---
title: 'Staff Software Engineer - OpenTelemetry Python instrumentation | Germany | Remote at Grafana Labs'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-opentelemetry-python-instrumentation-germany-remote-k61x4fa632wk'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-10'
---

# Staff Software Engineer - OpenTelemetry Python instrumentation | Germany | Remote at Grafana Labs

- **Company:** Grafana Labs
- **Location:** Germany
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-11-06
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-10
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/grafanalabs/jobs/6250645004

## Job description

Grafana Labs is the company behind Grafana Cloud, the fully managed observability platform trusted by more than 10,000 organizations to ensure reliability, resolve incidents faster, and optimize telemetry at scale. Built on open source and open standards and designed for interoperability across any stack, Grafana Cloud brings AI to observability and observability to AI, giving teams (and their agents) unified visibility so they can see, understand, and act on all their disparate data, wherever it lives, and move at the speed of their ambitions. Customers, including Anthropic, Bloomberg, NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Salesforce, rely on Grafana Labs. We are a 100% remote company with team members across 40+ countries, backed by leading investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, GIC, Coatue, J.P. Morgan, CapitalG, and Lead Edge Capital. Learn more at [grafana.com](http://grafana.com) and follow us on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/grafana-labs/) and [X](https://twitter.com/grafana).

We’re scaling fast and staying true to what makes us different: an open-source legacy, a global collaborative culture, and a passion for meaningful work. Our team thrives in an innovation-driven environment where transparency, autonomy, and trust fuel everything we do.

You may not meet every requirement, and that’s okay. If this role excites you, we’d love you to raise your hand for what could be a truly career-defining opportunity.

This is a remote opportunity and we would be interested in applications from Germany, UK, Ireland and Spain.

The Opportunity:

Grafana Cloud is our composable observability platform that integrates metrics, logs, and traces with Grafana. It allows our customers to leverage the best open source observability software – including Prometheus, Mimir, Loki, and Tempo – without the overhead of installing, maintaining and scaling their own observability stack

The Observability department is focused on enabling developers to understand the health and performance of their applications and infrastructure in any environment by providing tools to instrument their code, ingest observability data into Grafana Cloud and visualize and explore it.

The OpenTelemetry SDKs team's mission is to make sure our users succeed in instrumenting their software with OpenTelemetry. We work closely with the [OpenTelemetry SIGs](https://github.com/open-telemetry/community#special-interest-groups) to make OpenTelemetry SDKs and instrumentation libraries a success. Members of this team are experts in at least one programming language and have a broad knowledge of various other programming languages.

In this role, you will focus on a language-specific implementation of [OpenTelemetry in Python](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/languages/python/), with an emphasis on [OpenTelemetry for Generative AI](https://opentelemetry.io/blog/2024/otel-generative-ai/). You will get to work in an upstream-first approach, helping accelerate the OpenTelemetry project while bringing the innovations to Grafana labs products and offerings.

As a company we are remote-first and global, we embrace people of different experiences and backgrounds to build diverse teams where every person brings a unique perspective to the software. We are looking for Engineers that are passionate about communicating with data and providing seamless experiences for our customers to join our growing team! Engineers at Grafana also have the opportunity to contribute to Open Source communities.

At Grafana Labs, ICs have a dedicated career path and do not have to become managers to progress in their career. Staff Software Engineers at Grafana have a large amount of experience across multiple areas.  They are able to estimate, plan, coordinate and deliver large tasks spanning multiple systems.  They actively coach and mentor other team members in their team and are able to identify and resolve issues with technology and product processes.

What You’ll Be Doing:

You will bring your software engineering expertise to develop improvements to the OpenTelemetry Python SDK and instrumentation libraries, with a strong focus on AI applications and agent workflows. This is a hands-on role for someone with deep Python expertise and an interest in AI.

- Collaborate in open-source communities. You will develop and maintain the OpenTelemetry Python SDK and instrumentation libraries, working with maintainers and other vendors on specifications, APIs, and implementation decisions.
- Build Python instrumentation for AI agents. Build instrumentation that connects agent runs, model calls, and tool execution, including across asynchronous code. Contribute to evolving OpenTelemetry conventions for generative AI, with care for sensitive data and metric cardinality.
- Improve Python SDK performance. Use profiling and benchmarks to evaluate implementation approaches with the upstream community. Make sound tradeoffs around runtime overhead, compatibility, and maintainability.
- Be visible as an OpenTelemetry expert. Teach others, promote best practices around OpenTelemetry, semantic conventions, and various technologies and frameworks. Both within Grafana Labs and in the broader OpenTelemetry community.
- Support the technical direction and vision of the team, and contribute to business conversations on the OpenTelemetry strategy at Grafana Labs. Own projects from an ambiguous problem through design, implementation, testing, documentation, and release.
- Partner in an open and respectful way. Lend your knowledge and skills to our GTM, Product and Support teams. Join customer conversations, investigate instrumentation issues, and turn what you learn into fixes and practical guidance.

As we are remote-first and our engineering organization is largely remote, we provide guidance and meet regularly using video calls, so high agency and good communication skills are a must.

What Makes You a Great Fit:

At Grafana Labs, Staff Engineers are defined by the impact they have and the people they enable. You take ownership of complex problems, set technical direction, and help others deliver improvements that matter to customers and the OpenTelemetry community.

- 8+ years of experience in software development, with strong proficiency in Python and experience debugging production software, language internals, libraries, and asynchronous code.
- An interest in AI applications and agent systems, and curiosity about how to instrument and troubleshoot them. Prior experience building AI systems is helpful, but not required.
- Experience working in open-source communities. You are eager to become an active member of the OpenTelemetry community, collaborate with maintainers and users, and keep learning across languages, frameworks, and the wider observability ecosystem.
- Familiarity with observability tooling such as Grafana, Prometheus, and OpenTelemetry, alongside experience with cloud-based software or systems engineering. You understand production environments and can assess operational risks.

Bonus Points For:

- You have experience working on open source observability projects, ideally in OpenTelemetry or Prometheus.
- Experience in Python instrumentation techniques, profiling, runtime diagnostics, or asynchronous context propagation
- Experience in a hands-on technical leadership role, setting technical direction and leading project teams
- Experience instrumenting AI frameworks or agent workflows, or working with OpenTelemetry semantic conventions for generative AI
- Experience contributing to or maintaining Open Source projects, with evidence of successful pull requests and community collaboration
- Rust experience is a plus for exploring potential Python SDK performance improvements, including Rust-backed implementations.

Compensation & Rewards:

In Germany, the compensation range for this role is EUR 113,000 - EUR 141,000. Actual compensation may vary based on level, experience, and skillset as assessed throughout the interview process. All of our roles include Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), giving every team member ownership in Grafana Labs' success. We believe in shared outcomes—RSUs help us stay aligned and invested as we scale globally.

*Compensation ranges are country specific. If you are applying for this role from a different location than listed above, your recruiter will discuss your specific market’s defined pay range & benefits at the beginning of the process.

Why You’ll Thrive at Grafana Labs:

- 100% Remote, Global Culture - As a remote-only company, we bring together talent from around the world, united by a culture of collaboration and shared purpose.
- Scaling Organization – Tackle meaningful work in a high-growth, ever-evolving environment.
- Transparent Communication – Expect open decision-making and regular company-wide updates.
- Innovation-Driven – Autonomy and support to ship great work and try new things.
- Open Source Roots – Built on community-driven values that shape how we work.
- Empowered Teams – High trust, low ego culture that values outcomes over optics.
- Career Growth Pathways – Defined opportunities to grow and develop your career.
- Approachable Leadership – Transparent execs who are involved, visible, and human.
- Passionate People – Join a team of smart, supportive folks who care deeply about what they do.
- In-Person onboarding - We want you to thrive from day 1 with your fellow new ‘Grafanistas’ to learn all about what we do and how we do it.
- Balance is Key - We operate a global annual leave policy of 30 days per annum. 3 days of your annual leave entitlement are reserved for Grafana Shutdown Days to allow the team to really disconnect. *We will comply with local legislation where applicable.

Equal Opportunity Employer: Grafana Labs is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from everyone regardless of race, colour, nationality, origin, caste, sex, gender reassignment identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, religion or belief, disability, veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, maternity, marital, family or carer status, or any other characteristic which is protected by local law. We believe that equality and diversity build a strong organisation, and we work hard to ensure that is the foundation of our organisation as we grow.

Grafana Labs may utilize AI tools in its recruitment process to assist in matching information provided in CVs to job postings. The recruitment team will continue to review inbound CVs manually to identify alignment with current openings.

#LI-Remote

For information about how your personal data is used once you’ve applied to a job, check out our [privacy policy](https://grafana.com/legal/applicant-and-candidate-privacy-policy/).

## About Grafana Labs

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Grafana Labs provides the leading open-source observability platform and a fully managed cloud service, enabling organizations to monitor, visualize, and analyze their metrics, logs, traces, and more.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series H – $1.1B total funding)
- **Headquarters**: New York, New York, United States
- **Founded**: 2014
- **Founders**: Raj Dutt, Torkel Ödegaard, and Anthony Woods

## Core Business
- **Industry**: Software Development / Observability & Monitoring
- **Target Customers**: B2B, primarily mid-market to large enterprises (7,000+ customers including Anthropic, Bloomberg, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Salesforce) and SMBs via free tier
- **Mission**: “Shape the future of observability” – build, sell, and scale technology that matters, rooted in open source, transparency, and customer success

## Products & Services
- **Grafana (Open Source)**: The industry-standard dashboarding and visualization tool for metrics, logs, and traces.
- **Grafana Cloud**: Fully managed observability SaaS stack combining metrics (Mimir), logs (Loki), traces (Tempo), incident response (OnCall), synthetic monitoring, and load testing (k6).
- **Grafana Enterprise**: Self-managed edition with enterprise-grade features, security, and support.
- **Grafana OnCall**: Incident management and alerting workflow tool.
- **Grafana Faro**: Frontend observability for web applications.
- **k6**: Open-source load testing tool integrated into the observability pipeline.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (last known Series H in 2022; total funding $1.1B)
- **Key Metric**: Annual revenue of $270M (LinkedIn estimate, 2025)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, GIC, Coatue, J.P. Morgan, CapitalG, Lead Edge Capital
- **Growth Signals**:
  - 1,600+ employees across 40+ countries (LinkedIn: 1,431, +16.6% YoY)
  - 25M+ users worldwide
  - Named a **Leader** in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Observability Platforms – positioned furthest for Completeness of Vision
  - Major enterprise logos: Anthropic, Bloomberg, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Salesforce

## Competitive Advantages
- **Open-Source Foundation**: Grafana is the de facto standard for dashboards; huge community (25M+ users) drives adoption and ecosystem.
- **Composable Observability Stack**: Best-of-breed components (Loki, Tempo, Mimir, OnCall) that are tightly integrated but can be used independently.
- **Vendor‑Neutral Architecture**: Works with any data source (Prometheus, InfluxDB, Elasticsearch, cloud providers, etc.), reducing lock-in.
- **Remote-First Culture**: 100% remote, global team – enables hiring top talent anywhere and builds a deeply distributed, resilient organization.

## Strategic Focus
- **Full-Stack Observability for the “Agentic Era”**: Expanding from traditional monitoring to cover AI/LLM workloads, real‑time decision systems, and incident management.
- **Simplify SaaS Economics**: CEO Raj Dutt emphasizes reimagining pricing and scalability to reduce complexity for customers.
- **Continued Open-Source Innovation**: Ship constantly, release early and often, and maintain community leadership.
- **Enterprise Scale**: Grow enterprise sales and partner ecosystem (cloud providers, system integrators) while retaining developer‑first DNA.

## Why Work Here
- **100% Remote**: “We hold ourselves responsible for outcomes not hours or location.” $175/month co‑working space reimbursement.
- **Generous Time Off**: 30 days paid vacation + national holidays + sick leave + company shutdown days.
- **Global Benefits**: Health coverage/stipends in US, UK, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Australia, India, Singapore. Retirement plan contributions (multi‑country). Paid parental leave.
- **Growth & Development**: $1,500 annual learning stipend, thousands of on‑demand courses, conference/training support.
- **Empowered Culture**: Top 5% employee engagement score (2025). Principles: “Default to transparency,” “Seek diverse perspectives,” “Help each other thrive.” Employees choose their own laptop/tech stack, refreshed every 3 years.
- **Mindfulness & Support**: Free Calm subscription; confidential Employee Assistance Program (24/7/365).
- **Interview Process**: Practical, transparent – recruiter chat, hiring manager conversations, role‑relevant challenge (no trick questions), and values alignment. Designed to be respectful of your time.

## Sources
1. [Grafana Careers Page](https://grafana.com/careers/)
2. [Grafana Homepage](https://grafana.com/)
3. [LinkedIn Company Profile](https://www.linkedin.com/company/grafana-labs)
4. [Grafana Job Board (Greenhouse)](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/grafanalabs)

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