# Staff Backend Engineer - Session Replay | USA | Remote
**Company:** [Grafana Labs](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/grafana-labs)
**Location:** Remote
**Salary:** $175K-$219K
**Skills:** Go, TypeScript, React, Columnar Databases, Object Storage, MySQL, Grafana Mimir, Grafana Loki, Grafana Tempo, S3, Gcs, Azure Blob Storage
**Posted:** 2026-04-22
> Leads backend architecture for Session Replay product, designing data storage, ingestion pipelines, and investigation workflows integrating with Grafana Cloud telemetry. Requires expertise in data-intensive systems, Go, and observability tools.
## Job Description
## What you'll be doing

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will operate as a technical leader and systems thinker, driving both product direction and architectural evolution, specifically, you will:

- Own end-to-end technical direction for Session Replay, spanning frontend, backend, and data systems
- Drive the evolution of our backend architecture, including:
  - Designing systems around columnar/analytical data storage for large-scale session data
  - Defining data models, ingestion pipelines, and query patterns
- Lead the design of investigation workflows, connecting replay with logs, metrics, traces and other telemetry across Grafana Cloud
- Make high-leverage architectural decisions that impact multiple teams and products
- Partner with teams across Grafana (Frontend Observability, Synthetic Monitoring, Core Grafana) to build cohesive cross-product experiences
- Improve engineering standards, patterns, and operational practices within the team
- Mentor engineers and help grow technical leadership within the team

## Technologies you'll work with

- Go (backend services and APIs)
- Columnar/Analytical data storage (core data storage and querying)
- Object storage (S3, GCS, Azure Blob Storage) and MySQL
- TypeScript / React (user-facing workflows)
- Grafana ecosystem (Mimir, Loki, Tempo, etc.)

## What Makes You a Great Fit

- You are comfortable working in a remote-first company; communication is key.
- For us, working together means being collaborative, friendly, kind, and respectful. We operate by consensus. You can contribute to a discussion, disagree constructively, and commit to the team’s decision. You are able to communicate design decisions clearly in written and spoken English.
- Ability to reason about data-intensive systems (ingestion, storage, querying, cost trade-offs)
- You are comfortable owning features in ambiguous problem spaces. We are a small team, working remotely, on a product that will be used by engineers all over the world – the ability to work on your own is crucial.
- You have a good understanding of a software development process that takes a user-centered approach. You easily build an understanding of the users’ context and goals which will help you build the right solution with the maximum value.
- You enjoy working on complex solutions – Grafana is a highly technological solution and has avid followers who rely on it every day and who care deeply about their workflows. You value code maintainability, readability & automation.

## Bonus Points For

- Experience with columnar/analytical databases
- Experience with observability tools (Grafana, Datadog, New Relic, Sentry, etc.).
- Experience building debugging or developer-focused tools.
- Familiarity with privacy, security, and access control in data-heavy systems
- Experience working on performance-sensitive systems (large datasets, real-time queries, session data)

## Compensation & Rewards

In the United States, the Base compensation range for this role is USD 174,986 - USD 218,733. Actual compensation may vary based on level, experience, and skillset as assessed in the interview process. Benefits include equity, bonus (if applicable) and other benefits listed here.
**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/staff-backend-engineer-session-replay-usa-remote-at-grafana-labs-ce59cf20-8bcf-44df-95a5-fae3df50007f
**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/staff-backend-engineer-session-replay-usa-remote-at-grafana-labs-ce59cf20-8bcf-44df-95a5-fae3df50007f