Staff Backend Engineer - Mimir Query, Databases | USA | Remote

ABOUT THE ROLE Grafana Labs is building the most comprehensive open‑source observability platform in the world. As a Staff Backend Engineer on the Mimir Query squad, you will help shape the future of metrics storage and retrieval for millions of customers who rely on Grafana Cloud to monitor and secure their systems. Your work will directly influence the reliability, performance, and scalability of a distributed, multi‑tenant database that runs on Kubernetes across AWS, GCP, and Azure. You will collaborate with a global team of engineers, product managers, and data scientists to deliver high‑impact features that power real‑time analytics and alerting for enterprise customers. WHAT YOU'LL DO You will own the design, implementation, and operation of critical query components that serve billions of metric points per day. You will lead end‑to‑end projects, from architecture discussions and prototype builds to production deployments and post‑mortem analysis. You will mentor junior engineers, review pull requests, and drive code quality and testing standards across the squad. You will participate in a follow‑the‑sun on‑call rotation, ensuring 24/7 availability and rapid incident response. You will advocate for open‑source contributions, extending the Mimir OSS project and integrating community feedback into Grafana Cloud. You will collaborate closely with the Ingest and Storage sub‑squads to align performance and capacity goals across the entire telemetry stack. WHAT YOU'LL NEED You have 10+ years of production backend experience, with a deep understanding of distributed databases, time‑series data models, and large‑scale query engines. You are proficient in Go, Kubernetes, and cloud‑native infrastructure, and you have a proven track record of optimizing latency and throughput for metric workloads. You possess strong analytical skills, able to dissect complex performance bottlenecks and design scalable solutions. You are an effective communicator, comfortable presenting technical concepts to both engineering peers and non‑technical stakeholders. You thrive in a fast‑paced, autonomous environment and have experience leading cross‑functional initiatives and mentoring teams. You are passionate about open source and have contributed to community projects or maintained production‑grade open‑source software. WHY REMOTE Grafana Labs is a fully remote, distributed organization that values asynchronous collaboration and flexible schedules. Our engineers work across 40+ countries, leveraging shared tools, clear documentation, and regular virtual syncs to maintain alignment. The remote model empowers you to design a work environment that maximizes productivity while supporting work‑life balance. You will have the freedom to choose when and where you work, as long as you are available during core overlap hours with your squad. This culture of trust and autonomy enables you to focus on building world‑class observability solutions without the constraints of a traditional office. BENEFITS Health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents; a generous paid time off policy plus company holidays; a remote work stipend to support home office setup; a $1,000 annual learning budget for courses, conferences, and certifications; access to cutting‑edge AI coding assistants; equity and competitive salary; and a culture that encourages continuous learning, diversity, and inclusion.