What to put on a site reliability engineer resume at tech companies · 219 roles · 90 days to Oct 16, 2026
Updated
In short
Of the 219 site reliability engineer roles at tech companies whose requirements we read in the 90 days to Oct 16, 2026, Python is required in 136 of 219 (62%), Kubernetes in 120 of 219 (55%) and Observability in 103 of 219 (47%). Name the ones you have in your latest jobs, next to what you built with them.
- Degree required, no alternative
- 28 of 211 (13%)
- Of the roles we could read for it
The skills these postings ask for most
Counts are out of the 219 roles whose requirements we could read; the 10 asked for most in each list.
| Skill | Roles asking |
|---|---|
| Python | 136 of 219 (62%) |
| Kubernetes | 120 of 219 (55%) |
| Observability | 103 of 219 (47%) |
| Go | 99 of 219 (45%) |
| AWS | 97 of 219 (44%) |
| Incident Response | 93 of 219 (42%) |
| Terraform | 91 of 219 (42%) |
| Infrastructure as Code | 88 of 219 (40%) |
| CI/CD | 85 of 219 (39%) |
| Networking | 79 of 219 (36%) |
| Skill | Roles asking |
|---|---|
| Kubernetes | 24 of 219 (11%) |
| Observability | 22 of 219 (10%) |
| Prometheus | 22 of 219 (10%) |
| Terraform | 21 of 219 (10%) |
| Datadog | 19 of 219 (9%) |
| CI/CD | 18 of 219 (8%) |
| Incident Response | 18 of 219 (8%) |
| Grafana | 16 of 219 (7%) |
| Python | 16 of 219 (7%) |
| AWS | 15 of 219 (7%) |
What to put first
Lead with Python, Kubernetes and Observability
They are the required skills named most, with their counts in the table above. Put the ones you have in your skills line and in the bullets of your latest job, each next to what you did with it.
Then Prometheus and Terraform, if you have them
Preferred, not required: Prometheus in 22 of 219 (10%) and Terraform in 21 of 219 (10%). Add them where they are true; leaving one out costs less than claiming it.
Make 5+ years easy to count
Among roles that state years, 125 of 168 (74%) ask for at least 5 years. Give every job a start and end month and year, so a reader can add them up.
Education can go last
28 of 211 (13%) roles require a degree with no alternative; the rest accept experience instead, prefer one or do not mention it. Lead with your work.
What changes by level
No two neighbouring site reliability engineer levels have 50 or more roles whose requirements we read yet, so levels are not compared. The career path lists each level and its roles.
Bullet patterns
Replace every bracket with your own facts. Keep only numbers you can explain in an interview.
Pattern, not a real resume
Built [system] that [what it does] for [team or users], using Python; [metric] after [time].
Pattern, not a real resume
Used Kubernetes to cut [metric] from [before] to [after] by [change you made].
Pattern, not a real resume
Applied Observability to [problem], which [made it cheaper, faster or more reliable] by [amount].
Pattern, not a real resume
Led [project] with [number] people across [teams]; shipped [outcome] in [time].
Gaps to check before you send it
A required skill you use but never name
If you work with Python and Kubernetes but your bullets only say what the product did, a reader looking for the skill will not find it. Name it where you used it.
Dates that do not add up
Most roles that state years ask for at least 5 years. Missing months, overlaps and unexplained gaps make that hard to count.
Bullets without an outcome
A bullet that names a tool but not what changed reads as a list of tasks. Add what moved and by how much, or what shipped.
More on site reliability engineer roles
How we count: 219 roles from 159 employers in the 90 days to Oct 16, 2026, each role counted once however many boards post it. Methodology