At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and scale observability systems, build monitoring tools, and empower dev teams.
- Company: YouLend is an award-winning fintech recognised for its supportive and diverse workplace.
- Benefits: Enjoy stock options, private medical insurance, enhanced leave, and a modern office with gym access.
- Why this job: Join a culture of reliability and innovation, focusing on meaningful alerts and elegant dashboards.
- Qualifications: Experience with observability tools, Kubernetes, and infrastructure as code is essential.
- Other info: This role is not traditional; it's all about system behaviour in production.
The predicted salary is between 36000 - 60000 ÂŁ per year.
About Us
YouLend is a rapidly growing FinTech that is the preferred embedded financing platform for many of the world’s leading e-commerce platforms, tech companies, and Payment Service Providers. Our software platform enables our partners to extend their value proposition by offering flexible financing products in their own branding, to their merchant base, without capital at risk.
We are owned by the leading Private Equity company, EQT, and have grown +100% year-on-year since 2020. We are headquartered in London, UK, but are also present in several European countries as well as the United States where we service our partners, including eBay, Amazon, Just Eat, Shopify, and Stripe.
The Role
We’re building a world-class Observability function, and we’re looking for someone who lives for uptime, meaningful alerts, and elegant dashboards. If you’ve ever been on-call, silenced a noisy monitor, or traced a ghost bug across microservices outside core hour – we want to hear from you!
This isn’t a generic “Platform Engineer” role. You’ll be laser-focused on observability, reliability, and developer empowerment , working closely with teams to make sure we don’t just know when things break – but why .
Requirements
Responsibilities:
- Designing and scaling on-call systems that engineers don’t dread being part of.
- Building out Datadog monitoring, alerting, dashboards, and log pipelines for our Kubernetes-based environments.
- Defining and managing SLOs, SLIs , and error budgets — and helping teams stick to them.
- Creating scorecards and software catalogs so engineers know what’s healthy, what’s broken, and who owns what.
- Training and enabling dev teams to own their own observability , alerts , and incident response .
- Introducing chaos engineering practices (yes, we want to break things… on purpose).
- Driving a culture of reliability, with incident reviews , shared learnings, and transparency.
The ideal candidate will have the following skillset:
- Have production experience with observability tools (especially Datadog ) in cloud-native environments.
- Have set up monitoring and alerting across Kubernetes services.
- Have built or scaled on-call systems in startups or large-scale environments.
- Know how to reduce alert fatigue and love a good MTTR chart.
- Have experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform preferred).
- Believe that great developer experience includes clear visibility and ownership .
- Are curious about — or already practicing — chaos engineering .
- Have knowledge of our stack: AWS (EKS, Lambda, etc.), Datadog, OpenTelemetry, Terraform, Kubernetes (EKS), Fluent Bit, FireLens, Backstage (or custom)
Desirable:
- Experience with OpenTelemetry , Fluent Bit , or similar.
- Familiarity with service catalog tooling (e.g., Backstage).
- Comfortable running or facilitating game days or failure drills .
- Prior involvement in setting up scorecards for service health.
Benefits
Why join YouLend?
- Award-Winning Workplace: YouLend has been recognised as one of the “Best Places to Work in 2024 and 2025” by the Sunday Times for being a supportive, diverse, and rewarding workplace.
- Award-Winning Fintech: YouLend has been recognised as a “Top 250 Fintech Worldwide” company by CNBC.
It’s just getting fun:
- We have developed powerful solutions, won some significant partnerships, and are growing at a rapid pace.
- But the global opportunity is still massive, and YouLend is a raw organisation where we are only just getting started.
Lots of upsides:
- High-growth (>100% growth during 2022 and 2023), so clear outlook to compensation (bonus or share option appreciation) and career growth (through growth with business).
- Well-capitalised with supportive private equity backing.
- Part of Banking Circle Group with a fully licensed Luxembourg bank, which can provide a balance sheet and support European expansion in otherwise complex regulated markets.
Motivating work environment:
- A high-quality team that pushes each other to succeed through direct feedback and aligned incentives.
- Strong and transparent team culture, we have each other’s backs.
- Independent work environment where results matter.
- Data-driven culture and emphasis on speed (anti-red tape).
We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes:
- Stock Options
- Private Medical insurance via Vitality and Dental Insurance with BUPA
- EAP with Health Assured
- Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Leave
- Modern and sophisticated office space in Central London
- Free Gym in office building in Holborn
- Subsidised Lunch via Feedr
- Deliveroo Allowance if working late in office
- Monthly in office Masseuse
- Team and Company Socials
- Football Power League / Paddle and Yoga Club
At YouLend, we champion diversity and embrace equal opportunity employment practices. Our hiring, transfer, and promotion decisions are exclusively based on qualifications, merit, and business requirements, free from any discrimination based on race, gender, age, disability, religion, nationality, or any other protected basis under applicable law.
Observability Platform Engineer (SRE Focus) employer: YouLend
Contact Detail:
YouLend Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land Observability Platform Engineer (SRE Focus)
✨Tip Number 1
Familiarise yourself with Datadog and other observability tools mentioned in the job description. Having hands-on experience or even personal projects showcasing your skills with these tools can set you apart from other candidates.
✨Tip Number 2
Engage with the community around chaos engineering and observability. Join forums, attend meetups, or participate in online discussions to demonstrate your passion and knowledge in these areas, which will resonate well with our team.
✨Tip Number 3
Prepare to discuss specific examples of how you've improved on-call systems or reduced alert fatigue in previous roles. Real-world scenarios will showcase your problem-solving skills and understanding of the challenges faced in observability.
✨Tip Number 4
Research our company culture and values, especially around reliability and developer empowerment. Tailoring your conversation to align with our mission will show that you're not just looking for any job, but are genuinely interested in being part of our team.
We think you need these skills to ace Observability Platform Engineer (SRE Focus)
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your CV: Make sure your CV highlights your experience with observability tools, particularly Datadog, and any relevant cloud-native environments. Emphasise your production experience and any specific projects that showcase your skills in monitoring and alerting.
Craft a Compelling Cover Letter: In your cover letter, share your passion for observability and reliability. Mention specific instances where you've improved on-call systems or reduced alert fatigue. This is your chance to show how you align with the company's mission and culture.
Showcase Relevant Projects: If you've worked on notable projects involving chaos engineering or built scorecards for service health, include these in your application. Providing concrete examples will demonstrate your hands-on experience and problem-solving abilities.
Highlight Soft Skills: Since this role involves training and enabling development teams, be sure to mention your communication and collaboration skills. Discuss any experiences where you've facilitated learning or driven a culture of reliability within a team.
How to prepare for a job interview at YouLend
✨Show Your Passion for Observability
Make sure to express your enthusiasm for observability and reliability during the interview. Share specific examples of how you've improved uptime, created meaningful alerts, or designed elegant dashboards in your previous roles.
✨Demonstrate Your Technical Skills
Be prepared to discuss your experience with tools like Datadog, Kubernetes, and Terraform. Highlight any projects where you set up monitoring and alerting systems, and be ready to explain your approach to reducing alert fatigue.
✨Discuss Chaos Engineering Experience
If you have experience with chaos engineering, make sure to bring it up! Talk about any game days or failure drills you've facilitated, and how these practices have contributed to a culture of reliability in your past teams.
✨Prepare Questions About Team Dynamics
Since this role involves working closely with development teams, prepare thoughtful questions about how they currently handle observability and incident response. This shows your interest in collaboration and understanding their processes.