Staff Operations Engineer

Why Mozilla?

Mozilla Corporation is the non-profit-backed technology company that has shaped the internet for the better over the last 25 years. We make pioneering brands like Firefox, the privacy-minded web browser. Now, with more than 225 million people around the world using our products each month, we’re shaping the next 25 years of technology and helping to reclaim an internet built for people, not companies. Our work focuses on diverse areas including AI, social media, security, and more. And we’re doing this without losing focus on our core mission - to make the internet better for people.

The Mozilla Corporation is wholly owned by the non-profit 501(c) Mozilla Foundation. This means we aren’t beholden to any shareholders - only to our mission. Along with thousands of volunteer contributors and collaborators worldwide, Mozillians design, build, and distribute open-source software that enables people to enjoy the internet on their terms.

About this team and role:

A Staff Operations Engineer leads the design, reliability, and evolution of hybrid-cloud and workplace infrastructure. This senior role spans teams, drives complex initiatives, sets technical direction, and ensures systems are scalable, secure, and efficient.

This role combines technical execution with leadership , shaping architecture both directly and collaboratively.

What you’ll do:

Domain Architecture & Technical Direction

• Own and evolve architecture within a defined infrastructure domain
• Design and implement scalable, reliable systems spanning multiple teams or environments
• Establish and promote best practices, patterns, and standards within the domain
• Contribute to medium- and long-term technical strategy (typically 6-18 months)

Complex Problem Solving & Execution

• Lead delivery of ambiguous, high-impact infrastructure projects
• Break down elaborate system problems into implementable solutions
• Drive migrations, re-architectures, and performance/reliability improvements
• Remain hands-on with critical systems and implementations

Cross-Team Collaboration

• Work across teams (IT, SRE, Security, Service Owners) to unify solutions.
• Influence technical decisions through design reviews and collaboration
• Ensure systems integrate cleanly across infrastructures (office, DC, cloud)

Reliability, Operations & Scaling

• Improve system reliability through monitoring, alerting, and operational design
• Contribute to defining SLIs/SLOs and capacity planning within the domain
• Participate in and lead root cause analysis for complex incidents
• Decrease operational toil through automation and system improvements

Infrastructure & Networking Depth

• Design and support core infrastructure components (compute, DNS, networking, identity, etc.)
• Drive improvements in performance, scalability, and dependability
• Contribute deep expertise in at least one area (e.g., DNS, network architecture, cloud infra)

Automation & Tooling

• Build and improve automation using scripting and Infrastructure as Code
• Contribute to internal tooling and platform improvements
• Promote repeatable, standardized approaches to system management

Mentorship & Technical Guidance

• Mentor engineers and guide system design and troubleshooting
• Raise the technical quality of the team through reviews and shared practices
• Act as a go-to resource within the domain

Documentation & Operational Clarity

• Maintain clear documentation, diagrams, and runbooks for systems owned
• Ensure systems are understandable and operable by others
• Contribute to knowledge sharing across teams

What you’ll bring:

• 6+ years of experience in systems engineering or infrastructure roles
• Strong experience designing and operating production infrastructure
• Solid expertise in:
• VMware
• Cisco UCS
• Application/Network Loadbalancers
• Linux/Unix Operating Systems
• Networking fundamentals (DNS, TCP/IP, routing, firewalls)
• Data center environments
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical work across teams

Preferred Skills

• Experience with Infrastructure as Code
• Puppet/Ansible/etc
• Python
• Familiarity with observability tooling and reliability practices
• Experience with containerization and modern platform tooling
• Exposure to security best practices in infrastructure design

Key Competencies

• Multi-Team Impact : Demonstrate influence and contributions that extend beyond your immediate team. Consistently participate in initiatives that affect infrastructure within your broader domain, and provide support or guidance across multiple teams when necessary.
• Technical Ownership (Scoped) : Take responsibility for systems or architecture within a clearly defined area of the infrastructure. Oversee the health, evolution, and quality of these systems, ensuring alignment with organizational standards.
• Execution Amid Ambiguity : delivers on loosely defined problems with high impact
• Influence Without Authority : drives …