Observability Architect

Job Title: Observability Architect Location: Troy, NY Job Type: Contract Job Summary We are seeking an experienced Observability Architect to lead enterprise observability initiatives, platform modernization, and operational excellence across hybrid cloud environments. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in observability architecture, Grafana Cloud, OpenTelemetry, AWS, and production support. This role will be responsible for defining enterprise observability standards, improving system reliability, and driving the migration of modern monitoring platforms. Key Responsibilities Observability Strategy & Architecture Lead enterprise observability strategy, architecture, and operational excellence initiatives. Define observability standards, service level objectives (SLOs), service level indicators (SLIs), and enterprise signal models. Design end-to-end observability solutions across infrastructure, applications, and user experience. Drive continuous improvements focused on system reliability, platform health, and operational efficiency. Platform Modernization Lead modernization of enterprise observability platforms. Drive migration to Grafana Cloud and implement scalable observability solutions. Design observability standards for AWS and hybrid cloud environments. Standardize telemetry collection using Grafana Alloy and OpenTelemetry. Develop enterprise monitoring, logging, tracing, dashboarding, and alerting frameworks. Grafana & OpenTelemetry Architect solutions using: Grafana Cloud Grafana Alloy Grafana Mimir Grafana Loki Grafana Tempo Grafana IRM Define instrumentation standards and reusable templates for applications and infrastructure. Design dashboards, alerts, service health monitoring, SLIs, SLOs, and error budget reporting. Ensure telemetry quality, governance, scalability, and consistency across the enterprise. Production Support & Operational Readiness Lead production support readiness and operational planning. Validate monitoring, logging, alerting, and support coverage before production releases. Coordinate incident response, root cause analysis (RCA), and service restoration. Improve Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). Partner with operations teams to enhance platform reliability and supportability. Documentation & Knowledge Management Create and maintain Tier 2 and Tier 3 operational runbooks. Develop operational documentation, standards, templates, and onboarding materials. Promote best practices for observability adoption across engineering and operations teams. Required Qualifications 10+ years of experience in Infrastructure, Cloud, DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), or Observability Architecture. Strong expertise in enterprise observability platforms and monitoring architecture. Hands-on experience with: Grafana Cloud Grafana Alloy OpenTelemetry Grafana Mimir Grafana Loki Grafana Tempo Grafana IRM Experience with Splunk and New Relic. Strong knowledge of AWS cloud services and hybrid infrastructure monitoring. Experience designing dashboards, logging, tracing, monitoring, and alerting solutions. Strong understanding of SLOs, SLIs, telemetry, and distributed tracing. Experience leading production support, incident management, and operational readiness. Knowledge of SQL and Power BI. Excellent communication, documentation, and stakeholder management skills. Preferred Qualifications Experience with enterprise-scale Grafana Cloud migrations. Experience implementing OpenTelemetry standards across large organizations. Knowledge of DevOps, CI/CD, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices. Experience working in large-scale hybrid cloud environments. Relevant cloud or observability certifications are a plus. Apolis