Incident Manager

Cockroach Labs•San Mateo, CA

1d•$111,000 - $147,000•Hybrid

About The Position

As an Incident Manager at Cockroach Labs, you will lead the coordination and resolution of incidents across internal systems, CockroachDB Cloud, customer-hosted environments, and security/compliance events in the NA region. You will drive structured response efforts, partner with cross-functional teams to identify root causes, and help prevent recurrence in an environment where the pace is fast and the bar is high. To be eligible for this role, you must be located in the Pacific time zone.

Requirements

5+ years of experience in technical operations, SRE, support, or incident management roles, including at least 2 years of direct Incident Management experience leading high-severity incidents.
Prior experience working in a highly technical, fast-paced environment such as a cloud infrastructure, SaaS, or enterprise software company.
Working knowledge of AI-assisted tools and the ability to apply them effectively to incident analysis, documentation, and process improvement.
Strong troubleshooting and analytical skills in a 24x7 operational environment.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences.
Working knowledge of AI-assisted tools and the ability to apply them effectively to incident analysis, documentation, and process improvement.
Ability to remain calm and structured during high-pressure situations.
Proven ability to assume command during high-severity incidents, bringing structure, clarity, and decisive direction in fast-moving, ambiguous situations
Flexibility in working hours to support business needs, including participation in an on-call rotation coverage.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading incident response calls and driving cross-team coordination.
Strong influencing skills when working across teams without direct authority.
Familiarity with IT service management principles (ITIL, Incident, Change, Problem Management).
Experience with incident management tooling.
Exposure to security or compliance-related incident response.
Basic scripting skills (Bash, Python, JavaScript) to support operational improvements.
Relevant technical or ITIL certifications.

Responsibilities

Manage the full lifecycle of incidents from detection through resolution, ensuring adherence to established incident management processes.
Lead and coordinate cross-functional response efforts to drive timely and effective incident resolution.
Declare and escalate high-severity incidents, mobilizing appropriate stakeholders and leadership as needed.
Serve as an escalation point for critical incidents and support crisis response activities.
Lead structured root cause analysis and post-incident reviews, ensuring actionable follow-up items are identified.
Track corrective actions to completion to reduce repeat incidents.
Provide clear, timely communication to technical and non-technical stakeholders, including customer-facing updates when required.
Contribute to incident metrics tracking (e.g., MTTR, MTTD, recurrence) and support reporting on trends and areas for improvement.
Support ongoing improvements to incident management processes, documentation, and tooling.
Participate in a rotational on-call schedule to ensure 24x7 coverage for high-severity incidents.