Staff engineer Jobs in Thornton, CO

Distinguished Engineer – IaaS SRE

Position Summary

GEICO is seeking an experienced Engineer with a passion for building high-performance, low maintenance, zero-downtime platforms, and applications. You will help drive our insurance business transformation as we transition from a traditional IT model to a tech organization with engineering excellence as its mission, while co-creating the culture of psychological safety and continuous improvement.​

Position Description

Our Distinguished Engineer I works with our Manager, Principal and Sr. Engineers to innovate and build new systems, improve, and enhance existing systems and identify new opportunities to apply your knowledge to solve critical problems. You will lead the strategy and execution of a technical roadmap that will increase the velocity of delivering products and unlock new engineering capabilities. The ideal candidate has a deep understanding of technology, risk management, site reliability engineering principles and strategic planning to design and implement resilient systems that safeguard our business from potential threats.

Position Responsibilities

As a Distinguished Engineer, you will :

Develop and drive the overall reliability strategy for the Network and DC-Ops SRE organization, aligning it with the organization's business goals and objectives

Provide thought leadership inIaaS reliability, staying ahead of industry trends and emerging technologies

Conduct comprehensive risk assessments to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities

Design and implement robust strategies to ensure maintainability and observability of our IaaS on-prem private cloudassets

Lead the design and architecture of resilient and scalable systems, considering both on-premises and cloud-based solutions

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrateGEICObest practices into the development and deployment processes

Develop and maintain comprehensive incident response plans to address various disaster scenarios on our OpenStack and Kubernetes clusters.

Conduct regular simulations and drills to ensure the readiness of the organization in the event

of a disaster

Hands-on software engineering and SDLC best practices (Technical Review Documents, Architecture, Software Development, Software Reviews, Testing, Production Readiness Reviews, among others)

Evaluate, select, and implement cutting-edge technologies and tools to enhance our IaaS capabilities including but not limited to processes, compliance, and visibility

Stay current with industry best practices and emerging technologies to continuously improve our Infrastructure as Code capabilities

Work closely with executive leadership, IT teams, and other stakeholders to communicate the importance of infrastructure as a service and foster a culture of resilience

Act as a trusted advisor, providing guidance onInfrastructure design and automation best practices to technical and non-technical stakeholders

Be a role model and mentor, helping to coach and strengthen the technical expertise and know-how of our engineering and product community

Influence and educate executives

Analyze cost and forecast, incorporating them into business plans

Determine and support resource requirements, evaluate operational processes, measure outcomes to ensure desired results, and demonstrate adaptability and sponsoring continuous learning

Qualifications

Fluency and specialization in software development and best practices using programming languages such as Golang and Python

Understanding of datacenter and LAN / WAN network designs with a focus on overlay technologies

Understanding of operating systems, containers and how they interface with the physical world of the datacenters and networks

Understanding of datacenter lifecycles and expansion lifecycles

Understanding of SQL and NoSQL databases, including stateful services management and storage

Understanding of networking, caches, key / value stores, load balancing, global load balancing, queues, DNS and CDN

Primary Focus on managing infrastructure through code.

Deep knowledge of SRE practices, methodologies, and principles, along with a solid understanding of on prem and public cloud-based network, compute, and storage technologies

In-depth knowledge of hybrid cloud architecture, IaaS and PaaS technologies, container orchestration platforms (e.g., Kubernetes), cloud efficiency and observability etc.

Strong background in incident management

Abilityto create incident response playbooks, runbooks, incident triaging strategies, and post-incident analysis to drive continuous improvement in system reliability and availability

Experience with open-source management and monitoring tools

Experience with infrastructure automation, tooling, and configuration management frameworks (e.g., Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Pulumi, Terraform, etc.)

Familiarity with cloud security best practices and compliance standards

Excellent leadership skills with a passion for mentoring and fostering professional growth

Detail-oriented and a drive for operational excellence

Visionary thinker with the ability to anticipate future challenges and opportunities

Excellent communication skills

Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities

Proven track record of successfully leading and building software in large and complex organizations​

Experience

10+ years of professional experience in infrastructure software engineering

8+ years of experience with architecture and design

6+ years of experience in open-source frameworks

4+ years of experience with AWS, GCP, Azure, or another cloud service​

Education

Master’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, or equivalent education or work experience

Annual Salary

100,000.00 - $261,500.00

The above annual salary range is a general guideline. Multiple factors are taken into consideration to arrive at the final hourly rate / annual salary to be offered to the selected candidate. Factors include, but are not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the role, the selected candidate’s work experience, education and training, the work location as well as market and business considerations.

At this time, GEICO will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position.

Benefits :

As an Associate, you’ll enjoy our

• to help secure your financial future and preserve your health and well-being, including :
• Premier Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance with no waiting period
• Paid Vacation, Sick and Parental Leave
• 401(k) Plan
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Paid Training and Licensures
• Benefits may be different by location. Benefit eligibility requirements vary and may include length of service.
• Coverage begins on the date of hire. Must enroll in New Hire Benefits within 30 days of the date of hire for coverage to take effect.