Principal Site Reliability Engineer

Location: Palo Alto, CA, United States

Job Family: Software Engineering

About the Role

At JP Morgan Chase, we are at the forefront of financial innovation, powering global markets with cutting-edge technology that demands unwavering reliability. As a Principal Site Reliability Engineer in our Palo Alto office, you will play a pivotal role in elevating the reliability of our mission-critical systems that support everything from high-frequency trading to secure payment processing. Your expertise will directly influence how we manage incidents and streamline the software development lifecycle, ensuring our platforms remain resilient against disruptions in a 24/7 financial ecosystem. This position offers the chance to work on transformative projects within a collaborative team environment, leveraging the latest in cloud-native technologies to drive business continuity and operational excellence. In this senior role, you will partner closely with software engineers, product managers, and operations teams to embed SRE principles into every stage of development, from code commit to production deployment. You will architect scalable monitoring solutions and automate infrastructure to handle the immense scale of JP Morgan's data volumes, all while navigating the complexities of regulatory compliance in the banking industry. Expect to lead investigations into complex outages, advocate for reliability metrics like SLOs, and champion cultural shifts toward proactive error budgeting. Your contributions will not only mitigate risks but also accelerate innovation, enabling faster delivery of secure, customer-centric financial services. Joining JP Morgan Chase means becoming part of a world-class organization committed to your growth and well-being. We value diverse perspectives and provide ample opportunities for professional advancement through our renowned training programs and global network. Based in the vibrant tech hub of Palo Alto, you'll thrive in an inclusive culture that rewards impact and fosters work-life integration, all while contributing to the stability of the world's leading financial institution.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide expert guidance on site reliability practices to enhance critical incident management and response times in JP Morgan's global financial platforms
• Collaborate with software engineering teams to integrate reliability engineering into the end-to-end software development lifecycle, ensuring robust deployment pipelines
• Design, implement, and maintain monitoring and alerting systems to proactively identify and mitigate risks in high-stakes trading and payment processing environments
• Lead root cause analysis for production incidents, driving post-mortem reviews to prevent recurrence and improve system resilience
• Optimize infrastructure automation using tools like Terraform and Kubernetes to support scalable, fault-tolerant architectures for financial services
• Influence architectural decisions to balance innovation with reliability, adhering to strict compliance and security standards in the banking sector
• Mentor junior engineers on SRE best practices, fostering a culture of reliability across JP Morgan's technology organization
• Develop and maintain SLOs/SLIs for key services, ensuring alignment with business objectives in areas like real-time transaction processing
• Participate in on-call rotations to handle escalations for mission-critical systems, minimizing impact on customer-facing financial applications
• Stay abreast of emerging technologies and contribute to JP Morgan's adoption of SRE principles in cloud-native financial solutions

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field; advanced degree preferred
• 8+ years of experience in site reliability engineering, DevOps, or systems engineering roles
• Proven track record in managing high-availability systems in a financial services environment
• Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, particularly AWS or Azure, with experience in hybrid cloud setups
• Experience with incident management frameworks like ITIL and tools such as PagerDuty or Splunk
• Demonstrated ability to influence software development lifecycles in large-scale enterprises
• Security clearance or ability to obtain one, given the sensitive nature of financial data handling

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working at a major financial institution like JP Morgan Chase or similar
• Certifications such as AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, Google SRE, or CISSP
• Background in agile methodologies and CI/CD pipeline optimization for fintech applications
• Familiarity with regulatory compliance standards like SOX, GDPR, and PCI-DSS
• Prior leadership in cross-functional teams focused on reducing downtime in trading or banking systems

Required Skills

• Proficiency in programming languages like Python, Go, or Java for automation and tooling
• Expertise in containerization and orchestration with Docker and Kubernetes
• Strong knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, GCP) and infrastructure as code (Terraform, Ansible)
• Experience with observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, or Splunk
• Deep understanding of networking, load balancing, and distributed systems design
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitLab CI, or similar in agile environments
• Skills in database management (SQL/NoSQL) and performance tuning for high-throughput financial data
• Incident response and troubleshooting in Linux/Unix environments
• Knowledge of security best practices, encryption, and compliance in financial services
• Analytical problem-solving and data-driven decision-making abilities
• Excellent communication skills for cross-team collaboration and stakeholder influence
• Leadership and mentoring capabilities in fast-paced, high-pressure settings
• Adaptability to evolving technologies in the fintech landscape
• Attention to detail in auditing and ensuring regulatory adherence
• Time management skills for balancing on-call duties with proactive engineering tasks

Benefits

• Competitive base salary and performance-based annual bonuses tied to firm-wide financial goals
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance with low employee premiums
• 401(k) retirement savings plan with generous company matching contributions
• Paid time off including vacation, sick days, and parental leave for work-life balance
• Professional development opportunities through JP Morgan's internal training programs and tuition reimbursement
• Employee stock purchase plan and access to financial wellness resources
• On-site fitness centers, wellness programs, and mental health support services
• Relocation assistance for moves to Palo Alto, including housing support in the Bay Area

JP Morgan Chase is an equal opportunity employer.