Sr. Software Engineer — Observability, Insights & Governance

RDQ
126R35

At Databricks, observability and governance are what turn a massive, multi‑tenant data and AI platform into one customers can trust  are looking for a senior technical leader to drive strategy and execution across three closely related teams at the heart of that mission:
Query Observability, SQL Warehouse Management, and Account‑Level Observability and Governance.

Query Observability builds the performance and observability tooling, ingesting very large volumes of query telemetry and turning it into history views, execution plans, performance insights, and recommendations that help customers run workloads reliably ond query observability, you will be responsible for building observability and actionable insights at compute level, workspace level, and account level so that admins can confidently manage large accounts.

This is a new technical leadership role responsible for setting the durable architecture across all these surfaces, raising the engineering bar of the combined team, and shaping the next generation of agentic experiences that let users — and the systems they run on — investigate, diagnose, and act on insights across query, warehouse, workspace, and account levels.

• Establish the long‑term technical direction across query observability, warehouse management, and account‑level governance, and own the multi‑year architecture all three surfaces are built on.
• Design and lead high‑impact projects that move the needle on performance, reliability, and cost transparency for customers.
• Build the next generation of agentic observability and governance — extensible experiences that let users and automated agents investigate, diagnose, and act on telemetry across query, warehouse, and account.
• Partner deeply with Databricks SQL, Unity Catalog, AI, security, and platform teams to integrate end‑to‑end visibility and governance across the data plane and control plane.
• Mentor senior engineers, set the technical standards across the group, and recruit top talent into observability, insights, and governance.
• Champion reliable, high‑quality software and the operational practices that let a focused team confidently support product surfaces used by tens of thousands of customers.

• 12+ years building and operating large‑scale distributed systems, observability or governance platforms, databases, or backend infrastructure.
• A proven track record as a technical leader on teams operating in complex, multi‑stakeholder environments — driving long‑term architecture while still delivering incremental customer impact.
• Deep computer science fundamentals (algorithms, data structures, systems design) applied to real‑world, high‑throughput problems.
• Experience with one or more of: observability and telemetry pipelines, query engines and query analytics, distributed tracing and metrics, time‑series storage, data governance, or large‑scale logging systems.
• Strong cross‑functional communication skills — able to align engineering, product, and infrastructure partners across multiple teams on technical strategy and trade‑offs.
• BS in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience (MS/PhD a plus).
• Bonus: experience building agentic experiences using LLMs.

Databricks offers a competitive compensation package that may include base salary, equity, annual performance bonuses, and a comprehensive benefits program to support well‑being and work‑life balance. Details vary by region.

We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. All applicants are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical or mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio‑economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics.

If access to export‑controlled technology or source code is required for performance of job duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.