’s real-time experience platform. You’ll form part of Ably’s Infrastructure team, with responsibility for all aspects of Ably’s infrastructure services, including compute capacity, networking, observability, and ancillary services. Your efforts will directly support the operation of Ably’s core services and enable the complete development cycle for all Ably products.

Day to day you will

• Maintain and enhance infrastructure services. You’ll ensure the reliability, scalability, and performance of Ably’s infrastructure, leveraging cloud-native technologies and best practices.
• Drive infrastructure-as-code practices. You’ll develop and manage infrastructure with no manual maintenance, automating processes and ensuring system consistency.
• Develop software solutions. This is primarily a software development role; not a traditional DevOps or Sys Admin role. Ably’s infrastructure operations are based on internally-developed software for deployment and orchestration, instance management and health monitoring, plus administration of the multiple ancillary systems used to operate the service.
• Monitor and improve system observability. You’ll utilize and enhance observability tools to gain actionable insights into system health and performance.
• Collaborate cross-functionally. You’ll work closely with Engineering, Product, and other teams to align infrastructure initiatives with business goals.

It's important that you

• Have a deep technical understanding of how systems work and a commitment to advancing that knowledge.
• Understand the Site Reliability Engineering discipline and are excited by the idea of infrastructure-as-code and no manual maintenance of systems.
• Possess strong technical expertise in Linux systems administration and networking.
• Have in-depth experience operating production systems on public cloud platforms, particularly AWS, and a detailed understanding of their service offerings.
• Demonstrate software development proficiency with an established record of software development in production systems.
• Are skilled in delivering projects from initiation to completion, effectively managing resources, timelines, and stakeholders.
• Value technical excellence and produce code that is both functional and maintainable.

It would be great, but not essential if you have

• Experience with containerization tools (e.g. Docker) and orchestration frameworks.
• Proficiency in Go, Node.js, and/or Ruby.
• Knowledge of Cassandra, PostgreSQL.
• Experience with CI/CD systems.
• Expertise in observability tools to enhance system monitoring and alerting.

What’s it like to work at Ably?

We’re tackling planet-scale problems and our ambitions are a testament to that. You’ll join a successful, deeply motivated and collaborative team that thrives on innovation, experimentation and autonomy. To get a sense of life at Ably, visit our careers page. You can also read about the origins of Ably's core values on our blog.

We believe in fostering a culture that's built on inclusivity and mutual respect among all team members, and we recognise that each individual is different and will want to be supported in their role in different ways. We provide a range of perks and benefits to aid folks' development and wellbeing, allowing them to be their best selves and do great work.

• A remote-first and flexible work environment. UK-based teams come together in person once per month in our London hub (next to Old Street) and we get together as a company twice per year. Aside from that, you’re welcome to work wherever suits best for you.
• Equity. We’re a growing start-up and we want all team to members to share in the success of the company through our EMI share options programme.
• Enhanced holiday allowance. Our policy provides Ablyans with 28 days of paid annual leave (27 regular days, plus a day off to enjoy your birthday).
• Enhanced parental leave package, so that you can take the time you need to get to know your new family member, rest and recover.
• Home workstation budget of £500 on joining (and £150 p/a thereafter), so that your home office is set up to serve you well and that you have everything you need to work comfortably.
• Personal learning and development budget of £1000 annually, and 5% L&D time during working hours to focus on improving your skillset.
• Private healthcare with BUPA.
• Medical cash plan to cover a range medical and dental costs.
• Mental wellbeing coaching and counselling from Self Space.
• Monthly wellbeing budget via Juno.
• Life assurance and income protection.
• Access to Tech & Cycle to Work schemes.
• Weekly snack allowance for our end-of-week “Need To Know” meeting.
• A fully-paid one-month sabbatical after five years with Ably.

Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at Ably

We believe our differences as individuals is what makes us great. Our people are at the heart of what we do, and we encourage everyone to be their most authentic self at Ably: we see inclusivity and openness as fundamental to creating long-term success as an organization. We encourage applications from all backgrounds regardless of age, disability, gender, sexual orientation, parental status, race, religion, educational background or neurodiversity. Ably has an amazing opportunity ahead of us, and we want anyone to be able to contribute to that opportunity.

If you enjoy working as part of a technology company, value open source, and love solving hard problems - then we’d love to hear from you, regardless of whether you fit the job description exactly or not. If in doubt, drop us an email; we’d be more than happy to give you some advice on your application.