Interview Guide for

Site Reliability Engineering Manager

This comprehensive interview guide for the Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Manager role will help you identify and hire exceptional candidates who can build and lead high-performing SRE teams. Built with a structured approach to evaluate technical expertise, leadership abilities, and cultural fit, this guide ensures you assess candidates thoroughly across all critical competencies required for SRE leadership success.

How to Use This Guide

This interview guide is designed to help you implement a structured hiring process for SRE Manager candidates. To get the most out of it:

Customize and Adapt - Modify questions and exercises to align with your specific [company] environment, technologies, and team needs.
Collaborate with Your Team - Share this guide with all interviewers to ensure consistency in evaluation and prevent redundant questioning.
Follow the Structure - Use the recommended interview sequence to systematically evaluate technical skills, leadership abilities, and cultural fit.
Use Follow-up Questions - Leverage the suggested follow-up questions to dig deeper into candidate responses and get beyond rehearsed answers.
Score Independently - Have each interviewer complete their scorecard independently before discussing their impressions during the debrief meeting.

For additional guidance on conducting effective interviews, check out Yardstick's guide on how to conduct a job interview and learn about using interview scorecards to improve your hiring decisions.

Job Description

Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Manager

About [Company]

[Company] is a leading [industry] organization committed to delivering reliable, scalable technology solutions. Our innovative approach to infrastructure and operations helps us maintain high standards of service reliability and performance for our customers.

The Role

As the SRE Manager at [Company], you'll lead a team of Site Reliability Engineers responsible for the reliability, scalability, and performance of our critical systems. You'll play a pivotal role in building and growing a culture of reliability engineering, championing best practices in DevOps, automation, and infrastructure as code. Your leadership will directly impact our ability to deliver exceptional service reliability to our customers.

Key Responsibilities

Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing team of Site Reliability Engineers
Drive the adoption of SRE practices, including SLOs, error budgets, and reliability monitoring
Collaborate with development teams to improve system reliability, scalability, and performance
Oversee incident response processes and promote a blameless postmortem culture
Implement automation to reduce toil and improve operational efficiency
Lead the design and implementation of monitoring, alerting, and observability solutions
Partner with product and engineering teams to balance new features with reliability considerations
Establish and track SLIs, SLOs, and error budgets for critical services
Foster a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing
Represent SRE concerns in architectural and planning discussions

What We're Looking For

5+ years of experience in infrastructure, operations, or site reliability engineering
3+ years of people management experience, preferably leading engineering teams
Solid understanding of SRE principles, practices, and technologies
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and infrastructure as code
Knowledge of monitoring, logging, and observability tools and practices
Strong problem-solving skills and experience with incident management
Experience with automation and CI/CD pipelines
Excellent communication and collaboration skills
Ability to balance technical leadership with people management
Track record of driving reliability improvements across organizations

Why Join [Company]

At [Company], we're passionate about building reliable systems that our customers can depend on. We offer a collaborative environment where innovation is encouraged, and reliability is a core value. You'll work with talented engineers who are committed to excellence and continuous learning.

Competitive compensation package: [pay range]
Comprehensive benefits including health, dental, and vision insurance
Flexible work arrangements with remote options
Professional development and growth opportunities
Modern tech stack and opportunities to work with cutting-edge technologies
Collaborative and inclusive company culture

Hiring Process

We've designed our interview process to be thorough yet efficient, giving you a chance to showcase your skills while also getting to know our team and culture.

Initial Screening Call: A 30-45 minute conversation with our recruiter to discuss your background and interest in the role.
Technical Interview: A deeper dive into your technical expertise, understanding of SRE principles, and problem-solving approach.
Leadership & Team Management Interview: Focused on your leadership style, team building skills, and people management experience.
Work Sample Exercise: A practical session where you'll walk through how you'd approach a reliability challenge.
Final Interview: A meeting with senior leadership to discuss your overall fit with the role and organization.

Ideal Candidate Profile (Internal)

Role Overview

The SRE Manager will lead our Site Reliability Engineering team in designing, implementing, and maintaining reliable, scalable systems. This role balances technical expertise with leadership skills to build a high-performing team that effectively partners with development teams to improve system reliability. The ideal candidate demonstrates both strong technical knowledge in infrastructure and operations and proven leadership ability to develop engineers, drive cultural change, and advocate for reliability practices across the organization.

Essential Behavioral Competencies

Technical Leadership: Demonstrates deep technical knowledge of modern infrastructure, cloud platforms, and SRE practices while guiding team members and influencing technical decisions across the organization.

Team Development: Effectively builds, mentors, and grows high-performing engineering teams by providing clear direction, constructive feedback, and opportunities for professional growth.

Operational Excellence: Establishes and maintains robust processes for reliability monitoring, incident response, and continuous improvement, ensuring systems meet performance and availability goals.

Strategic Thinking: Balances immediate operational needs with long-term reliability goals, making thoughtful decisions that improve system resilience while supporting business objectives.

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Works effectively with product, development, and business teams to establish appropriate reliability targets, advocate for necessary reliability work, and drive a culture of shared responsibility for service reliability.

Desired Outcomes

Establish effective SLIs/SLOs for all critical services within 3-6 months, with clear error budgets that guide prioritization of reliability work
Reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) for production incidents by 40% within the first year through improved processes and tooling
Automate at least 70% of routine operational tasks within 9 months to reduce team toil and allow focus on strategic reliability improvements
Build a high-performing SRE team with strong technical capabilities and clear career growth paths, achieving 90%+ team retention
Drive adoption of SRE best practices across the engineering organization, resulting in measurable improvements in system reliability and performance

Ideal Candidate Traits

Balanced Focus: Combines strong technical understanding with people leadership skills, knowing when to dive deep technically and when to empower the team
Customer-Centric: Advocates for reliability from the customer perspective, translating technical metrics into business impact
Data-Driven: Makes decisions based on metrics and evidence rather than intuition alone
Continuous Learner: Stays current with evolving technologies and practices in the SRE/DevOps space
Calm Under Pressure: Maintains composure during incidents and helps the team focus on effective problem-solving
Collaborative Leadership: Partners effectively with development teams rather than creating an "us vs. them" dynamic
Pragmatic Approach: Balances perfect solutions with practical constraints, finding the right level of reliability for each service
Automation Mindset: Consistently looks for opportunities to automate manual processes
Accountability: Takes ownership of team performance and service reliability
Knowledge Sharing: Creates a culture where information is documented and shared freely

Screening Interview

Directions for the Interviewer

This initial screening interview aims to quickly assess the candidate's experience, understanding of SRE principles, and leadership capabilities. Focus on understanding their background, current role, and alignment with the SRE Manager position. This interview helps determine if the candidate has the fundamental qualifications and experience to succeed in this role.

Best practices:

Review the candidate's resume thoroughly before the interview
Start with easy questions to build rapport before diving into more technical topics
Listen for specific examples that demonstrate both technical knowledge and leadership experience
Note any gaps in experience or knowledge that would need to be addressed in later interviews
Save 5-10 minutes at the end for the candidate to ask questions
Pay special attention to their enthusiasm for SRE principles and their leadership approach

Directions to Share with Candidate

"Today, we'll be discussing your background, your understanding of Site Reliability Engineering, and your experience leading technical teams. I'm looking to understand how your experience aligns with our SRE Manager role. This will be a conversation, so feel free to ask clarifying questions throughout. We'll leave time at the end for any additional questions you have about the role or [Company]."

Interview Questions

Tell me about your current role and responsibilities as they relate to Site Reliability Engineering or similar functions.

Areas to Cover

Current responsibilities and team structure
Technologies and environments they're responsible for
How they've implemented SRE practices in their current organization
Level of leadership responsibility they currently have
Key achievements or improvements they've driven

Possible Follow-up Questions

How large is the team you're currently managing?
What SRE principles have you successfully implemented?
What metrics do you use to measure your team's success?
How do you balance feature development with reliability work?

What is your understanding of Site Reliability Engineering, and how have you applied these principles in your work?

Areas to Cover

Their definition of SRE and how it differs from traditional operations
Specific SRE practices they've implemented (SLOs, error budgets, automation)
Understanding of the balance between reliability and feature velocity
Examples of how they've measured and improved reliability

Possible Follow-up Questions

How have you established SLOs in your current role?
How do you determine appropriate error budgets?
Can you share an example of how you've reduced toil through automation?
How do you handle the trade-off between reliability and new features?

Describe your experience building and leading engineering teams. What's your approach to management and leadership?

Areas to Cover

Team sizes and structures they've managed
Their leadership style and philosophy
How they develop team members and handle performance issues
How they promote collaboration and continuous learning
Examples of successful team building or turnarounds

Possible Follow-up Questions

How do you approach hiring for your team?
How do you handle conflicts within your team?
How do you ensure knowledge sharing across the team?
What's your approach to giving feedback and performance reviews?

Walk me through how you've handled a significant service outage or performance issue.

Areas to Cover

Their role during the incident
Their approach to troubleshooting and resolution
How they coordinated the team during the incident
Post-incident analysis and follow-up
Improvements made to prevent similar issues

Possible Follow-up Questions

How did you communicate during the incident?
What tools or procedures were most helpful?
What improvements did you implement afterward?
How did you balance immediate fixes with long-term solutions?

What experience do you have with cloud platforms, automation, and infrastructure as code?

Areas to Cover

Specific cloud platforms they've worked with (AWS, GCP, Azure)
Infrastructure as code tools they've used (Terraform, CloudFormation, etc.)
Automation tools and CI/CD pipelines they've implemented
Scale of infrastructure they've managed
Transitions or migrations they've led

Possible Follow-up Questions

What challenges did you face when implementing infrastructure as code?
How have you approached automated testing of infrastructure?
What monitoring and observability solutions have you implemented?
How do you approach security in your infrastructure automation?

How do you collaborate with software development teams to improve reliability?

Areas to Cover

Their approach to building relationships with development teams
How they integrate reliability considerations into the development process
Examples of successful collaborations
How they handle pushback or resistance
How they balance developer autonomy with reliability requirements

Possible Follow-up Questions

How do you involve developers in on-call rotations?
What training or guidelines do you provide to development teams?
How do you ensure reliability is considered early in the development process?
How do you handle situations where teams prioritize features over reliability?

Interview Scorecard

Technical Knowledge

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Limited understanding of SRE principles and modern infrastructure technologies
2: Basic understanding of SRE concepts but lacks depth in key areas
3: Solid understanding of SRE principles and relevant experience with modern technologies
4: Exceptional understanding of SRE with deep expertise across multiple relevant domains

Leadership Experience

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Limited or no experience managing technical teams
2: Some management experience but may not have led SRE or similar technical teams
3: Proven experience successfully leading engineering teams with good people development
4: Exceptional leadership track record with clear examples of team building and development

Problem-Solving Approach

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Reactive approach with limited strategic thinking
2: Can solve problems but may not address root causes effectively
3: Structured approach to problem-solving with good focus on long-term solutions
4: Exceptional problem-solving capabilities with strategic thinking and preventative focus

Communication Skills

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Struggles to articulate technical concepts clearly
2: Adequate communication but may have difficulty with complex topics
3: Communicates technical concepts clearly and appropriately to different audiences
4: Exceptional communicator who can effectively influence and persuade across all levels

Establish effective SLIs/SLOs for all critical services

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) for production incidents

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Automate routine operational tasks

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Build a high-performing SRE team

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Drive adoption of SRE best practices across the engineering organization

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Overall Recommendation

1: Strong No Hire
2: No Hire
3: Hire
4: Strong Hire

Technical Interview

Directions for the Interviewer

This technical interview aims to thoroughly assess the candidate's SRE expertise, technical knowledge, and problem-solving skills. Focus on the candidate's understanding of SRE principles, system design, troubleshooting, automation, and monitoring. This interview should reveal whether the candidate has the technical depth needed to lead an SRE team effectively.

Best practices:

Ask open-ended questions that require detailed answers, not just yes/no responses
Request specific examples from the candidate's past experience
Present hypothetical scenarios to evaluate their thought process and approach
Probe deeper into areas where the candidate seems less confident
Listen for their understanding of tradeoffs and how they approach complex decisions
Pay attention to how they communicate technical concepts
Note their ability to balance technical ideals with practical constraints
Save time at the end for candidate questions

Directions to Share with Candidate

"In this interview, we'll be discussing your technical expertise in Site Reliability Engineering, including your understanding of SRE principles, system design, troubleshooting, automation, and monitoring. I'll ask questions about your past experience and may present some hypothetical scenarios to understand your approach. Feel free to think out loud and ask clarifying questions. We'll reserve time at the end for any questions you have."

Interview Questions

Explain your understanding of SLIs, SLOs, and Error Budgets. How have you implemented and used these in practice? (Technical Leadership, Operational Excellence)

Areas to Cover

Clear definitions of Service Level Indicators, Objectives, and Error Budgets
How they've selected appropriate SLIs for different services
Process for setting SLO targets and stakeholder involvement
Implementation of error budgets and how they've impacted development priorities
Examples of how these metrics influenced decision-making

Possible Follow-up Questions

How do you determine which SLIs are most meaningful for a particular service?
How have you handled situations where error budgets were being depleted too quickly?
What tools or platforms have you used to track SLOs?
How do you communicate SLO performance to non-technical stakeholders?

Describe a complex system you've worked on. What were its key components, and what reliability challenges did you face? (Technical Leadership, Strategic Thinking)

Areas to Cover

Architecture and components of the system
Scale and complexity considerations
Specific reliability challenges they encountered
Their role in designing or maintaining the system
Solutions implemented to address reliability issues

Possible Follow-up Questions

What monitoring did you implement for this system?
How did you test the reliability of this system?
What were the biggest operational pain points?
If you could redesign this system today, what would you do differently?

Tell me about a significant outage or performance issue you've troubleshooted. What was your process, and what was the outcome? (Operational Excellence, Problem-Solving)

Areas to Cover

Initial detection and response to the incident
Troubleshooting methodology and tools used
Collaboration with other teams during the incident
Resolution approach and implementation
Post-incident analysis and preventative measures taken

Possible Follow-up Questions

How did you prioritize which areas to investigate first?
What monitoring or observability tools were most helpful?
What did you learn from this incident?
How did you ensure the same issue wouldn't happen again?

How do you approach automation in an SRE context? Describe a significant automation project you've led. (Technical Leadership, Operational Excellence)

Areas to Cover

Their philosophy on what should be automated and why
Specific automation tools and technologies they've used
Process for identifying automation opportunities
Implementation approach and challenges faced
Measurable outcomes and benefits achieved

Possible Follow-up Questions

How did you measure the success of this automation?
What challenges did you encounter during implementation?
How did you ensure the automation was reliable and maintainable?
How did you handle exception cases or failures in the automation?

What's your approach to building a comprehensive observability strategy? How do you determine what to monitor and alert on? (Operational Excellence, Strategic Thinking)

Areas to Cover

Their overall philosophy on monitoring and observability
The distinction they make between metrics, logging, and tracing
How they design alerting thresholds and reduce alert fatigue
Tools and platforms they've implemented
How they've evolved monitoring over time

Possible Follow-up Questions

How do you determine which metrics are most important to track?
How do you approach alert design to reduce false positives?
What observability tools have you found most effective?
How do you ensure your team can effectively use the monitoring systems?

How do you balance reliability requirements with the need for rapid feature development? (Strategic Thinking, Cross-Functional Collaboration)

Areas to Cover

Their approach to balancing these competing priorities
How they communicate reliability requirements to other teams
Examples of negotiating reliability vs. feature velocity tradeoffs
How they use data to inform these discussions
Their process for evaluating the reliability impact of new features

Possible Follow-up Questions

How do you handle situations where teams push back on reliability requirements?
How do you make reliability improvements compelling to product teams?
How do you determine the appropriate reliability level for different services?
Can you describe a situation where you had to make a difficult tradeoff?

Interview Scorecard

SRE Principles Knowledge

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Limited understanding of core SRE concepts and practices
2: Basic understanding but lacks depth in some key areas
3: Strong understanding of SRE principles with practical implementation experience
4: Exceptional knowledge with evidence of advancing SRE practices in their organization

System Design & Architecture

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Limited experience with complex distributed systems
2: Some experience but may struggle with scale or complexity considerations
3: Strong system design skills with good understanding of reliability considerations
4: Exceptional architectural knowledge with proven ability to design highly reliable systems

Troubleshooting & Incident Response

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Basic troubleshooting skills but lacks systematic approach
2: Competent troubleshooter but may miss some root causes
3: Strong troubleshooting methodology with good incident management skills
4: Exceptional problem-solver with advanced incident response capabilities

Automation & Tooling Expertise

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Limited automation experience or narrow toolset knowledge
2: Some automation experience but approach may be fragmented
3: Strong automation skills with good tool selection and implementation
4: Exceptional automation expertise with evidence of significant operational improvements

Monitoring & Observability

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Basic monitoring knowledge but limited observability understanding
2: Competent with monitoring but may lack comprehensive observability strategy
3: Strong understanding of monitoring and observability with practical implementation
4: Exceptional observability expertise with proven ability to build comprehensive systems

Establish effective SLIs/SLOs for all critical services

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) for production incidents

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Automate routine operational tasks

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Build a high-performing SRE team

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Drive adoption of SRE best practices across the engineering organization

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Overall Recommendation

1: Strong No Hire
2: No Hire
3: Hire
4: Strong Hire

Work Sample: SRE Reliability Challenge

Directions for the Interviewer

This work sample exercise assesses the candidate's ability to apply SRE principles to a realistic reliability challenge. The exercise evaluates their approach to system reliability, incident response, and cross-functional collaboration. Pay attention to both their technical understanding and their leadership approach.

Before the interview, familiarize yourself with the scenario and expected response areas. Send the candidate the basic scenario description 24 hours before the interview so they can prepare thoughtfully. During the interview, listen for structured thinking, prioritization skills, and their ability to balance short and long-term solutions.

Best practices:

Allow the candidate to present their approach without interruption initially
Ask clarifying questions to understand their reasoning
Present follow-up challenges to test how they adapt their thinking
Evaluate both technical solution quality and how they would implement changes through a team
Note how they would measure success and communicate with stakeholders
Consider how they balance immediate fixes with long-term reliability improvements
Pay attention to how they would collaborate with other teams

Directions to Share with Candidate

"For this exercise, I'll present you with a reliability challenge scenario that you might encounter as an SRE Manager. I've sent you the basic outline in advance to allow some preparation time. During our session, I'd like you to walk me through how you would approach this situation, including your thought process, key considerations, and action plan. I'll ask follow-up questions and may introduce additional complications to see how you adapt your approach. This is meant to be interactive, so feel free to ask clarifying questions at any point."

Scenario to share 24 hours in advance:

"You've recently joined as the SRE Manager at a company that operates a business-critical e-commerce platform experiencing reliability issues. The platform has been having frequent outages (approximately once a week), most lasting 15-30 minutes, with a few extending to several hours. These outages are causing significant revenue loss and damaging customer trust. The development teams are moving quickly to launch new features, and there's currently no formal SRE practice in place. You need to develop a plan to improve reliability while working with development teams that are under pressure to deliver features."

Exercise Structure and Questions

Part 1: Initial Assessment and Strategy

"Please walk me through how you would approach this situation in your first 30 days. What would your priorities be, and how would you begin addressing the reliability issues?"

Areas to Cover

Initial assessment approach to understand the current state
Key metrics they would gather or establish
How they would identify the most critical services
Their approach to understanding the outage patterns
Immediate actions vs. longer-term strategy
How they would begin engaging with development teams

Possible Follow-up Questions

How would you determine which services to focus on first?
What data would you collect to understand the outages?
How would you approach building relationships with the development teams?
What quick wins might you target in the first 30 days?

Part 2: Incident Response Process

"One of the major issues is that incident response is currently ad-hoc, with no clear process or ownership. How would you implement a structured incident response process?"

Areas to Cover

Incident response framework they would implement
Roles and responsibilities during incidents
Tools and communication channels they would establish
Training approach for team members
Post-incident review process
How they would measure improvement

Possible Follow-up Questions

How would you determine who should be on-call?
What tools would you implement for incident management?
How would you ensure knowledge sharing across the team?
How would you handle incidents that span multiple teams?

Part 3: SLO Implementation

"The company currently has no SLOs or error budgets established. How would you approach implementing these, and how would you use them to drive reliability improvements?"

Areas to Cover

Process for identifying appropriate SLIs
How they would set initial SLO targets
Stakeholder involvement in the process
Implementation of error budgets
How they would use these metrics to influence development priorities
Communication strategy for SLO performance

Possible Follow-up Questions

How would you determine appropriate SLO targets?
How would you handle pushback from teams reluctant to adopt SLOs?
How would you communicate SLO violations and their impact?
How would you use error budgets to influence product decisions?

Part 4: Challenge Scenario

"Three months into your role, you've made some progress, but a major new feature launch is scheduled in two weeks. The development team is resistant to any changes that might delay the launch, but your analysis suggests there are significant reliability risks. How would you handle this situation?"

Areas to Cover

Their approach to balancing feature delivery with reliability concerns
How they would quantify the risks
Their strategy for influencing the development team
Potential compromises or mitigations they might suggest
Escalation path if needed
Post-launch monitoring approach

Possible Follow-up Questions

How would you present your concerns to the development team?
What data would you use to support your position?
What minimum reliability requirements would you advocate for?
How would you prepare for potential issues after the launch?

Interview Scorecard

Problem Analysis

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Superficial analysis that misses key issues
2: Identifies main problems but may miss underlying causes
3: Thorough analysis with good prioritization of issues
4: Exceptional analysis showing deep understanding of reliability challenges

Strategic Approach

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Reactive approach focusing only on immediate issues
2: Some strategic thinking but may lack cohesive long-term plan
3: Well-balanced approach with clear short and long-term strategies
4: Exceptional strategic vision with comprehensive implementation plan

Technical Solutions

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Basic solutions that may not address root causes
2: Solid technical approach but may miss some important considerations
3: Strong technical solutions that address both symptoms and causes
4: Exceptional technical depth with innovative, comprehensive solutions

Team Leadership Approach

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Command-and-control approach with limited collaboration
2: Some collaborative elements but may struggle with influence
3: Strong leadership approach balancing direction with team empowerment
4: Exceptional leadership strategy showing high emotional intelligence and influence

Cross-Functional Collaboration

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Minimal focus on working with other teams
2: Acknowledges need for collaboration but approach may be ineffective
3: Strong collaborative approach with good stakeholder management
4: Exceptional ability to influence and partner across organizational boundaries

Establish effective SLIs/SLOs for all critical services

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) for production incidents

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Automate routine operational tasks

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Build a high-performing SRE team

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Drive adoption of SRE best practices across the engineering organization

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Overall Recommendation

1: Strong No Hire
2: No Hire
3: Hire
4: Strong Hire

Leadership and Team Management Interview

Directions for the Interviewer

This interview focuses on assessing the candidate's leadership abilities, team management style, and people development skills. Your goal is to understand how they build and lead teams, handle conflicts, provide feedback, and drive a positive team culture. The ideal SRE Manager combines technical expertise with strong leadership abilities.

Best practices:

Ask for specific examples from their past experience
Look for a leadership style that balances direction with empowerment
Listen for how they develop team members and handle performance issues
Note their approach to cross-functional collaboration and influence
Pay attention to how they've built team culture and managed change
Assess their ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders
Evaluate their emotional intelligence and self-awareness
Reserve time at the end for candidate questions

Directions to Share with Candidate

"In this interview, we'll focus on your leadership experience and team management approach. I'm interested in how you build and lead teams, develop your reports, handle challenging situations, and collaborate with other departments. I'll be asking for specific examples from your past experience to understand your leadership style and approach. Please feel free to ask clarifying questions, and we'll save time at the end for any questions you have."

Interview Questions

Describe your leadership style. How do you motivate and inspire your team? (Team Development, Cross-Functional Collaboration)

Areas to Cover

Their overall leadership philosophy and approach
How they adapt their style to different team members and situations
Specific techniques they use to motivate and engage team members
How they balance giving direction with empowering team members
Examples that illustrate their leadership approach in action

Possible Follow-up Questions

How has your leadership style evolved over time?
How do you adapt your approach for team members with different experience levels?
How do you maintain team motivation during challenging periods?
What leadership principles or frameworks influence your approach?

Tell me about a time you built or transformed a team. What was your approach, and what challenges did you face? (Team Development, Operational Excellence)

Areas to Cover

Context of the team situation (new team, existing team with issues, etc.)
Their strategy for assessing and improving the team
Specific steps they took to build or transform the team
Challenges encountered and how they overcame them
Results achieved and lessons learned

Possible Follow-up Questions

How did you establish trust with the team?
How did you handle resistance to change?
What specific processes or practices did you implement?
How did you measure the team's improvement?

How do you approach coaching and developing team members? Please provide a specific example. (Team Development)

Areas to Cover

Their overall philosophy on people development
Their process for identifying development needs
Specific coaching techniques they employ
How they balance immediate needs with long-term growth
A specific example that demonstrates their development approach

Possible Follow-up Questions

How do you create development plans for team members?
How do you handle team members who are struggling?
How do you identify and develop high-potential employees?
How do you balance technical coaching with leadership development?

Describe a time when you had to address a performance issue with a team member. What was your approach, and what was the outcome? (Team Development, Operational Excellence)

Areas to Cover

The specific performance issue and its impact
Their process for identifying and documenting the issue
How they approached the conversation with the team member
Steps taken to support improvement
The outcome and any lessons learned

Possible Follow-up Questions

How did you prepare for the conversation?
How did you ensure the feedback was specific and actionable?
What support did you provide to help them improve?
How did you follow up after the initial conversation?

How do you build effective relationships and collaborate with other teams, particularly development teams? (Cross-Functional Collaboration, Strategic Thinking)

Areas to Cover

Their approach to building cross-functional relationships
How they establish credibility with other teams
Techniques for influencing without direct authority
How they handle disagreements with other teams
Examples of successful collaborations they've led

Possible Follow-up Questions

How do you handle situations where teams have competing priorities?
How do you ensure reliability concerns are understood by development teams?
How do you build trust when there's been tension between teams?
How do you maintain effective communication across teams?

Tell me about a time when you had to drive a significant change in how a team operated. How did you approach it? (Team Development, Strategic Thinking)

Areas to Cover

The context and reason for the change
Their process for planning the change
How they communicated the change to the team
How they managed resistance or concerns
The implementation process and outcomes

Possible Follow-up Questions

How did you get buy-in from the team?
What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them?
How did you measure the success of the change?
What would you do differently if you faced a similar situation?

Interview Scorecard

Leadership Approach

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Ineffective leadership style that may not inspire or motivate
2: Basic leadership skills but may lack adaptability or depth
3: Strong leadership approach that balances direction with empowerment
4: Exceptional leadership style that inspires teams and drives high performance

Team Building & Development

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Limited experience or approach to team building
2: Some team building skills but may miss opportunities for development
3: Strong team building approach with good focus on individual development
4: Exceptional ability to build high-performing teams and develop talent

Performance Management

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Avoids or handles performance issues ineffectively
2: Basic performance management skills but may lack nuance
3: Strong approach to managing performance with clear expectations
4: Exceptional performance management balancing accountability with support

Communication & Influence

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Ineffective communicator who struggles to influence others
2: Adequate communication but may lack strategic influence
3: Strong communicator who can effectively influence across teams
4: Exceptional communicator with demonstrated ability to drive change

Conflict Resolution

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Avoids conflict or handles it ineffectively
2: Basic conflict resolution skills but may not address root causes
3: Strong approach to resolving conflicts constructively
4: Exceptional ability to turn conflicts into opportunities for improvement

Establish effective SLIs/SLOs for all critical services

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) for production incidents

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Automate routine operational tasks

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Build a high-performing SRE team

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Drive adoption of SRE best practices across the engineering organization

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Overall Recommendation

1: Strong No Hire
2: No Hire
3: Hire
4: Strong Hire

Chronological Interview

Directions for the Interviewer

This chronological interview aims to systematically review the candidate's relevant work history to understand their career progression, accomplishments, challenges, and the context of their experience. Focus on getting detailed information about each relevant role, the problems they solved, and their impact. This interview should help verify claims made in their resume and other interviews while providing deeper context about their experience.

Best practices:

Start with their earliest relevant role and progress chronologically
For each role, ask a consistent set of questions to understand the full context
Probe for specific details about team size, responsibilities, and accomplishments
Ask about both successes and challenges in each role
Listen for patterns across roles that indicate strengths or areas for growth
Pay attention to reasons for role changes
Note how their leadership approach has evolved over time
Save time at the end for candidate questions

Directions to Share with Candidate

"In this interview, we'll walk through your career history chronologically, focusing on your relevant roles in SRE, DevOps, or infrastructure engineering. For each role, I'll ask about your responsibilities, accomplishments, challenges, and what you learned. This helps us understand the full context of your experience and how you've grown throughout your career. Feel free to ask clarifying questions along the way, and we'll reserve time at the end for any questions you have."

Interview Questions

To start, what initially attracted you to Site Reliability Engineering or similar roles? What aspects of the field do you find most rewarding?

Areas to Cover

Their career motivations and interests
How they entered the SRE/DevOps/infrastructure field
What they find most fulfilling about this type of work
How their career interests have evolved over time

Possible Follow-up Questions

What specific technologies or challenges first attracted you to this field?
How has your perspective on SRE changed as you've gained experience?
What keeps you engaged in this field compared to other technical paths?
How have your goals in this space evolved over time?

Let's start with [earliest relevant role]. Tell me about your responsibilities and the environment when you joined.

Areas to Cover

Their specific role and responsibilities
Team size and structure
Technologies and systems they worked with
State of reliability or infrastructure when they joined
Key challenges they faced initially

Possible Follow-up Questions

What was the reliability culture like when you joined?
What were the biggest operational pain points?
How mature were the infrastructure and processes?
What specific technologies were you responsible for?

What were your most significant accomplishments in this role?

Areas to Cover

Specific projects or initiatives they led
Improvements they made to reliability or operations
Metrics showing their impact
How they influenced the team or organization
Technical implementations they're particularly proud of

Possible Follow-up Questions

How did you measure the success of these initiatives?
What specific reliability improvements did you achieve?
How did these accomplishments impact the business?
What was your specific contribution to these achievements?

What were the biggest challenges you faced in this role, and how did you address them?

Areas to Cover

Technical challenges they encountered
Organizational or cultural challenges
Their approach to overcoming these challenges
Resources or support they leveraged
Outcomes and lessons learned

Possible Follow-up Questions

What was your strategy for addressing these challenges?
What obstacles did you encounter, and how did you overcome them?
How did you prioritize which challenges to address first?
What would you do differently if you faced similar challenges today?

If this was a leadership role: Tell me about your team. How did you build and develop the team during your time there?

Areas to Cover

Team size and composition
Their approach to hiring and team building
How they developed team members
Team culture they established
Changes they made to the team structure or operations

Possible Follow-up Questions

How did you approach hiring for your team?
How did you handle performance issues?
What was your approach to developing junior team members?
How did you measure your team's effectiveness?

What prompted you to leave this role and move to [next role]?

Areas to Cover

Their reasons for changing roles
What they were looking for in their next position
How the transition was planned and executed
Any lessons or reflections from the transition

Possible Follow-up Questions

What were you hoping to gain in your new role?
How did you ensure a smooth transition for your team/projects?
How did the next opportunity align with your career goals?
Were there specific aspects of the role you were leaving behind?

(Repeat the above questions for each relevant role, adjusting as needed based on the candidate's career progression)

Looking across your career, how have you evolved as an SRE leader? What key lessons have you learned?

Areas to Cover

How their leadership approach has developed
Key inflection points or learning moments
How their technical focus has evolved
Changes in their perspective on reliability engineering
Areas where they've seen the most personal growth

Possible Follow-up Questions

What feedback have you received that significantly impacted your approach?
What books, mentors, or experiences have most shaped your leadership style?
How has your approach to reliability changed over time?
What aspects of leadership are you still working to improve?

Of the roles we've discussed, which one do you think best prepared you for this SRE Manager position, and why?

Areas to Cover

Which experiences they find most relevant to this role
Their understanding of what this role requires
Self-awareness about their strengths and how they apply
How they connect past experiences to future success

Possible Follow-up Questions

What specific challenges in that role translate to this position?
What gaps do you think exist between your experience and this role?
How would you apply specific lessons from that role here?
What would you do differently based on your experience?

Interview Scorecard

Career Progression

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Limited relevant experience or unclear progression
2: Some relevant experience but may lack depth in key areas
3: Strong progression showing growth in responsibility and impact
4: Exceptional career trajectory with clear advancement and increasing impact

Technical Leadership Growth

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Limited evidence of technical leadership development
2: Some leadership growth but may have gaps in critical areas
3: Strong development as a technical leader with good examples
4: Exceptional growth as a technical leader with significant impact

Achievement Record

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Few concrete achievements or achievements with limited impact
2: Some notable achievements but may lack measurement or significance
3: Strong record of meaningful, measured accomplishments
4: Exceptional achievement record with substantial, documented impact

Problem-Solving Evolution

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Limited development in problem-solving approach
2: Some improvement in handling increasingly complex problems
3: Strong evolution in problem-solving with good adaptation to challenges
4: Exceptional growth in tackling complex problems with innovative approaches

Leadership Style Development

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Little evidence of leadership style development
2: Some refinement of leadership approach but may lack reflection
3: Clear development of effective leadership style with good self-awareness
4: Exceptional evolution as a leader with thoughtful adaptation and growth

Establish effective SLIs/SLOs for all critical services

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) for production incidents

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Automate routine operational tasks

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Build a high-performing SRE team

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Drive adoption of SRE best practices across the engineering organization

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Overall Recommendation

1: Strong No Hire
2: No Hire
3: Hire
4: Strong Hire

Cultural Fit & Final Interview

Directions for the Interviewer

This interview serves as a final assessment of the candidate's alignment with [Company]'s culture, values, and expectations for the SRE Manager role. It's an opportunity to address any remaining questions about the candidate's experience, address potential concerns, and allow the candidate to learn more about the company. As a senior leader, you should focus on assessing whether the candidate would thrive in your organization's environment and successfully drive the SRE function forward.

Best practices:

Review feedback from previous interviewers to identify areas to probe further
Ask open-ended questions that reveal the candidate's values and working style
Share authentic information about your company culture and environment
Address any concerns or potential misalignments directly
Provide the candidate with a clear picture of what success looks like in this role
Give the candidate ample time to ask questions
Pay attention to the candidate's level of interest and enthusiasm
Consider whether they would be an effective cultural ambassador for SRE practices

Directions to Share with Candidate

"This final interview is focused on mutual fit - whether [Company] is the right environment for you to thrive, and whether your approach aligns with our culture and values. I'll ask about your work style, what you're looking for in your next role, and address any questions you have about our company and team. This is meant to be a two-way conversation to ensure we're both making an informed decision."

Interview Questions

What attracted you to this SRE Manager role at [Company]? What are you hoping to achieve here?

Areas to Cover

Their understanding of the company and role
Their career motivations and goals
How this position fits into their longer-term plans
Their level of research and interest in the company

Possible Follow-up Questions

What aspects of our technology or challenges most interest you?
How does this role differ from other opportunities you're considering?
What impact do you hope to make in your first year?
What questions or hesitations do you have about the role?

How would you describe your ideal work environment? What conditions help you do your best work?

Areas to Cover

Their preferred team dynamics and working relationships
How they handle different management styles
Their approach to work-life balance
What motivates and energizes them
How they prefer to receive feedback and direction

Possible Follow-up Questions

How do you handle environments that don't match your ideal?
What aspects of work culture do you find most challenging?
How do you adapt to different team dynamics?
What type of manager brings out your best performance?

Tell me about a situation where you had to champion a cultural or process change. How did you approach it, and what was the outcome?

Areas to Cover

Their approach to organizational change
How they build buy-in for new ideas
Their persistence when facing resistance
Their sensitivity to existing culture
How they measured success

Possible Follow-up Questions

How did you identify the need for change?
How did you handle resistance to the change?
What were the key factors that made the change successful (or not)?
What would you do differently in a similar situation?

Our SRE team needs to collaborate closely with development teams who may initially be resistant to reliability practices. How would you build those relationships and drive adoption?

Areas to Cover

Their approach to cross-functional collaboration
How they handle resistance to SRE principles
Their strategies for building trust and influence
How they balance empathy with necessary change
Examples from their experience in similar situations

Possible Follow-up Questions

How would you demonstrate the value of SRE practices to skeptical teams?
How do you approach the education component of implementing SRE?
How do you balance being an advocate for reliability with being a partner?
How would you measure the success of your collaboration efforts?

What questions do you have about our company culture, team structure, or technical environment?

Areas to Cover

Allow the candidate to ask questions
Provide honest, transparent answers
Note the types of questions they ask
Look for alignment between their interests and your environment

Possible Follow-up Questions

Is there anything specific about our culture that you'd like to understand better?
Any concerns about our technical environment I can address?
What aspects of team structure are most important to you?

Is there anything that might prevent you from accepting this position if offered?

Areas to Cover

Any potential obstacles to accepting an offer
Compensation expectations
Timing considerations
Other opportunities they're considering
Any concerns about the role or company

Possible Follow-up Questions

What would an ideal offer look like for you?
What timeline are you working with for making a decision?
Are there specific benefits or perks that are important to you?
Is there anything else about the role that we haven't covered?

Interview Scorecard

Cultural Alignment

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Significant misalignment with company culture or values
2: Some alignment but potential friction points
3: Strong alignment with company culture and values
4: Exceptional fit who would enhance company culture

Motivation & Interest

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Limited interest in the specific role or company
2: General interest but may lack specific enthusiasm
3: Strong motivation and clear interest in this specific opportunity
4: Exceptional enthusiasm with deep understanding of the role and company

Collaboration & Influence

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Approach may create friction with existing teams
2: Basic collaboration skills but may struggle with influence
3: Strong collaborative approach with good influence strategies
4: Exceptional ability to build relationships and drive change across teams

Self-Awareness

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Limited self-awareness about strengths and weaknesses
2: Some self-awareness but may lack depth or honesty
3: Strong self-awareness with good understanding of growth areas
4: Exceptional self-awareness with proactive approach to development

Values Alignment

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Values appear misaligned with company priorities
2: Some alignment but potential areas of conflict
3: Strong alignment with core company values
4: Exceptional values alignment with potential to be a cultural leader

Establish effective SLIs/SLOs for all critical services

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) for production incidents

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Automate routine operational tasks

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Build a high-performing SRE team

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Drive adoption of SRE best practices across the engineering organization

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Unlikely to achieve this goal within timeline
2: Likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Likely to achieve this goal within timeline
4: Likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Overall Recommendation

1: Strong No Hire
2: No Hire
3: Hire
4: Strong Hire

Debrief Meeting

Directions for Conducting the Debrief Meeting

The Debrief Meeting is an open discussion for the hiring team members to share the information learned during the candidate interviews. Use the questions below to guide the discussion.Start the meeting by reviewing the requirements for the role and the key competencies and goals to succeed.

The meeting leader should strive to create an environment where it is okay to express opinions about the candidate that differ from the consensus or from leadership's opinions.
Scores and interview notes are important data points but should not be the sole factor in making the final decision.
Any hiring team member should feel free to change their recommendation as they learn new information and reflect on what they've learned.

Questions to Guide the Debrief Meeting

Question: Does anyone have any questions for the other interviewers about the candidate?Guidance: The meeting facilitator should initially present themselves as neutral and try not to sway the conversation before others have a chance to speak up.

Question: Are there any additional comments about the Candidate?Guidance: This is an opportunity for all the interviewers to share anything they learned that is important for the other interviewers to know.

Question: Is there anything further we need to investigate before making a decision?Guidance: Based on this discussion, you may decide to probe further on certain issues with the candidate or explore specific issues in the reference calls.

Question: Has anyone changed their hire/no-hire recommendation?Guidance: This is an opportunity for the interviewers to change their recommendation from the new information they learned in this meeting.

Question: If the consensus is no hire, should the candidate be considered for other roles? If so, what roles?Guidance: Discuss whether engaging with the candidate about a different role would be worthwhile.

Question: What are the next steps?Guidance: If there is no consensus, follow the process for that situation (e.g., it is the hiring manager's decision). Further investigation may be needed before making the decision. If there is a consensus on hiring, reference checks could be the next step.

Reference Calls

Directions for Conducting Reference Checks

Reference checks provide valuable third-party perspectives on the candidate's past performance, leadership style, and technical capabilities. Focus on verifying key claims from the interview process and gathering additional insights into how the candidate operates in real work environments. These checks are particularly important for an SRE Manager role, where both technical expertise and leadership abilities are critical.

When conducting reference checks:

Request references who have directly worked with the candidate, including former managers, peers, and direct reports if possible
Ask the candidate to make an introduction to facilitate honest and open communication
Use a consistent set of questions for all references while adapting follow-ups based on the specific relationship
Listen for patterns across multiple references rather than focusing on isolated comments
Pay attention to tone and hesitations as well as the content of responses
Be particularly attentive to feedback about leadership style, technical credibility, and cross-functional collaboration
Take detailed notes and share key insights with the hiring team

Questions for Reference Checks

Please describe your relationship with [Candidate]. How long did you work together, and what was the nature of your working relationship?

Guidance: Establish the context of the relationship to understand the reference's perspective. Note how long they worked together, their respective roles, and whether the reference was the candidate's manager, peer, or direct report. This context helps interpret the rest of their feedback appropriately.

How would you describe [Candidate]'s technical abilities in the areas of infrastructure, systems reliability, and operations?

Guidance: Verify the candidate's technical expertise as claimed during interviews. Listen for specific examples that demonstrate depth of knowledge and practical application. Note areas where the reference highlights particular strengths or limitations. For an SRE Manager, look for comments about their ability to understand complex systems and make sound technical decisions.

Can you tell me about [Candidate]'s leadership style and their effectiveness in building and developing teams?

Guidance: Assess the candidate's people management skills and leadership approach. Listen for examples of how they've built team culture, handled performance issues, and developed team members. Note comments about their communication style, ability to provide feedback, and approach to conflict resolution. This is particularly important for understanding how they'll lead an SRE team.

How does [Candidate] handle high-pressure situations, such as service outages or critical incidents?

Guidance: Understand the candidate's performance under stress, which is crucial for an SRE Manager. Listen for examples of how they've led incident response, maintained composure, made decisions under pressure, and supported their team during crises. This helps predict how they'll handle similar situations in your environment.

How would you describe [Candidate]'s ability to collaborate with other teams and influence across the organization?

Guidance: Evaluate the candidate's cross-functional collaboration skills, which are essential for driving reliability practices across an organization. Listen for examples of how they've built relationships, navigated organizational politics, and influenced decisions outside their direct control. Note their approach to balancing advocacy for reliability with respect for other priorities.

What areas for improvement or development would you suggest for [Candidate]?

Guidance: Identify potential growth areas that might require support if the candidate is hired. Listen for patterns that align with or contradict impressions from the interview process. Pay attention to how significant these development areas might be for success in your specific environment and role.

On a scale of 1-10, how likely would you be to hire [Candidate] again if you had an appropriate role? Why?

Guidance: This direct question often elicits more candid feedback than others. Listen carefully to both the rating and the explanation. Anything below an 8 warrants follow-up questions to understand concerns. The explanation often provides valuable context about what environments the candidate is most likely to succeed in.

Reference Check Scorecard

Technical Credibility

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Reference raised significant concerns about technical abilities
2: Reference indicated adequate technical skills with some limitations
3: Reference confirmed strong technical abilities aligned with role requirements
4: Reference highlighted exceptional technical expertise beyond expectations

Leadership Effectiveness

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Reference raised significant concerns about leadership abilities
2: Reference indicated adequate leadership with some development areas
3: Reference confirmed strong leadership aligned with role requirements
4: Reference highlighted exceptional leadership capabilities and impact

Crisis Management

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Reference raised concerns about performance under pressure
2: Reference indicated adequate but not exceptional crisis handling
3: Reference confirmed strong ability to manage high-pressure situations
4: Reference highlighted exceptional crisis management capabilities

Organizational Influence

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Reference indicated limited ability to influence beyond direct team
2: Reference confirmed some cross-functional influence but with limitations
3: Reference indicated strong ability to build relationships and influence
4: Reference highlighted exceptional organizational influence and impact

Establish effective SLIs/SLOs for all critical services

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Reference suggests candidate unlikely to achieve this goal
2: Reference suggests candidate likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Reference suggests candidate likely to achieve this goal
4: Reference suggests candidate likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) for production incidents

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Reference suggests candidate unlikely to achieve this goal
2: Reference suggests candidate likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Reference suggests candidate likely to achieve this goal
4: Reference suggests candidate likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Automate routine operational tasks

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Reference suggests candidate unlikely to achieve this goal
2: Reference suggests candidate likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Reference suggests candidate likely to achieve this goal
4: Reference suggests candidate likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Build a high-performing SRE team

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Reference suggests candidate unlikely to achieve this goal
2: Reference suggests candidate likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Reference suggests candidate likely to achieve this goal
4: Reference suggests candidate likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Drive adoption of SRE best practices across the engineering organization

0: Not Enough Information Gathered to Evaluate
1: Reference suggests candidate unlikely to achieve this goal
2: Reference suggests candidate likely to partially achieve this goal
3: Reference suggests candidate likely to achieve this goal
4: Reference suggests candidate likely to exceed expectations for this goal

Frequently Asked Questions

How should I adapt this interview guide for a more junior SRE Manager role?

For a more junior SRE Manager, focus more on technical proficiency and potential for leadership growth rather than extensive leadership experience. Reduce expectations around strategic thinking and organizational influence, while maintaining emphasis on SRE principles and team collaboration. Consider adding a more detailed technical assessment and looking for candidates who demonstrate strong mentoring capabilities even if they haven't formally managed large teams.

What if our company doesn't have a mature SRE practice yet?

If you're establishing SRE practices for the first time, focus more on change management skills and educational capabilities. Look for candidates who have experience building SRE functions from the ground up or transforming traditional operations teams. Place additional emphasis on the candidate's ability to influence across the organization and educate others on SRE principles. You might want to check out our guide on how to raise the talent bar in your organization for additional insights.

How do I evaluate candidates who come from different backgrounds, such as DevOps or traditional operations?

Focus on transferable skills and mindset rather than specific SRE experience. Look for candidates who demonstrate a reliability-focused approach, automation mindset, and data-driven decision making. Explore how they've applied similar principles in their previous roles. Ask scenario-based questions to see how they would approach typical SRE challenges. Consider using our interview scorecard guidance to help evaluate candidates from diverse backgrounds more objectively.

What should I do if a candidate has strong technical skills but I'm unsure about their leadership abilities?

Incorporate additional leadership scenarios in the work sample or add a focused leadership interview. Consider reference checks specifically with former direct reports. You might also explore whether a more senior SRE individual contributor role would be appropriate, with a path to management as their leadership skills develop. For more insights on evaluating leadership potential, see our article on identifying top leaders in the interview process.

How can I ensure the interview process doesn't take too long and risk losing good candidates?

Streamline the process by conducting some interviews on the same day and providing prompt feedback after each stage. Be transparent with candidates about the timeline and keep them engaged throughout the process. Consider which interviews could be combined if necessary. Remember that high-quality candidates are in demand, so moving efficiently while still being thorough is important. Our article on why you should design your hiring process before you start provides additional guidance on creating an efficient process.

What if there's disagreement among the interview team about a candidate?

Use the debrief meeting to thoroughly discuss different perspectives. Focus on specific examples and observations rather than general impressions. Consider whether additional information (such as another interview or more reference checks) would help resolve the disagreement. Ultimately, the hiring manager should make the final decision after carefully considering all input. For more on effective candidate debriefs, check out our article on candidate debriefs: an overlooked part of candidate interviews.