Meet the Chronosphere Team: Katie Greenley, Open Source Community manager

Every Chronospherian is unique and someone to be celebrated. From engineering superstar to finance whiz to Marketing hero, our company would not be where we are today without contribution from every employee. We are also a remote-first company and we’re growing fast, which means most of us – including members of the same team – might not have met in person yet. (Our head of people writes about Chronosphere’s remote-first approach to hiring and our co-founder and CEO, Martin Mao, tells our origin story here).

In this article it’s time to introduce one of the newest members of our team to the world, Katie Greenley, who is well known in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) community for leading the CNCF Ambassador program. Katie has recently joined the Chronosphere family as our Open Source Community Manager working in the Community and Developer Relations team within Marketing.

Katie is originally from Denver, Colorado, currently resides in Longmont, Colorado, and we recently spent a few minutes chatting about what brought her over to Chronosphere, what she’s passionate about, and other interesting topics.

I am the new OSS (Open Source Software) Community Manager. Focusing on observability projects like Fluent Bit, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, and more. I’ll be working closely with maintainers, contributors, and developers to help foster collaboration, amplify contributions, and champion the incredible work happening across these ecosystems.

I’ll be doing what I do best, which is connecting with people, creating momentum, and supporting sustainable open source growth through community building, content, events, and advocacy.

Before joining Chronosphere, I spent 11 years at the Linux Foundation, most recently working with the CNCF as a Marketing and Community Manager. Over the years, I had the chance to wear many hats—starting in events, where I helped organize major industry gatherings like PromCon and KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, and later moving into community and marketing work.

I supported the global cloud native ecosystem through programs like CNCF Ambassadors, Kubernetes Community Days (KCDs), and Cloud Native Community Groups (CNCGs), all aimed at fostering connection, collaboration, and growth across the community.

Coming to Chronosphere felt like serendipity. It was the right opportunity at the right time—a chance to grow while narrowing my focus to something I care deeply about: observability. I’ve spent years building communities across cloud native, and I wanted to take that momentum and apply it to a specific vertical, where I could go deeper and help drive real impact.

Chronosphere stood out to me not only as a leader in helping teams tame observability chaos, but also as a company that supports and invests in foundational open source projects like Fluentbit, Prometheus, and OpenTelemetry. I saw the role as a way to champion those projects and their communities while collaborating with some of the most forward-thinking practitioners in the industry.

There’s also something genuinely fun and inventive about Chronosphere—there’s energy, ambition, and a lot of heart behind the product and the people. The possibilities for community building here feel endless, and I’m excited to still be part of the broader cloud native ecosystem, just now in a more focused and impactful way.

I’ll be diving into communities like Fluent Bit, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Perseus, and beyond. Connecting with everyone from maintainers to first-time contributors. My focus will be on building bridges, sparking collaboration, and shining a light on the amazing work happening across these ecosystems. Whether it’s helping ideas take flight or celebrating unsung heroes, I’m excited to be part of the energy that keeps these projects thriving.

As an open source community manager, I’ll be rolling up my sleeves to support CNCF communities in all kinds of hands-on ways. From running programs like community meetups and project office hours to launching recognition initiatives and crafting tailored content – blogs, newsletters, livestreams, speaking opportunities, interactive scenarios – you name it, I’ll be there. My goal is to create more spaces for contributors to connect, share, and grow.

I’m especially looking forward to shining a spotlight on the incredible folks behind these projects, because in the world of observability, if a community does amazing work and no one hears about it… did it even emit a trace? 😉

I’m obsessed with Halloween. It’s hands-down my favorite holiday, and I go all out, planning elaborate front lawn displays about six months in advance and starting setup right after Labor Day. Every year, I turn our front lawn into an elaborate themed display, and it’s become a local tradition. We’re known in the neighborhood as “the house with the skeletons.”

Past themes have included a skeleton lawn care service, a spa, beach party, and even a fishing trip. It’s spooky, it’s silly, and it’s seriously fun!

My role model was my neighbor and honorary grandmother, Nancy. She was the kind of woman who called it like she saw it. She was tough as nails, quick-witted, and fiercely loyal. She gave the people she loved a hard time, but would drop everything to show up for them when it mattered.

Nancy was a single mother who made a career doing elaborate window displays—think Saks Fifth Avenue at the holidays. She was creative, successful, and completely unapologetic in a time when women were expected to stay quiet or play small. What stuck with me most was that she taught me, especially as a young girl, that you could be loud, funny, and “unladylike”and that those weren’t flaws, they were power.

She showed me what it looked like to be both independent and caring, both bold and deeply generous. I carry that with me in everything I do.

Easy, I would be a red panda. They are relaxed, curious, resourceful, smart and adaptable; all things I like to think I am on a good day. I also think red pandas are niche and underrated just like a good open source tool, IYKYK!

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