Staff Backend Engineer - Databases Tempo | Canada | Remote
Grafana Labs
Remote, Canada
Not specified; not specified; not specified
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Deep experience with distributed data systems
Strong go programming language skills
Proven track record of technical leadership
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Grafana Labs is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer for their Tempo product, which is a distributed tracing backend that supports Grafana Cloud and Grafana Enterprise Traces. The position is remote, aimed at candidates in Canada and the US, and emphasizes technical leadership in developing scalable systems, operational excellence, and collaborative problem-solving.
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Job Summary
Grafana Labs is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer to lead the evolution of Tempo from a foundational database into a platform powering next-generation observability products.
The role involves setting technical direction on complex initiatives such as trace aggregation, autoscaling cells, and agent-scale ingestion while maintaining high operational standards.
Candidates will work in a remote-first, open-source culture that heavily invests in developer productivity using modern AI coding assistants and frontier models.
Matching Summary
Match Score: 75
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Grafana Labs is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer for their Tempo product, which is a distributed tracing backend that supports Grafana Cloud and Grafana Enterprise Traces. The position is remote, aimed at candidates in Canada and the US, and emphasizes technical leadership in developing scalable systems, operational excellence, and collaborative problem-solving.
**
Salary
Not specified; Not specified; Not specified
Skills & Requirements
Must-have
Deep experience with distributed data systems
Strong Go programming language skills
Proven track record of technical leadership
Experience owning production services and SLOs
Ability to design scalable ingestion and storage
Nice-to-have
Experience with OpenTelemetry or tracing systems
Background in designing query languages like SQL
Familiarity with columnar storage formats like Parquet