Site Reliability Engineering Technical Leader

Role details

The application window is expected to close on: Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received . Meet the Team We are CloudOps — the team that keeps Splunk Cloud running for some of the world's most demanding enterprise customers, blending Site Reliability Engineering, Systems Engineering, and Service Engineering disciplines at a scale very few teams ever get to operate at. When the hardest incidents hit, when a premier customer's stack is on the line, when a migration needs to land flawlessly — we are the team that gets the call; we are the escalation authority, the technical conscience of Splunk Cloud, and the bridge between customer impact and engineering action. We operate globally across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC, and we thrive on complexity — our engineers own entire customer stacks, drive cross-organizational change, and build the automation and frameworks that make the whole platform more resilient. If you are the kind of engineer who wants real ownership, not just tickets — who wants to shape how a world-class SaaS platform operates, mentor the engineers around you, and leave a fingerprint on systems that millions of people depend on — this is the team for you Your Impact You will be the most senior technical individual contributor on the team — setting the bar for technical judgment, architectural thinking, and operational excellence across the organization You will own the technical strategy for how the team responds to, learns from, and prevents critical incidents, serving as the designated point of escalation during P1/P2 events and making high-stakes, risk-informed decisions that protect customer uptime and trust You will hold deep ownership of the most complex customer stacks and shape the team's automation direction and infrastructure architecture decisions with regional and business-wide impact Your insights will directly shape how Splunk Cloud's operational processes evolve, and you will be the trusted counterpart that Engineering, Customer Success, and Release Management turn to when navigating the most demanding customer situations You will raise the technical floor of everyone around you — senior engineers will calibrate their judgment against yours, and the frameworks you build will outlast any single incident Minimum Qualifications: Bachelors + 12 years of related experience, or Masters + 8 years of related experience, or PhD + 5 years of related experience. 7+ years of experience in SRE, cloud operations, and systems engineering with Linux administration 6+ years of hands-on experience across AWS, GCP, or Azure; 5+ years of experience in at least one scripting or automation language such as Python or Go/golang; 5+ years of experience communicating across engineering, customer-facing, and senior leadership audiences 4+ years experience leading post-mortems and root cause analysis for high-severity events driving systemic improvements, closing process gaps Preferred Qualifications Demonstrated track record of managing high-severity customer escalations and resolving critical production issues across major cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), with enterprise-scale experience spanning architecture, deployment, infrastructure changes, migrations, and operational management — including the ability to manage multiple concurrent high-priority escalations with composure and sound judgment. Deep technical ownership of premier and strategic enterprise customer environments, with experience providing authoritative guidance on complex configurations, upgrades, and feature rollouts, while partnering with Account Managers and cross-functional stakeholders to translate customer insights into measurable improvements to the cloud service experience. Extensive background in Linux systems administration and advanced expertise in large-scale distributed systems architecture — with Splunk-specific knowledge (SPL, indexer clustering, Search Head Clusters, KVStore, and migration patterns at scale) considered a strong asset. Proven experience operating and improving monitoring, alerting, and observability platforms (such as Splunk Observability or equivalent technologies), with a demonstrated ability to close operational process and runbook gaps — driving recurrence prevention, not just incident resolution. Exceptional communication and technical leadership skills, with the ability to engage credibly across customers, cross-functional partners, and senior leadership, combined with prior experience in customer-facing technical advisory roles (Professional Services, Global Services, or Technical Account Management) and a track record of growing senior technical talent without a formal management mandate Why Cisco? At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint. Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere. We are Cisco, and our power starts with you. Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada: The starting salary range posted for this position is $192,400.00 to $275,800.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits. Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, j