Solution Architect - Observability

Blackhawk Network • Pleasanton, CA

2d • $138,140 - $186,500 • Hybrid

About The Position

Blackhawk Network is seeking an exceptional Solution Architect- Observability to design and scale our enterprise observability capabilities. This role combines deep technical expertise in modern observability platforms with a strong architectural mindset, enabling you to define how observability is implemented across our systems and engineering practices. This role is a true observability solution architect position, where you will define how observability is designed, implemented, and scaled across the organization. You will not only select and configure tools but also shape the architecture, standards, and design patterns that guide how systems are instrumented and monitored. You will influence how hundreds of engineers approach system reliability and performance through thoughtful architecture and reusable solutions.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• 6+ years of experience in platform engineering, SRE, DevOps, or solution architecture roles
• Proven experience designing and implementing large-scale observability architectures in production environments
• Expertise with modern observability platforms such as New Relic, Splunk, Datadog, or Coralogix
• Strong understanding of distributed systems and cloud-native architectures, preferably in AWS
• Hands-on experience with observability pipelines and frameworks such as OpenTelemetry, Fluentd, Vector, or Logstash
• Experience integrating observability into CI/CD pipelines and developer workflows
• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence and guide technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Deep understanding of observability pillars: metrics, logs, traces, and events
• Experience designing instrumentation strategies using APM agents and OpenTelemetry
• Familiarity with query languages such as PromQL, SPL, NRQL, or LogQL
• Expertise in building dashboards and visualization strategies for operational insights

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the overall observability architecture vision aligned with business and platform goals
• Design end-to-end observability solutions across microservices, distributed systems, and AWS cloud environments
• Architect scalable telemetry pipelines for metrics, logs, traces, and events using tools such as New Relic, Splunk, Coralogix, and CloudWatch
• Establish reference architectures, design patterns, and standards to ensure consistent implementation across teams
• Ensure observability solutions are scalable, cost-efficient, and compliant with security and regulatory requirements
• Integrate observability into platform services, internal developer platforms, and CI/CD pipelines
• Partner with engineering, product, and SRE teams to design observability solutions aligned with application and domain needs
• Act as a solution architect and consultant, guiding teams on instrumentation strategies and monitoring design
• Translate business and operational requirements into scalable observability architectures
• Create reusable architecture artifacts, documentation, and implementation blueprints
• Lead design reviews and provide hands-on guidance for complex observability challenges
• Enable teams with self-service observability capabilities while maintaining governance and standards
• Define and enforce observability standards, governance models, and best practices across the organization
• Drive improvements in mean time to detection and mean time to resolution through architectural improvements
• Evaluate emerging tools and technologies to evolve observability capabilities
• Collaborate across platform, SRE, and DevOps teams to embed observability into the software development lifecycle
• Mentor engineers and influence system design decisions across multiple teams and domains

Benefits

• 401k with employer match
• medical
• dental
• vision
• 12 paid holidays in the year 2026
• 1 hour of sick pay accrual for every 30 hours worked
• parental leave
• life insurance
• disability insurance
• accident and illness insurance
• health and dependent care flexible spending accounts
• wellness benefits
• flexible time off for all full-time employees

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Associate degree