Strategy to Hire a Skilled Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

Your ultimate checklist for how to hire a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE). Includes what to look for while hiring Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), skills to test, capabilities based on experience level, sample questions and a ready-to-use Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) assessment.

g2 review
hero
python 370

Candidates Assessed

Trusted by

LG Logo Ant Group Logo Fortrea Logo HRTech Logo Schlumberger Logo MailerLite Logo Multicoreware Logo Paperflite Logo Hangry Logo
LG Logo Ant Group Logo Fortrea Logo HRTech Logo Schlumberger Logo MailerLite Logo Multicoreware Logo Paperflite Logo Hangry Logo

How to hire a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

Specifications for a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

Deciding on a Tech Stack for a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

To hire a proficient Site Reliability Engineer, focus on these essential technical skills:

  • Systems Engineering: Deep understanding of operating systems, networking, and system design.
  • Programming and Scripting: Proficiency in programming languages like Python, Go, or Ruby for automation scripts and tooling.
  • Cloud Computing: Experience with cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform, including their services and architecture.
  • DevOps Practices: Familiarity with DevOps methodologies, continuous integration (CI), and continuous deployment (CD) processes.
  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Skills in using tools like Terraform, Ansible, or CloudFormation for managing infrastructure.
  • Monitoring and Observability: Experience with tools like Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, or Splunk for system monitoring and logging.
  • Reliability and Incident Management: Knowledge of designing systems for high availability, disaster recovery planning, and efficient incident response.
  • Performance Tuning: Ability to optimize system performance and solve bottlenecks.
  • Security Best Practices: Understanding of security principles and how to apply them in infrastructure and applications.
  • Communication and Collaboration: Strong interpersonal skills to work closely with development teams and stakeholders to ensure reliability and performance goals are met.

Assessing skills of a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

Assessing a Site Reliability Engineer's skills involves reviewing their experience with system architecture and cloud platforms, conducting technical interviews focused on SRE principles and practices, and practical tasks or case studies related to infrastructure automation, monitoring, and incident response. Their approach to problem-solving and collaboration in high-pressure situations is also a critical assessment area.

Concepts your Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) should know based on experience

Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)s assessed using Equip’s assessments

Entry-level Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

233

Mid-senior Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

101

Senior Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

36

What can you do with Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) Assessment on Equip

Add more test types such as video interview, SQL test, CSS test etc

Choose and add from 100+ skills from Equip’s Question Bank

Add your own programming and quiz questions with a Custom Test

About Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

Anjanay S's Profile Picture

Anjanay S

Recruiter
HR Lead
 Crunch's Logo
It just gets the job done!
I liked the Lever integration, UI is easy to understand and the depth of questions for backend (developer) roles. Other platforms like HackerRank are a little expensive. Equip has everything you need for a testing platform.

A Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) specializes in ensuring the reliability, availability, and performance of software systems and services. Originating at Google, the SRE role combines aspects of software engineering with systems engineering to create scalable and highly reliable software systems. SREs focus on automating infrastructure, implementing continuous integration and deployment pipelines, and developing software to improve system reliability and efficiency. They also play a key role in incident management, from monitoring and alerting to conducting post-mortem analyses and implementing preventative measures. SREs work closely with development teams to balance new feature development with system stability, adhering to the principle that reliability is the most critical feature of any system.

1. Importance of Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

  • Ensuring System Reliability: SREs are crucial for maintaining the uptime and reliability of software services, directly impacting user satisfaction and business continuity.
  • Efficiency through Automation: By automating routine tasks and deployments, SREs increase efficiency and reduce the risk of human error.
  • Scalability and Performance: SREs design systems that can scale effectively with demand, ensuring consistent performance under varying loads.
  • Incident Management: Quick and effective incident response minimizes downtime and ensures continuous service availability.
  • Continuous Improvement: SREs focus on continuous learning and system improvement, applying lessons from incidents to prevent future issues.

2. Recent Industry Trends for Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)s

  • Shift to Cloud-Native Technologies: Increased adoption of cloud-native infrastructure and services for agility and scalability.
  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Growing use of IaC tools for managing and provisioning infrastructure through code.
  • Observability and AIOps: Enhanced focus on observability for deeper insights into system behavior and the use of AI for operations for proactive issue resolution.
  • Emphasis on Security: Integrating security practices into the SRE workflow to address increasing cybersecurity threats.
  • Site Reliability Engineering in Non-Tech Industries: Expansion of SRE principles to industries beyond tech, recognizing the importance of reliability in all sectors.

3. Popular Frameworks for Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)s

  • Prometheus and Grafana for monitoring and visualization.
  • Terraform and Ansible for infrastructure automation.
  • Kubernetes for container orchestration and management.
  • GitOps for implementing IaC and CI/CD practices.
  • ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) for logging and observability.

How Equip helps you hire a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

Seamless hiring made easy in 3 simple steps
1
Create & Share assessment
Using Equip's Question Banks, or add your own questions
2
Candidates finish assessment remotely
Typically, 30 mins to 1 hour. With anti-cheating measures
3
Shortlist only the best performing candidates
Equip automatically evaluates candidates' responses

Frequently Asked Questions

Discover the Power of Effective Skills Testing Today!

Get started with Equip and streamline your hiring process | No credit card needed