Sr. DevOps Support Engineer

About the role

Buildkite delivers a high-performance CI/CD platform that powers the development workflows of major global organizations, including Shopify, Lyft, and PagerDuty. The Sr. DevOps Support Engineer role is centered on solving complex infrastructure and software challenges for enterprise clients. This position emphasizes building internal tools that enhance support workflows and improve the overall customer experience lifecycle. You will act as a critical bridge between the technical product and the users who rely on it for their business operations. Success is defined by your ability to de-escalate complex issues and transform them into actionable improvements. The focus is on proactive problem identification rather than purely reactive ticket closing. You will own the narrative of the support interaction, ensuring clarity and consistency across all communication channels. This role is integral to maintaining the reliability and perceived value of the Buildkite platform for its most critical customers.

• Providing expert-level support for Buildkite's CI/CD platform to enterprise customers.
• Acting as a technical and empathetic bridge between users and the engineering product.
• Driving proactive improvements to support workflows and customer success.
• Ownership of the end-to-end customer experience from initial contact to resolution.

What you'll do

Your daily responsibilities will focus on deep technical investigation, clear communication, and process improvement. You will troubleshoot and resolve high-level CI/CD and infrastructure problems for enterprise users by diving deep into logs, configurations, and pipeline definitions. You will communicate with customers via Zoom, Slack, Email, Plain, and community forums to gather context and provide clear, empathetic updates. You will lead planning sessions and retrospectives to optimize customer setups, identifying bottlenecks and opportunities for architectural improvement. Developing and maintaining open source utilities using Bash and Golang is a key function to automate repetitive diagnostic tasks and improve internal tooling. You will create documentation and proactive resources such as knowledge base articles and playbooks to reduce future support volume and empower customers. Collaborating with internal Engineering and Product teams allows you to influence the product roadmap based on customer feedback and recurring pain points. You will improve internal support processes by designing standard operating procedures that streamline investigation and resolution workflows. Mentoring team members on best practices for debugging complex distributed systems and effective communication is also a core responsibility. Analyzing support data to identify trends, surface recurring bugs, and highlight areas where the product experience can be enhanced is part of the role. You will conduct root cause analysis for critical incidents, ensuring findings are translated into concrete recommendations for the development team.

• Troubleshooting complex CI/CD and infrastructure issues through deep log and configuration analysis.
• Communicating effectively with enterprise customers via multiple channels to manage expectations and provide solutions.
• Leading planning and retrospective sessions to architect optimal customer pipeline setups.
• Developing open-source utilities in Bash and Golang to automate diagnostics and improve internal tools.
• Creating proactive documentation and resources to reduce repeat support inquiries.
• Collaborating with Engineering and Product to shape the roadmap based on real-world customer feedback.
• Improving internal support processes through the design of standard operating procedures.
• Mentoring team members on debugging distributed systems and communication best practices.
• Analyzing support data to identify trends and drive product improvements.
• Conducting root cause analysis and translating findings into actionable development tasks.

Requirements

The ideal candidate will have a background in customer-facing technical roles that require high levels of empathy and patience. You must be comfortable managing stressed or frustrated users while maintaining a professional demeanor. Proficiency in scripting or programming with Bash, Ruby on Rails, or Golang is necessary to automate tasks and understand code-level issues. Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines and cloud infrastructure is essential. This includes working with AWS, GCP, Azure, Terraform, and Kubernetes. You must have the ability to manage complex technical investigations independently, breaking down large problems into manageable steps. Strong written and verbal communication skills are critical for success in distributed environments where in-person cues are absent. Experience working with Linux systems, including command line proficiency and an understanding of system architecture, is required. A proven track record of diagnosing issues in distributed environments where multiple services interact asynchronously is expected. You should be comfortable with ambiguity and capable of making progress on ill-defined problems where initial information is incomplete or contradictory.

• Experience in customer-facing technical roles emphasizing empathy and patience.
• Proficiency in Bash, Ruby on Rails, or Golang for scripting and problem-solving.
• Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines and cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure, Terraform, Kubernetes).
• Ability to manage complex technical investigations independently.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for distributed work.
• Experience working with Linux systems and command-line proficiency.
• Proven ability to diagnose issues in distributed, asynchronous service environments.
• Comfort with ambiguity and the ability to progress on ill-defined problems.

Skills & tools: Bash, Ruby on Rails, Golang, Linux, AWS, GCP, Azure, Terraform, Kubernetes, CI/CD platforms.

• The company offers a package including salary, equity, and benefits.
• This position features a remote-first culture with flexible hours and no on-call duties.
• For interview or application accommodations, contact accommodations@buildkite.com.