Observability Engineer (SRE)
- Hiring from
- United Kingdom
- Work type
- Hybrid
- Posted
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Overview
Home. There's no place like it.
And there's no feeling like helping people create the joy of feeling truly at home. At Dunelm, that's what we do. We're the UK's number one choice for homewares because we make home life lovelier for our customers. And we've crafted a workplace that feels just as welcoming – where you can bring your ideas, be yourself, and feel right at home.
Work your way, together.
We're a hybrid business, which means you'll have flexibility alongside time together with your team. In this role, you can expect at least two days per month in our London office, helping you stay connected, collaborate, and do your best work for our customers. Note that there may be an expectation of other ad-hoc office days where necessary.
Role Summary
We're looking for an Observability Engineer, to help continue to drive service health across our entire technology stack. Your work will directly impact reliability, performance, and customer experience.
The Team
Our SRE team is a high-trust, high-impact group of engineers who bring software engineering principles to operational reliability.
We are hands-on developers and systems thinkers who build scalable, observable, and resilient platforms. Working closely with other Engineering, Data, and Platform & Operations (PlatOps) teams, we help them build reliable, cost-efficient, and easy-to-diagnose systems and services. We also help the Site Operations Engineering (SOE) team lead incident response, improve deployment safety, and guide teams towards a sustainable model of service ownership.
We collect, process, and export large volumes of telemetry data every day and are constantly evolving our approach to cost-efficiency. Observability is a first-class concern that shapes how we build and support services across the business.
Message From the Principal Engineer:
"Hi! I'm Dan, the Principal Site Reliability Engineer here at Dunelm. The SRE team has evolved quite a bit since I started three years ago. We have moved from an engineer-per-team 'embedded' engagement model to a combination 'tools & consulting' model. This has allowed us to scale our coverage more effectively and deliver more meaningful impact throughout Dunelm's service teams. The other big change has been moving from proprietary instrumentation to OpenTelemetry, giving us better flexibility, consistency, and control of the telemetry that we ingest, process, and export. I'm looking forward to receiving your application and hopefully welcoming you into our team."
Interview Process
1. Introductory video call (around 45 minutes) with the Principal Engineer and Product Delivery Lead to get to know each other, explain the role, and hear about your experience, goals, and approach to work.
2. Technical Discussion (90 minutes) with a few members of the SRE team. You will work through scenario-based questions designed to help you to highlight your knowledge, specific approaches and where you feel any improvements could be made.
Important note: we understand the pressure people are under now in applying for multiple jobs and our straightforward two-stage process, without a practical aspect, is hopefully a refreshing change. However, please read this job description carefully.
What you'll be doing
1. Engineering & Automation
Build automation and reliability tooling using well-architected, maintainable, testable, and easy to read & understand code. Contribute to shared libraries, observability components, and internal platforms.
2. Observability Instrumentation
Help evolve our observability strategy across systems and services. Drive how we collect, process, sample, and surface logs, distributed traces and metrics using OpenTelemetry. Focus on high-quality telemetry that enables fast diagnosis, cost efficiency, and meaningful visibility across the stack.
3. Service Levels & Ownership
Help teams truly own their services by helping to define and adopt meaningful SLIs and SLOs. Guide product teams in using observability data to make reliability measurable.
4. Incident Response
Participate in on-call investigations when issues arise. Drive blameless post-incident reviews and help to identify observability gaps, recommend mitigating actions that stem losses, but also permanent fixes that prevent recurrence.
5. Infrastructure & Pipelines
Model infrastructure using tools such as Pulumi, CDK, and Terraform in AWS and other PaaS and SaaS providers. Improve pipelines and support safe deployment strategies (e.g. canary, blue / green).
6. Mentoring & Team Growth
Help support and coach other engineers. Participate in technical discussions and share knowledge through pairing, planning, and documentation.
7. Continuous Learning and Innovation
Stay ahead of emerging practices in observability. Lead team proof-of-concepts and introduce new patterns or tools that improve our platform.
8. Strategic Development
Contribute to the prioritisation of the SRE roadmap. Help shape observability tooling, telemetry patterns, and platform-wide approaches to service ownership and reliability.
9. Aligning to Business Goals
Use observability insights to support product goals. Help to ensure SRE priorities align with Dunelm's wider objectives for quality, performance, and customer experience.
What we'll look for in you
Essential Skills
• Software Engineering: Languages
Most of our services are in TypeScript, Rust, and Python, so knowledge of at least one of these is required. However, deep knowledge of specific programming languages is not as important as understanding what the code is doing (or understanding what AI tells you the code is doing).
• Software Engineering: Principles
We value idiomatic, pragmatic, and testable code with strong, appropriate automated testing. How that code is produced (using AI and / or manually) is not as important as you being able to explain (and potentially defend it) in a code review.
• Architecture
Most of our services run on AWS and are serverless (Lambda) or containerised (ECS & Fargate), so specific knowledge of deploying and running software in those environments, plus general networking principles, is required.
• OpenTelemetry
We are moving towards as much OpenTelemetry as possible throughout the entirety of our technology stack, so OpenTelemetry knowledge is a must. Specifically, you need to know about the tools, SDKs, specifications etc.
• Observability Back-Ends
The ability to confidently use and configure observability back-end platforms is crucial for this role. Again, use of a specific platform is not as important as understanding how to interrogate telemetry to gain an understanding of systems and services or determining suitable alert rules.
• Infrastructure-as-Code
The team mostly use Pulumi in TypeScript to define our architecture, but if you've only ever used Terraform or CDK, that's great – if you apply the same software engineering principles above.
• Mindset
You will need to have a problem-solving and investigative mindset and be someone for whom attention to detail is extremely important.
Desirable Skills
• Advanced OpenTelemetry
If you have previous experience helping to instrument, deploy, and run OpenTelemetry at scale in a production environment, please put that front-and-centre on your application.
• Incident Response
Experience participating in an on-call rotation and being part of incident investigation, root cause / contributing factors analysis and blameless post-incident reviews would be beneficial.
• Cost Optimisation
From head and tail sampling to metric cardinality to good old not generating unnecessary telemetry in the first place, we're very interested in someone who can help us tackle the trickiest observability and cloud cost problems. Let us know if you're that person!
• Retail Sector
If you're fully clued-up on the observability challenges a multi-channel UK-based retailed is facing and is expected to face, you've got a head start on other candidates, so make sure this is clear in your application.
If you are not a 100% fit (but very close) to having the essential skills and experience, we would encourage you to still apply for this position.
Behaviours & Values
At Dunelm, our shared values of Act Like Owners, Keep Listening & Learning, Long-Term Thinking, and Stronger Together serve as the foundation for our success. These values guide us continuously; improving our practices and ensure we dedicate our time to what truly matters. As an Observability Engineer in the SRE team, you will exemplify these key behaviours:
- Support and build trust with teammates, always assuming positive intent
- Communicate clearly and share knowledge to build shared understanding
- Stay curious, ask why, and always look to improve how things work
- Embrace change, adapt quickly, and take on a variety of challenges
- Drive innovation by looking for better ways forward and pushing for progress
Tech to the future
Meet John, our Chief Tech and Innovation Officer, who shares insights into the exciting things happening in tech, why Dunelm is his happy place, and his unique route into the tech world.
Work your way
We want our colleagues to feel at home wherever they work, so that they are comfortable and can be their best selves. In addition, we want everyone to feel connected to the business, our strategy and the teams they work with.
Where hybrid working is applicable, colleagues need to strike the right balance to fulfil both of these important factors. You will find the right mix of being at home, in the office & out in the business, bearing in mind business needs, job role and level of responsibility.
Wellbeing is more than just a buzzword here
From our Wellbeing Buddies and Mental Health First Aid training to our progressive parental leave, menopause policies and Colleague Support Fund, we're committed to supporting our colleagues in every area – and at every stage – of their lives. Through our partnership with the Retail Trust, everyone at Dunelm has free access to a 24/7 Virtual GP, as well as therapy and counselling, plus information, guidance and advice in all areas of financial, emotional and physical wellbeing.
Look in our toy box
Of course, you should never judge a business by its tech stack. But take a peek at the range of technologies our engineers and developers are currently playing with.
Dazzling design
At Dunelm, we love every aspect of the design process. We're continually researching new developments in packaging, materials and production methods, tapping into new data insights and keeping track of changing lifestyle trends. We're hugely collaborative in the way we work. Together, the teams here have a direct impact on our success, creating amazing products that drive sales and delight our customers, as well as providing direction for our wide and varied range of brands.
Keep on growing
Join us on the tech side and you'll have access to a huge array of learning and development opportunities, including a variety of internally created workshops and externally accredited courses. We also have a substantial tech-specific budget to fund e-Learning licenses, conference visits, resources, and qualifications, plus dedicated mentors, well-being buddies and a wide range of network groups to support you as you progress.
Meet your team
Meet your team
I’m in my happy place when…
"There's a brilliant support network you can learn from here, and a great 'no fear of failure' culture."
Paulina, Principal Delivery Lead
Meet your team
I’m in my happy place when…
"Someone I knew said the people are great, and you get the chance to improve and innovate. That’s certainly been my experience."
Balaji, Platform Engineer
Meet your team
I’m in my happy place when…
"People here can challenge and push back. If you think there’s a better way of doing things, you can say so."
Bhavik, Principal Engineer
Meet your team
I’m in my happy place when…
"We work in a really collaborative way and I love the buzz of the working environment."
Madalyn, Senior Digital Trading Executive
Meet your team
I’m in my happy place when…
"The experience I've gained is so diverse, and since I returned from maternity leave, my career has gone from strength to strength."
Rachel, Product Manager
Rewards you deserve
Along with competitive salaries, we offer a range of other great benefits to recognise the unique contribution you bring.
Salary Advance so you can access up to 50% of the money you've earned during the month, rather than having to wait until pay day
Instant discounts with a range of other companies to help you stretch your budget
Pension contributions to help you save for your retirement
ShareSave scheme that enables you to save monthly and buy Dunelm shares at a discounted rate, building up your investments for a rainy day
Continuous training and coaching to ensure you feel confident in your current role and ready for any new challenges
Access to wellbeing support as and when you need it, including an online GP for you and your immediate family
Colleague networks that give everyone a voice and create an environment where we all feel at home
Outstanding development opportunities and all the support you need to grow your career the way you want
33 days annual holiday plus your birthday off to celebrate, and another day when you move home, so you can get settled in
Generous discounts on all our own products, in-store and online to help you make your house a home
Cycle to work scheme to help you keep your fitness up and your travel costs down
Charity day off (paid, of course) so you can volunteer for a charity that matters to you
Free on-site parking (excluding London office) and good public transport links
How did we get here?
Today, Dunelm is a leader in the £11bn UK homewares market. With over 200 stores across the country and a successful online operation – dunelm.com – we offer over 60,000 products across a broad range of categories. But where did it all begin?
1979
Founder, Bill Adderley and his wife Jean take on a stall in Leicester Market selling curtains. Within a month, they make 600% profit.
1984
First bricks-and-mortar store founded in Churchgate, Leicester.
1988
With momentum growing, first flagship store opens in Leicester, East Street, offering warehouse facilities for expansion across the region.
1991
First superstore opens in Rotherham, offering premium brands such as Dorma, which the company goes on to acquire.
1996
Bill's son Will is appointed CEO of the company, following in his father's footsteps.
1999
Now a household name in the Midlands, Dunelm Mill opens a head office with warehouse facilities in Syston, Leicestershire.
2001
The acquisition of a small custom-made curtains business marks the start of Dunelm's made-to-measure service.
2002
A landmark year as Dunelm Mill opens its 50th store and a new central warehouse in Burton. The company goes on to open new stores at a rate of 10 each year.
2005
A fully shoppable website goes live, with a dedicated warehouse below our Radcliffe store
2006
Dunelm floated on the London Stock Exchange, marking the beginning of a new era for the company.
2010
In Liverpool, the company opens its 100th store, having celebrated its 30th birthday in 2009.
2011
To accommodate continued growth, Dunelm builds a new head office in Syston.
2013
Company rebrands from 'Dunelm Mill' to 'Dunelm' – reflecting what our customers have called us for years.
2016
Our family grew to include Worldstores.
2018
Nick Wilkinson joins the business as our new CEO.
2021
To accommodate our continued growth, Dunelm opens a fourth warehouse in Daventry.
2022
Launch of our ‘Conscious Choice’ collection – homeware that lasts longer and is made from more sustainable materials.
2024
First Central London store in Westfield.
2024
Expanded into the Republic of Ireland, acquiring Home Focus at Hickey’s.
2025
Opened our 200th store in Merthyr Tydfil.
2025
Clo Moriarty joins as CEO, taking the reins from Nick Wilkinson.
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