Software Engineer – Observability, Co-op

About the role

Ancestry is a human-centered company dedicated to connecting people with their pasts. We offer a vast collection of over 65 billion records, support over 3.5 million subscribers, and have a DNA network of over 27 million people. Our commitment to location flexibility allows employees to work from offices, homes, or a combination of both.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the development of AI-powered code transformation tools leveraging foundation models (LLMs) and agentic frameworks to migrate application instrumentation to OpenTelemetry standards across multiple languages (Java, Python, Node.js, .NET) and browser-based Real User Monitoring (RUM).
• Build intelligent parsing and analysis engines using AI agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools to transform existing APM instrumentation code with proper error handling, validation, and comprehensive migration reports.
• Design and implement LLM-driven dashboard migration tools that extract, transform, and recreate observability dashboards across platforms with functional equivalence validation.
• Create agentic alert migration automation using AI frameworks to export, transform, and migrate alerting policies, conditions, notification channels, and escalation workflows between observability platforms.
• Build comprehensive validation and testing frameworks to compare metrics and traces, build migration progress dashboards, and develop rollback procedures.
• Create CLI tools, scripts, and self-service migration utilities with detailed guides and best practices documentation to enable application teams.
• Contribute to observability operations including log PII detection with near real-time streaming, multi-source log pipeline integration (CloudWatch, Lambda), cost optimization, and infrastructure monitoring (EKS, EC2, Lambda).
• Support Harness deployment pipeline integration with observability alerts and contribute to operational excellence through code reviews and documentation.
• Partner with application teams, security and compliance teams, and platform engineering teams to understand requirements, pain points, and deliver impactful solutions.
• Present work at team demos and showcase events while contributing to team documentation, runbooks, and best practices.

Requirements

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• Strong development experience in Python with demonstrated ability to write high-quality code.
• AI-assisted development experience: Hands-on experience using AI coding assistants such as Cline, Roo Code, Kiro, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or similar tools for software development.
• Full-stack development exposure with JavaScript/TypeScript and modern front-end frameworks (React preferred, Vue, or Angular).
• Multi-language exposure: Familiarity with at least 2-3 programming languages from Java, Python, Node.js, or .NET.
• Solid understanding of software engineering fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, testing, and design patterns.
• Experience with or strong interest in observability concepts: logs, metrics, traces, and distributed systems.
• Experience with database design and SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL).
• Experience with Application Performance Monitoring (APM) tools such as New Relic, Datadog, Dynatrace, or similar platforms.
• Experience with AWS Cloud services (CloudWatch, Lambda, EKS, EC2, Fargate, SQS, SNS) and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with ability to explore solutions independently before escalating.
• Excellent communication and collaboration abilities with mindset to seek feedback early and often.

Qualifications

• This is a part-time, work-study-based opportunity designed for active graduate students.
• You must be able to commit to 20/hr per week for a duration of 6 months.

Skills

• Hands-on experience using AI coding assistants such as Cline, Roo Code, Kiro, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or similar tools for software development.

Benefits

As a part-time, work-study-based opportunity, benefits may vary. Please refer to the company's benefits policy for details.

Pay

The pay range for this role is $30,000 - $40,000 annually, based on experience and qualifications.

Schedule

This is a part-time, work-study-based opportunity. Hours are flexible and can be worked remotely, from an office, or a combination of both, subject to location restrictions and roles that require being in the office (see the full list of eligible US locations HERE).

Company Commitment

We are committed to fostering a work environment that is inclusive and diverse, where every person feels valued and respected. We encourage applications from minorities, women, the disabled, protected veterans, and all qualified applicants.