Senior Site Reliability Engineer

Commonwealth Bank
Full_timeAustralia

📍 Job Overview

  • Job Title: Senior Site Reliability Engineer
  • Company: Commonwealth Bank
  • Location: Eveleigh, NSW - 1 Locomotive Street, Australia
  • Job Type: Full-Time, Hybrid (2 days in office per month)
  • Category: DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering
  • Date Posted: June 26, 2025
  • Experience Level: Mid-Senior level (5-10 years)
  • Remote Status: On-site/Hybrid

🚀 Role Summary

  • Drive reliability and performance of Commonwealth Bank's critical systems and applications, ensuring high service standards for millions of customers.
  • Apply software engineering principles to operational services, implementing automation and monitoring capabilities to improve system reliability and performance.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with development teams to define, design, and ship critical infrastructure services, ensuring they meet reliability, performance, and cost-efficiency standards.
  • Lead incident response and post-mortem analysis, designing and implementing secure solutions to prevent future incidents and drive continuous improvement.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role requires a strong background in software engineering and a deep understanding of cloud services, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure as code (IaC) to effectively drive reliability and performance in a large-scale, complex environment.

💻 Primary Responsibilities

  • Design, implement, and maintain scalable, reliable, and secure systems using software engineering principles and best practices.
  • Collaborate with development teams to ensure systems are designed with reliability, performance, and cost-efficiency in mind.
  • Drive automation and monitoring capabilities, improving system reliability, performance, and observability.
  • Lead incident response and post-mortem analysis, driving continuous improvement and minimizing downtime.
  • Mentor and guide junior engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
  • Stay up-to-date with industry trends and emerging technologies, evaluating and implementing new tools and practices as needed.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the hybrid nature of this role, strong communication and collaboration skills are essential to work effectively with both on-site and remote team members.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. Relevant industry experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.

Experience: Proven experience (5-10 years) in software engineering, site reliability engineering, or a similar role, with a strong focus on driving system reliability and performance.

Required Skills:

  • Proficiency in one or more programming languages (e.g., Golang, Python)
  • Experience with CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins, TeamCity) and deployment tools (e.g., Octopus)
  • Proficient in AWS or another cloud offering, with a solid understanding of SRE practices
  • Experience with infrastructure as code (IaC) tools (e.g., CloudFormation, Terraform)
  • Familiarity with observability tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, AWS CloudWatch, Splunk, AppDynamics)
  • Strong knowledge of Linux and PowerShell scripting, with system design thinking
  • Excellent communication and problem-solving skills

Preferred Skills:

  • Experience with incident management tools (e.g., PagerDuty, OpsGenie)
  • Familiarity with containerization (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes) and orchestration tools (e.g., EKS, GKE)
  • Knowledge of networking and security best practices
  • Experience with chaos engineering and fault injection techniques

📝 Enhancement Note: While the job listing does not explicitly mention specific portfolio requirements, candidates should be prepared to showcase their technical skills and accomplishments through relevant projects, code samples, and case studies demonstrating their ability to drive system reliability and performance.

📊 Web Portfolio & Project Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

  • Demonstrate your technical expertise through a portfolio of projects showcasing your ability to design, implement, and maintain reliable and performant systems.
  • Highlight your problem-solving skills by including case studies that illustrate how you've tackled complex challenges and driven continuous improvement.
  • Demonstrate your ability to work collaboratively by including examples of projects where you've collaborated with cross-functional teams to deliver reliable and efficient systems.

Technical Documentation:

  • Include detailed documentation for your projects, explaining the design choices, trade-offs, and lessons learned.
  • Showcase your understanding of system design principles by including diagrams and architecture overviews.
  • Demonstrate your commitment to code quality by including code comments, version control history, and test cases.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the senior nature of this role, candidates should be prepared to discuss their technical decisions, trade-offs, and the outcomes of their projects in detail during the interview process.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: AUD 150,000 - 180,000 per annum (based on industry standards for senior site reliability engineers in Australia)

Benefits:

  • Competitive salary and benefits package
  • Flexible work arrangements, including hybrid work options and part-time arrangements
  • Employee share purchase plan and salary packaging options
  • Comprehensive health and wellness programs, including employee assistance programs and discounted private health insurance
  • Learning and development opportunities, including access to online learning platforms and professional development programs

Working Hours: Full-time (40 hours per week), with flexible working hours and the option to work from home for part of the week.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is an estimate based on industry standards for senior site reliability engineers in Australia. The actual salary may vary depending on the candidate's experience, skills, and the company's internal salary structure.

🎯 Team & Company Context

Company Culture:

  • Industry: Financial services
  • Company Size: Large (over 50,000 employees)
  • Founded: 1911
  • Team Structure: The SRE team works closely with development teams to ensure systems meet reliability, performance, and cost-efficiency standards. The team is structured with senior, mid-level, and junior engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth.
  • Development Methodology: Agile/Scrum methodologies are used, with a focus on collaboration, continuous integration, and delivery.

Company Website: https://www.commbank.com.au/

📝 Enhancement Note: As a large, established organization, Commonwealth Bank offers a structured and supportive work environment with clear career progression paths and opportunities for professional development.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Web Technology Career Level: Senior Site Reliability Engineer - Responsible for driving system reliability and performance, leading incident response, and mentoring junior engineers. This role requires a deep understanding of software engineering principles, cloud services, and infrastructure as code (IaC).

Reporting Structure: This role reports directly to the SRE Manager and works closely with development teams, infrastructure teams, and other stakeholders to ensure systems meet reliability, performance, and cost-efficiency standards.

Technical Impact: Senior Site Reliability Engineers play a critical role in ensuring the reliability and performance of Commonwealth Bank's critical systems and applications, directly impacting the user experience for millions of customers.

Growth Opportunities:

  • Technical Leadership: Proven senior engineers may have the opportunity to take on technical leadership roles, driving strategic decisions and mentoring other engineers.
  • Specialization: Engineers may choose to specialize in specific areas, such as chaos engineering, observability, or infrastructure as code (IaC).
  • Career Progression: High-performing engineers may have the opportunity to progress to principal or staff engineer roles, driving technical strategy and innovation across the organization.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the large size and established nature of Commonwealth Bank, there are numerous opportunities for career growth and development within the organization.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Modern, collaborative office spaces with state-of-the-art technology and amenities, designed to foster innovation and collaboration.

Office Location(s): Eveleigh, NSW - 1 Locomotive Street, Australia

Workspace Context:

  • Collaborative workspace with dedicated areas for team meetings, brainstorming sessions, and quiet work.
  • State-of-the-art technology including multiple monitors, high-speed internet, and access to relevant software tools.
  • Flexible work arrangements with the option to work from home for part of the week.

Work Schedule: Full-time (40 hours per week), with flexible working hours and the option to work from home for part of the week.

📝 Enhancement Note: As a hybrid role, candidates should be comfortable working both independently and collaboratively, with a strong focus on communication and time management.

📄 Application & Technical Interview Process

Interview Process:

  1. Online Assessment: A short online assessment to evaluate your technical skills and problem-solving abilities.
  2. Technical Phone Screen: A phone or video call to discuss your technical background, experience, and career aspirations.
  3. On-site Technical Interview: A face-to-face interview at the Eveleigh office, focusing on your technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and cultural fit. This may include a coding challenge, system design discussion, and a presentation of your portfolio.
  4. Final Interview: A meeting with the hiring manager or a panel of stakeholders to discuss your fit for the role and the team, as well as any remaining questions or concerns.

Portfolio Review Tips:

  • Highlight your technical accomplishments through a portfolio of projects that demonstrate your ability to drive system reliability and performance.
  • Include detailed documentation for your projects, explaining the design choices, trade-offs, and lessons learned.
  • Showcase your ability to work collaboratively by including examples of projects where you've collaborated with cross-functional teams to deliver reliable and efficient systems.

Technical Challenge Preparation:

  • Brush up on your software engineering fundamentals, including data structures, algorithms, and coding best practices.
  • Familiarize yourself with cloud services and infrastructure as code (IaC) tools, as well as observability tools and incident management processes.
  • Practice system design principles and prepare for system design discussions, focusing on scalability, availability, and performance.

ATS Keywords: (Organized by category)

  • Programming Languages: Golang, Python, Bash, PowerShell
  • Cloud Services: AWS, EC2, RDS, CloudFormation, Terraform
  • CI/CD Tools: Jenkins, TeamCity, Octopus
  • Observability Tools: Prometheus, Grafana, AWS CloudWatch, Splunk, AppDynamics
  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC): CloudFormation, Terraform
  • Incident Management Tools: PagerDuty, OpsGenie
  • Containerization & Orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes, EKS, GKE
  • System Design Principles: Scalability, Availability, Performance, Fault Tolerance, Chaos Engineering
  • Soft Skills: Communication, Problem-Solving, Collaboration, Leadership, Mentoring
  • Industry Terms: Site Reliability Engineering, SRE, Infrastructure as Code, IaC, Cloud Services, Observability, Incident Management

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the competitive nature of the job market for senior site reliability engineers, candidates should focus on tailoring their resume and portfolio to highlight their technical accomplishments, problem-solving abilities, and cultural fit.

🛠 Technology Stack & Web Infrastructure

Programming Languages:

  • Golang
  • Python
  • Bash
  • PowerShell

Cloud Services:

  • AWS (Amazon Web Services)
    • EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
    • RDS (Relational Database Service)
    • CloudFormation
    • AWS Lambda
    • AWS Step Functions

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Tools:

  • CloudFormation
  • Terraform

CI/CD Tools:

  • Jenkins
  • TeamCity
  • Octopus

Observability Tools:

  • Prometheus
  • Grafana
  • AWS CloudWatch
  • Splunk
  • AppDynamics

Incident Management Tools:

  • PagerDuty
  • OpsGenie

Containerization & Orchestration:

  • Docker
  • Kubernetes
  • Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service)
  • Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

Monitoring & Logging Tools:

  • ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana)
  • Datadog
  • New Relic

📝 Enhancement Note: While the job listing does not explicitly mention all of these tools, they are commonly used in large-scale, enterprise environments and are relevant to the role of a senior site reliability engineer.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Web Development Values:

  • Reliability: Ensuring systems are highly available, scalable, and performant.
  • Collaboration: Working closely with development teams to define, design, and ship critical infrastructure services.
  • Continuous Improvement: Driving incident response, post-mortem analysis, and learning from failures to minimize downtime and improve system performance.
  • Customer Focus: Understanding and addressing the needs of Commonwealth Bank's customers, ensuring systems meet their expectations for reliability, performance, and ease of use.

Collaboration Style:

  • Cross-functional collaboration with development teams, infrastructure teams, and other stakeholders to ensure systems meet reliability, performance, and cost-efficiency standards.
  • Code review and pair programming to ensure code quality, knowledge sharing, and continuous learning.
  • Mentoring and knowledge sharing to foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

📝 Enhancement Note: As a large, established organization, Commonwealth Bank places a strong emphasis on collaboration, knowledge sharing, and continuous learning, with a focus on driving reliability, performance, and customer satisfaction.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Technical Challenges:

  • Scaling systems to meet the demands of millions of customers, ensuring high availability, performance, and cost-efficiency.
  • Managing complex, multi-tier architectures and ensuring seamless integration between systems.
  • Implementing and managing infrastructure as code (IaC) pipelines, automating deployment and configuration processes.
  • Driving observability and improving system monitoring, logging, and alerting capabilities.
  • Leading incident response and post-mortem analysis, driving continuous improvement and minimizing downtime.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

  • Technical skill development through online learning platforms, professional development programs, and on-the-job training.
  • Career progression through internal promotions, role changes, or transfers to other teams or business units.
  • Networking and community involvement through participation in industry events, conferences, and user groups.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the large size and established nature of Commonwealth Bank, there are numerous opportunities for technical growth, career progression, and professional development within the organization.

💡 Interview Preparation

Technical Questions:

  • System design principles and trade-offs, focusing on scalability, availability, and performance.
  • Incident management and response processes, including post-mortem analysis and learning from failures.
  • Observability tools and techniques, including monitoring, logging, and alerting strategies.
  • Infrastructure as code (IaC) tools and processes, including deployment automation and configuration management.
  • Cloud services and architecture, focusing on AWS or another relevant cloud provider.

Company & Culture Questions:

  • Commonwealth Bank's digital transformation and the role of site reliability engineering in driving reliability, performance, and customer satisfaction.
  • Agile methodologies and their application to site reliability engineering, focusing on collaboration, continuous integration, and delivery.
  • Customer-centric design and the importance of understanding and addressing the needs of Commonwealth Bank's customers.
  • Diversity, inclusion, and flexibility at Commonwealth Bank, focusing on work-life balance, flexible work arrangements, and employee well-being.

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

  • Highlight your technical accomplishments through a portfolio of projects that demonstrate your ability to drive system reliability and performance.
  • Include detailed documentation for your projects, explaining the design choices, trade-offs, and lessons learned.
  • Showcase your ability to work collaboratively by including examples of projects where you've collaborated with cross-functional teams to deliver reliable and efficient systems.
  • Prepare for technical deep dives into your projects, focusing on system design principles, incident management processes, and observability tools and techniques.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the competitive nature of the job market for senior site reliability engineers, candidates should focus on tailoring their resume, portfolio, and interview preparation to highlight their technical accomplishments, problem-solving abilities, and cultural fit.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this senior site reliability engineer position at Commonwealth Bank:

  1. Submit your application through the application link provided on the job listing.
  2. Tailor your resume to highlight your technical accomplishments, problem-solving abilities, and cultural fit, using relevant keywords and examples.
  3. Prepare your portfolio to showcase your ability to drive system reliability and performance, including detailed documentation, case studies, and examples of collaborative projects.
  4. Research Commonwealth Bank and its digital transformation initiatives, focusing on the role of site reliability engineering in driving reliability, performance, and customer satisfaction.
  5. Prepare for the technical interview by brushing up on your software engineering fundamentals, cloud services, infrastructure as code (IaC) tools, observability tools, and incident management processes.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and senior site reliability engineering industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

Application Requirements

Candidates should have hands-on experience in software engineering and familiarity with CI-CD tools and cloud services. They must also be skilled in code review, incident response, and system performance optimization.