Splunk Core Engineer

Location: Houston, Texas (onsite)Start Date: 1st June 2026Six-month contractSalary $80,000 - $100,000 per annumWe are hiring a Splunk Engineer with deep, hands-on experience owning and operating Splunk end-to-end in a commercial enterprise environment. This role is suited to someone who has worked on small, high-impact teams, taken broad responsibility for the Splunk platform, and is comfortable making architectural, operational, and engineering decisions without reliance on large, highly siloed teams.We are specifically looking for candidates with strong ingest management experience, deep involvement in data onboarding, and ownership of the entire ingestion and processing pipeline, including Edge Processors and Ingest Actions.Key ResponsibilitiesData Ingestion, Onboarding & Pipeline DevelopmentOwn and manage Splunk data ingestion end-to-end, with a strong emphasis on ingest management, Edge Processors, and Ingest ActionsDesign, implement, and optimize ingestion pipelines for diverse enterprise data sourcesLead and execute onboarding of new log and metric sources, ensuring data quality, normalization, and performanceWork closely with application, infrastructure, and security teams to support new use cases and data requirementsIndex Management, Performance Monitoring & OptimizationDesign and manage index strategy, retention policies, and storage optimizationMonitor platform health, throughput, and latency, proactively identifying performance bottlenecksLead tuning and optimization of Splunk environments at scalePatch & Platform Lifecycle ManagementOwn Splunk platform lifecycle, including version upgrades, patching, and compatibility planningEvaluate new Splunk features and capabilities and drive adoption where appropriateEnsure platform reliability, stability, and security across environmentsTroubleshooting & Incident ResponseServe as a senior escalation point for complex platform issuesDiagnose and resolve ingestion, indexing, search, and performance issuesLead incident response efforts related to the Splunk platform and data pipelinesDocumentation & Knowledge SharingCreate and maintain high-quality technical documentation for platform architecture, ingest pipelines, and operational proceduresShare knowledge and best practices across teams, mentoring less experienced engineersContribute to continuous improvement of standards and operating modelsRequired Experience & SkillsSplunk Expertise2 years Splunk architecture experienceStrong, demonstrable experience with ingest management, including: Edge Processors, Ingest ActionsData routing, filtering, and transformation at ingestProven track record onboarding and managing a wide range of data sourcesExperience owning Splunk in environments where responsibilities were not heavily divided across large teamsTechnical & Design SkillsBroad experience across Splunk platform operations, not just a single functional areaSolid foundation in cloud technologies, containerization, and modern infrastructure patternsExperience of working Linux systemsScripting and automation skills (e.g., Python, shell, or similar)Hands-on experience with Salt automation for creating, editing, and maintaining Splunk lookup tablesStrong understanding of modern system design, integration patterns, and automation principlesProblem Solving & CommunicationAdvanced troubleshooting and critical thinking skills, able to go beyond runbooksComfortable operating with ambiguity and designing pragmatic solutionsStrong written and verbal communication skills, able to explain complex concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholdersExperience EnvironmentRecent experience in commercial enterprise environments is strongly preferredCandidates whose experience is primarily limited to government or highly specialized Splunk environments may not be a fitBackground working on small teams with broad ownership is essential

Created: 2026-05-09