What Grafana Labs does

Grafana Labs builds the leading open-source observability stack – tools for metrics, logs, traces, and dashboards that help engineers understand what’s happening inside their systems. Their flagship product, Grafana, is one of the most widely adopted monitoring tools in the world. The ecosystem includes Loki (log aggregation), Tempo (distributed tracing), and Mimir (long-term metrics storage).

Founded in 2014, Grafana Labs serves thousands of organisations from startups to the world’s largest enterprises. They also offer Grafana Cloud, a fully managed SaaS platform, which drives their commercial revenue alongside enterprise support. If your company monitors its infrastructure, there’s a good chance Grafana dashboards are involved.

Remote culture: what it’s actually like

Grafana Labs was remote from Day 1 – there was never an office to close. Their 1,800+ employees work across 50+ countries, and the entire operating model was built around distributed collaboration from the start.

Two policies stand out immediately. First, 30 days of annual leave – generous by any standard, and particularly notable for a tech company. Second, company-wide shutdown days: regular days where the entire company is off, so nobody returns from vacation to a mountain of messages and catch-up work. Together, these policies signal a genuine commitment to preventing burnout rather than just talking about it.

The open-source foundation shapes the culture in ways that extend beyond code. Transparency, community contribution, and public collaboration are baked into how the company operates. Async communication is the default – written updates, recorded demos, and documentation over live meetings.

Leadership is distributed across the company’s global footprint. The culture feels technically driven and builder-oriented. People who work there tend to be passionate about the technology and the craft of building reliable systems.

The honest assessment: Grafana Labs is a technical company, and the culture reflects that. Non-technical roles exist and are valued, but the gravitational centre is engineering. If you’re a marketer or salesperson who wants to work alongside passionate technologists, this is ideal. If you prefer a culture where non-technical functions have equal weight, the adjustment may be noticeable.

Hiring in Europe: the details

Countries: 50+ countries, with most roles open globally. European team members are well-represented, and the company has hiring infrastructure across major EU markets.

Employment model: Direct hire in key markets. Grafana Labs has established entities in multiple countries, enabling direct employment relationships. Some locations may use EOR or contractor arrangements.

Timezone expectations: Flexible for most roles. The distributed model means async communication handles timezone differences, though some collaborative or customer-facing positions may note regional preferences.

Salary approach: Competitive with equity. As a well-funded, growth-stage company, Grafana Labs offers strong compensation packages. The combination of salary, equity, and the generous leave policy makes the total package compelling.

Language requirements: English is the working language.

Who they’re looking for

Grafana Labs hires across technical and non-technical roles:

  • Software engineering (Go, TypeScript, React)
  • Site reliability and infrastructure engineering
  • Product management and design
  • Developer advocacy and community
  • Sales and solutions engineering
  • Marketing and content
  • Customer success and support

The open-source connection is a genuine differentiator in hiring. Candidates who’ve used, contributed to, or built on Grafana’s tools have a meaningful advantage – it demonstrates both skill and cultural alignment simultaneously.

What current and former employees say

Employees consistently praise the open-source culture, the technical calibre of colleagues, and the genuine commitment to distributed work. The 30 days leave and shutdown days are frequently cited as standout benefits that make a tangible difference to quality of life. The builder-oriented culture is described as empowering by people who want ownership over their work.

The challenges: the pace is demanding, the technical bar is high, and the open-source community can generate pressure beyond normal product timelines. Some employees note that the rapid growth is creating typical scaling challenges – processes that worked at 500 people need reinvention at 1,800. Non-technical employees occasionally describe feeling peripheral to the engineering-driven core.

People who thrive at Grafana Labs are builders who care about open source, enjoy technical complexity, and want the combination of startup energy with genuine work-life respect.

How to apply

Specific tips: Use their tools. Grafana is open source and free – set up a local instance, build dashboards, or contribute to the project. Even a personal homelab dashboard speaks louder than a polished CV. For engineering roles, contributing to their open-source repos is a direct signal of skill and cultural fit. For non-technical roles, understanding the observability space and why monitoring matters will set you apart from candidates who just see “remote company hiring.”

See our full guide to Remote-First Companies That Actually Hire in Europe.