At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the future of observability in global finance and drive innovative engineering solutions.
- Company: Join Citi, a leader in redefining global finance with cutting-edge technology.
- Benefits: Enjoy 27 days annual leave, private medical care, and a competitive salary.
- Other info: Flexible hybrid work model and continuous learning opportunities await you.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on global markets while growing your career in a dynamic environment.
- Qualifications: Experience in SRE and observability tools like Grafana and Prometheus is essential.
The predicted salary is between 70000 - 90000 £ per year.
Engineer the future of global finance. At Citi, our Tech team doesn’t just support finance – we are helping to redefine it. Every day, $5 trillion crosses through our network. We do business in 180+ countries operating at a scale few can match. From deploying advanced AI to helping shape global markets, we build systems that matter. Look to join a team where your work helps influence economies, your ideas can drive innovation and outcomes, and your growth is backed by mentorship, continuous learning and flexibility with potential hybrid work opportunities. Help solve real-world challenges that touch millions and get the opportunity to build the future of finance with Citi Tech.
The SRE Observability Specialist is a hands‑on expert, delivering the future of Observability across Services Technology. This role is a part of a central SRE enablement team within Services Production, working closely with SREs, developers, and platform teams to embed telemetry, implement SLOs, and build meaningful visualizations for key production flows — particularly in critical Payments Business. The ideal candidate will have deep technical knowledge, a collaborative mindset, and the ability to translate strategy into scalable engineering outcomes. You will also act as a bridge between Services Technology teams and central infrastructure/CTO teams, prioritising observability needs from line‑of‑business teams and driving improvements. A strong understanding of observability tooling, evolving AI/ML capabilities, and enterprise tooling ecosystems will be essential.
This role requires providing a technological support solution for Project Orion which provides end‑to‑end payment monitoring like building an end‑to‑end payments dashboard, toil reduction, transformation of legacy monitoring into an observability‑based monitoring solution, requiring good understanding of different payments taxonomy (ACH, wires, instant payments, etc.). Strong commercial awareness, technical credibility, and excellent communication skills are essential to negotiate internally, influence peers, and drive change. Some external communication may be necessary.
Key Responsibilities- Define the roadmap for Engineering enablers for Project Orion team aligned with enterprise reliability and SRE Services organization goals.
- Translate organization strategy into an actionable delivery plan in partnership with Services Products, Operations & Engineering functions, delivering incremental, high‑value milestones.
- Understand critical business services functional scope and translate into end‑to‑end monitoring solutions.
- Deliver against the observability roadmap for Services Technology by building scalable, reusable telemetry solutions.
- Periodic review and analyse application monitoring toil and collaborate with stakeholders and remediate them as per organization goal.
- Create and maintain dashboards and visualisations for critical client journeys, including real‑time flows across payments.
- Guide line‑of‑business teams in implementing SLIs/SLOs, golden signals, and effective alerting to support operational excellence.
- Support integration and adoption of observability tooling across on‑prem, public cloud (AWS/GCP), and containerised environments (ECS, Kubernetes).
- Customise shared dashboards and observability components in partnership with CTI and other central engineering functions, ensuring usability and flexibility.
- Provide technical support and implementation guidance to SREs and developers facing integration or tooling challenges.
- Effectively manage the observability book of work for Services Technology and drive initiatives to reduce MTTD and improve recovery outcomes.
- Serve as a key connection point between line‑of‑business SREs and central infrastructure functions by gathering tooling feedback, surfacing systemic issues, and influencing platform enhancements via the Services Observability Forum.
- Stay current with observability trends, including AI/ML‑driven insights, anomaly detection, and emerging OSS practices, and assess their applicability.
- Maintain strong knowledge of observability platform features and vendor offerings to advise teams and maximise the value of tooling investments.
- Foster AI adoption by building use cases performed by Orion L1 functions and remediation using Citi AI tech stack.
- Experience in SRE, observability engineering, or platform infrastructure roles focused on operational telemetry.
- Hands‑on experience in observability tools and stacks such as Grafana, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, ELK, Splunk, and similar platforms.
- Deep understanding of SLIs, SLOs, error budgets, and telemetry best practices in high‑availability environments.
- Proven ability to troubleshoot integration issues and support observability across hybrid platforms (on‑prem, cloud, containers).
- Experience building dashboards aligned to business outcomes and incident workflows, especially in critical flows like payments.
- Familiarity with modern observability tooling ecosystems, including AI/ML capabilities, trace correlation, baselining, and alert tuning.
- Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills — able to operate across federated engineering teams and central infrastructure groups.
- Experience in enablement or platform teams with a track record of scaling best practices across diverse business units.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
By joining Citi, you will not only be part of a business casual workplace with a hybrid working model (up to 2 days working at home per week), but also receive a competitive base salary (which is annually reviewed), and enjoy a whole host of additional benefits such as:
- 27 days annual leave (plus bank holidays)
- A discretionary annual performance‑related bonus
- Private medical care & life insurance
- Employee assistance programme
- Pension plan
- Paid parental leave
- Special discounts for employees, family, and friends
- Access to an array of learning and development resources
Citi is an equal‑opportunity employer, and qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to their race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you are a person with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to use our search tools and/or apply for a career opportunity review Accessibility at Citi.
SRE Observability Technical Lead - Vice President in Belfast employer: Citigroup, Inc.
Citi is an exceptional employer that fosters a dynamic and inclusive work culture, offering employees the chance to engineer the future of global finance while enjoying a competitive salary and extensive benefits. With a strong emphasis on mentorship, continuous learning, and flexible hybrid work options, team members are empowered to drive innovation and influence economies on a global scale. The opportunity to work with cutting-edge technology in a collaborative environment ensures meaningful career growth and the ability to tackle real-world challenges that impact millions.
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We think this is how you could land SRE Observability Technical Lead - Vice President in Belfast
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Create a personal project or case study relevant to the challenges Citigroup, Inc. might face. Use platforms like GitHub or Medium to share your findings. This not only demonstrates our consulting skills but shows a proactive attitude, making us stand out from the crowd when applying for that full-time gig.
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We think you need these skills to ace SRE Observability Technical Lead - Vice President in Belfast
Some tips for your application 🫡
Showcase Your Problem-Solving Skills:In IT consulting, it's all about problem-solving, so make sure your CV highlights your analytical skills and any relevant projects you've tackled. Mention specific technologies or methodologies you've used to resolve issues or improve processes; this shows you can think critically and deliver results, which is vital for us at Citigroup, Inc..
Highlight Relevant Certifications:Certifications like ITIL, PMP, or even specific tech stack qualifications can really make you stand out. Make sure to include these in your CV, as they not only demonstrate your expertise but also your commitment to staying current in the field. We love seeing candidates who are proactive about their professional development!
Tailor Your Cover Letter:Your cover letter is your chance to connect personally with us at Citigroup, Inc.. Share stories about your experiences in IT consulting, and how they shaped your desire to join our team. Mention why you’re excited about this particular role, and how you see yourself contributing to our projects.
Keep It Clear and Concise:We're all busy, so make sure your application is easy to read. Use bullet points for key achievements, and don’t overload us with jargon. A clean, professional layout goes a long way. Remember, the clearer your application, the more likely we are to invite you in for an interview!
How to prepare for a job interview at Citigroup, Inc.
✨Brush Up on Your Technical Skills
For an IT consulting role, be ready to demonstrate your technical prowess. You might face questions on systems integration, cloud technologies, or even troubleshooting specific software. If you have experience with tools like AWS, Azure, or even specific programming languages, make sure you can talk about them fluently.
✨Showcase Your Problem-Solving Approach
IT consulting is all about solving problems for clients. Think about how you can illustrate your approach to a past challenge using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result). It's a great way to show how you tackle complex issues and come up with effective solutions.
✨Know the Business Impact of IT Solutions
When discussing your experiences, focus not just on the tech solutions you implemented, but also on their business impact. Employers want to see that you can connect IT with organisational goals. Prep examples that highlight how your tech contributions improved efficiency or reduced costs for past clients or projects.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
Since IT consulting often involves teamwork and client interactions, expect behavioural questions that assess your interpersonal skills. Be prepared with examples that demonstrate your adaptability, communication skills, and how you handle client feedback. Before the interview, think of situations where you worked closely with clients to create effective IT strategies or changes.
