What is a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)?

The term “Site Reliability Engineer” was popularized by Google, blending software engineering with IT operations. The goal? To create scalable, reliable software systems. Instead of the traditional “sysadmin” approach, an SRE writes code to automate tasks, reduce manual work, and ensure systems stay online—no matter the load.

An SRE is responsible for:

• Monitoring uptime and performance

• Incident response and postmortems

• Automation of operational tasks

• Capacity planning

• System scaling and reliability

It’s a role that bridges development and operations—a DevOps evolution with a strong engineering backbone.

Why Mexico?

Mexico is emerging as a major player in Latin America’s tech landscape. Cities like Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Mexico City are becoming hubs for startups and major tech firms alike. With a strong talent pool, lower operating costs, and cultural proximity to the U.S., Mexico is attracting attention for roles like Site Reliability Engineer (SRE).

For Sonny Safi, Mexico offers a unique mix of career growth, innovation, and lifestyle. “Being a Site Reliability Engineer in Mexico isn’t just about maintaining systems—it’s about building the future of Latin American tech,” he says.

A Day in the Life of an SRE in Mexico

According to Sonny Safi, no two days are exactly the same in SRE work. Here’s a typical breakdown:

• Morning: Review alerts and metrics from overnight. If an incident occurred, the day starts with a postmortem and applying fixes.

• Midday: Code reviews, automation scripting, or infrastructure-as-code updates using tools like Terraform or Ansible.

• Afternoon: Collaborative work with development teams to improve deployment pipelines or reliability of new features.

The key is proactive reliability. “As an SRE, you’re not waiting for things to break—you’re designing systems so they don’t,” Sonny explains.

Challenges Facing SREs in Mexico

While Mexico has a growing ecosystem, it also brings challenges:

1. Hiring and talent retention – The demand for experienced SREs is high.

2. Infrastructure maturity – Not all companies are fully cloud-native yet.

3. Cross-border collaboration – Working with U.S. and European teams across time zones can be tricky.

Despite these, Sonny Safi emphasizes that these hurdles also present learning opportunities. “Every challenge here sharpens your skills and makes you a better engineer,” he notes.

Advice for Aspiring Site Reliability Engineers in Mexico

Sonny Safi offers three tips:

1. Master scripting and automation – Python, Bash, and Go are crucial.

2. Get comfortable with monitoring tools – Prometheus, Grafana, and Datadog are essentials.

3. Be curious and relentless – Always ask how something can be more resilient.

Certifications like Google’s SRE track or AWS DevOps Engineer can help stand out, but hands-on experience is what truly counts.