Tier-2 Oncall
The Tier-2 SME on-call program enhances incident response by establishing a second tier of specialized support to complement the existing SRE EOC (Engineering On-Call) rotation. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) provide domain-specific knowledge to help resolve complex incidents faster, improve MTTR (Mean Time To Recover), and increase ownership and accountability for service reliability.
Expectations
- Respond when paged by:
- Tier-1 SRE EOC
- Security
- Self-Managed Support
- Assist with complex, domain-specific incidents that Tier-1 cannot resolve independently
- Maintain a 24/7/365 rotation with reliable coverage across time zones
- Acknowledge pages within 15 minutes and have a clear escalation path if the primary responder is unavailable
- Help define and maintain:
- Escalation rules for your domain
- Documentation and runbooks
Onboarding Process for Teams
- Define SME group
- Identify team members who will participate in the rotation
- Consider legal and employment restrictions for out-of-hours coverage
- Create onboarding issue
- Use the Team incident onboarding template
- Document escalation criteria and severity levels
- Set up on-call rotation
- Configure schedules in incident.io
- Ensure pager settings and notification rules are set for each member of the new rotation.
- Document escalation procedures
- Define escalation chain for unacknowledged pages (who is escalated to if no one responds within 15-minute period)
- Complete training
- Ensure all participants understand their role
- Review incident response procedures
Next Steps
- Double check your schedule to ensure coverage during holidays and team events
Last modified April 4, 2025: Add instructions for tier 2 oncall onboarding (
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