Staff Site Reliability Operations Engineer

Welcome to Warner Bros. Discovery… the stuff dreams are made of.

Who We Are…

When we say, “the stuff dreams are made of,” we’re not just referring to the world of wizards, dragons and superheroes, or even to the wonders of Planet Earth. Behind WBD’s vast portfolio of iconic content and beloved brands, are the storytellers bringing our characters to life, the creators bringing them to your living rooms and the dreamers creating what’s next…

From brilliant creatives, to technology trailblazers, across the globe, WBD offers career defining opportunities, thoughtfully curated benefits, and the tools to explore and grow into your best selves. Here you are supported, here you are celebrated, here you can thrive.

Staff Site Reliability Operations Specialist

About Us

When we say, “the stuff dreams are made of,” we’re not just referring to the world of wizards, dragons and superheroes, or even to the wonders of Planet Earth. Behind WBD’s vast portfolio of iconic content and beloved brands, are the storytellers bringing our characters to life, the creators bringing them to your living rooms and the dreamers creating what’s next…

From brilliant creatives to technology trailblazers, across the globe, WBD offers career defining opportunities, thoughtfully curated benefits, and the tools to explore and grow into your best selves. Here you are supported, here you are celebrated, here you can thrive.

Job Summary

The Site Reliability Operations (SRO) is a global team which is part of the wider Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) department who are responsible for global technology reliability and operations across Warner Bros. Discovery’s Streaming platforms.

SRO is the first point of contact for technical and operational issues within Warner Bros. Discovery’s Streaming division. The SRO teams are responsible for initiating the major incident process, triaging technical problems, conducting content QC validations and action mitigations where applicable, to provide our streaming customers a best-in-class service.

The Staff Site Reliability Operations Specialist role supports an extensive suite of Live, VOD, OTT/Digital Playout via client applications. You will report to the Operations Manager and be part of a 24/7 team of other Specialists.

You will focus on the overall stability of our streaming systems including both VOD and Live content on TNT Sports, Eurosport, Discovery Plus, HBO MAX, and CNN brands. Think Olympics, Premier League, Champions League, Tennis Grand Slams and Tour de France as a start. You will also learn about our Cloud infrastructure and help support our major VOD (White Lotus, Euphoria, House of Dragon) and market launch releases.

This is a fast-paced, ever-evolving role, which is required to provide key support for the Operations Managers, running and participating in major Incidents, chairing and managing some of WBD’s key event bridges, but also being the main ‘Go To’ for more junior Specialists and Operations Managers. You must be able to cope well under pressure and provide mentoring to the rest of the team.

The position requires you to be on-site and is a shift based role, requiring flexibility with working hours as weekends and public holidays are some of our busiest times. For major events/launches, you may be required to work overnight. You will be working as part of a unified team, which consists of members from multiple disciplines. You'll be monitoring quality of service, quality of experience and non-linear output, as well as supporting digital OTT cloud infrastructure.

You will be expected to use your operational analytics and incident management skills to provide support for all issue areas, working with support teams/engineers for a swift resolution to any technical issues. You will also be expected to support and educate your team members about new processes, while independently keeping your technical know-how up to date.

Having a versatile personality and technical skillset, with the ability to stay focused and continually develop is key to being successful in this role. Successful candidates for this role need to have prior experience in leading difficult situations, staying calm, reacting quickly under pressure, and being able to execute the key responsibilities noted below.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the initial point of escalation for the team, for all technical issues/queries.
• Aid and occasionally handle major incidents across all of WBD’s Digital. platforms, in line with the department’s major incident management process.
• Initiate correction of error/root cause analysis reports following every qualifying major incident and/or recurring issue, engage relevant internal/external stakeholders for their input, where applicable, and identify action items i.e. drive the report from start to finish, before submission for leadership review.
• Lead daily team stand-ups, and coordinate support for the day’s live events, as well as upcoming infra/client platforms and deployments/releases.
• Prepare and send out relevant end of day status reports.
• Ensure all logged incidents and client/production team queries are dealt with accordingly, within agreed SLAs daily.
• Work alongside managers, business analysts, and DevOps to drive continual team process and skills improvement, from feedback and analysis.
• Act as a super-user for new application/process onboardings, prepare detailed and clear documentation, and then offload knowledge/process to the rest of the team.
• Assist Operations Managers in defining, documenting and maintaining the team’s daily tasks/housekeeping.
• Deputise for Operations Manager when required.
• Lead and represent the team in internal/external stakeholder meetings, be it regular service reviews or projects.
• Ensure team/department process and support documentation is kept up to date, including the knowledge base.
• Carry out/oversee training for new starters/hires, as well as provide coaching/mentoring for Analysts/Junior Analysts.
• Actively contribute to organization wide Operational Excellence initiatives

Qualifications

• Ability to maintain focus in a high-pressure environment. Should thrive in a fast-paced environment, being able to meet short deadlines.
• A clear understanding of OTT Video delivery and EPG/Metadata delivery workflows/pipelines.
• Working knowledge of CDNs (Content Delivery Networks).
• Good understanding of AWS infra or any equivalent cloud infra solutions.
• Working knowledge of infrastructure and application monitoring/alerting applications (APM), such as AWS Cloudwatch, New Relic, Grafana, Splunk, DataDog, or equivalent.
• Experience with QoE/client app monitoring systems such as Conviva, MUX, Firebase, Witbe, or equivalent.
• Good working knowledge of ITIL or AGILE principles.
• Proficient with incident management applications - ServiceNow, JIRA, and PagerDuty (All 3).
• Good written and verbal communication skills. Adept at translating complex technical concepts into meaningful recommendations.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Demonstrates enthusiasm for playing a key role in ensuring departmental deliverables; being highly approachable and available to facilitate on-time delivery.

Salary and Benefits:

• Competitive salary, with annual salary reviews, and annual discretionary performance bonuses.
• Career progression opportunities within our rapidly expanding company.
• Private medical and dental healthcare (regional specific).
• Competitive paid time off (including national holidays).

How We Get Things Done…

This last bit is probably the most important! Here at WBD, our guiding principles are the core values by which we operate and are central to how we get things done. You can find them at www.wbd.com/guiding-principles/ along with some insights from the team on what they mean and how they show up in their day to day. We hope they resonate with you and look forward to discussing them during your interview.

Championing Inclusion at WBD

If you’re a qualified candidate with a disability and you require adjustments or accommodations during the job application and/or recruitment process, please visit our accessibility page for instructions to submit your request.