Engineering Manager, Gitlab Delivery: Upgrades

Gitlab

GitLab is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps. GitLab enables organizations to increase developer productivity, improve operational efficiency, reduce security and compliance risk, and accelerate digital transformation. More than 50 million registered users and more than 50% of the Fortune 100* trust GitLab to ship better, more secure software faster. The same principles built into our products are reflected in how our team works: we embrace AI as a core productivity multiplier, with all team members expected to incorporate AI into their daily workflows to drive efficiency, innovation, and impact. GitLab is where careers accelerate, innovation flourishes, and every voice is valued. Our high-performance culture is driven by our values and continuous knowledge exchange, enabling our team members to reach their full potential while collaborating with industry leaders to solve complex problems. Co-create the future with us as we build technology that transforms how the world develops software. *Fortune 500® is a registered trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, used under license. Claim based on GitLab data. Fortune 100 refers to the top 20% ranked companies in the 2025 Fortune 500 list, published in June 2025. Fortune and Fortune Media IP Limited are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of GitLab. AN OVERVIEW OF THIS ROLE As a Staff Engineer on the GitLab Delivery - Upgrades team, you’ll guide the technical direction for GitLab’s self-managed deployment strategy so customers can deploy, upgrade, and run GitLab reliably in their own infrastructure with minimal disruption. You’ll serve as a technical anchor for the team, working closely with your engineering manager, product manager, and partners across Site Reliability Engineering, Release, Security, and Development to shape cloud-native, operator-driven deployment patterns that reduce operational complexity and upgrade friction. In your first year, you’ll help define the architecture for zero-downtime upgrades, strengthen observability and reliability practices, and guide the next generation of deployment automation for self-managed GitLab environments. Some examples of our projects: * Evolving GitLab Operator and Helm charts to support zero-downtime upgrades for complex, stateful GitLab installations * Advancing the GitLab Environment Toolkit to simplify large-scale, production-ready self-managed deployments WHAT YOU’LL DO * Guide the technical vision and architecture for GitLab’s cloud-native, self-managed deployments and upgrade workflows. * Establish operational maturity standards, service integration patterns, and deployment models that help development teams manage the lifecycle of their components. * Design and maintain Kubernetes Operators, Helm charts, and upgrade orchestration tooling for self-managed GitLab deployments across varied environments. * Develop automation and integration frameworks for database migrations, rolling deployments, compatibility checks, and rollback paths. * Define database and application lifecycle strategies, including safe PostgreSQL migration approaches and validation mechanisms that reduce downtime risk. * Work with Product Management, GitLab.com Site Reliability Engineering, GitLab Dedicated, and development teams to align deployment patterns with customer needs. * Mentor engineers and enable customer-facing teams through design reviews, code reviews, documentation, and runbooks. * Drive observability, testing, performance, and resilience practices for self-managed deployments, and contribute to incident response and post-incident learning. WHAT YOU’LL BRING * Strong software engineering experience designing and delivering production systems that customers install and operate in their own infrastructure. * Proficiency in Go for large, complex codebases, with familiarity with Ruby on Rails and Rails application architecture as a useful addition. * Hands-on experience with Kubernetes in production, including building and maintaining Operators, designing Helm charts for stateful applications, and working with Custom Resource Definitions, admission controllers, and controller patterns. * Knowledge of cloud-native systems and tooling, such as service mesh, observability stacks, infrastructure as code, and automation tools like Terraform or Ansible. * Experience with stateful workloads and databases, including PostgreSQL schema design and migrations, persistent volumes, storage classes, and approaches for reducing downtime during upgrades. * Understanding of Linux systems and production operations, including package management, systemd, system-level debugging, observability, incident response, and on-call participation. * Ability to guide through influence, including writing clear technical proposals, documenting decisions, mentoring engineers, and working effectively across teams. * Interest in open source infrastructure or deployment tooling, or transferable experience from adjacent domains, with the ability to explain technical concepts clearly to different audiences. ABOUT THE TEAM The Delivery - Upgrades team sits within GitLab Delivery and focuses on delivering GitLab to self-managed users through supported, validated deployment tooling. We own and evolve the GitLab Omnibus package, Helm charts, GitLab Operator, and the GitLab Environment Toolkit, and we work asynchronously across regions with partners in Site Reliability Engineering, Release, Security, and Development. Our work centers on enabling zero-downtime upgrades, reducing operational complexity at scale, supporting GitLab’s cloud-native transition while continuing to serve existing deployments, and improving the upgrade experience for customers running GitLab in diverse environments. For more on how we work, see [Link: Team Handbook Page]. HOW GITLAB SUPPORTS FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES * Benefits to support your health, finances, and well-being * Flexible Paid Time Off  * Team Member Resource Groups * Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan * Growth and Development Fund * Parental Leave  Please note that we welcome interest from candidates with varying levels of experience; many successful candidates do not meet every single requirement. Additionally, studies have shown that people from underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to a job unless they meet every single qualification. If you're excited about this role, please apply and allow our recruiters to assess your application. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Country Hiring Guidelines: GitLab hires new team members in countries around the world. All of our roles are remote, however some roles may carry specific location-based eligibility requirements. Our Talent Acquisition team can help answer any questions about location after starting the recruiting process.   Privacy Policy: Please review our Recruitment Privacy Policy. Your privacy is important to us. GitLab is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. GitLab’s policies and practices relating to recruitment, employment, career development and advancement, promotion, and retirement are based solely on merit, regardless of race, color, religion, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, lactation, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression), national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, mental or physical disability, genetic information (including family medical history), discharge status from the military, protected veteran status (which includes disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, active duty wartime or campaign badge veterans, and Armed Forces service medal veterans), or any other basis protected by law. GitLab will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. See also GitLab’s EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know during the recruiting process.

Gitlab

GitLab is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps. GitLab enables organizations to increase developer productivity, improve operational efficiency, reduce security and compliance risk, and accelerate digital transformation. More than 50 million registered users and more than 50% of the Fortune 100* trust GitLab to ship better, more secure software faster. The same principles built into our products are reflected in how our team works: we embrace AI as a core productivity multiplier, with all team members expected to incorporate AI into their daily workflows to drive efficiency, innovation, and impact. GitLab is where careers accelerate, innovation flourishes, and every voice is valued. Our high-performance culture is driven by our values and continuous knowledge exchange, enabling our team members to reach their full potential while collaborating with industry leaders to solve complex problems. Co-create the future with us as we build technology that transforms how the world develops software. *Fortune 500® is a registered trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, used under license. Claim based on GitLab data. Fortune 100 refers to the top 20% ranked companies in the 2025 Fortune 500 list, published in June 2025. Fortune and Fortune Media IP Limited are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of GitLab. AN OVERVIEW OF THIS ROLE As a Senior Backend Engineer on the GitLab Upgrades team, you’ll help self-managed customers run GitLab reliably by building and maintaining the infrastructure, tooling, and automation behind our deployment options. You’ll work across Omnibus GitLab, GitLab Helm Charts, the GitLab Environment Toolkit (Get), and the GitLab Operator to make GitLab easier to deploy, more secure by default, and scalable across major cloud providers and a wide range of customer environments. In this role, you’ll partner closely with engineering teams and act as a bridge to customer needs, improving installation, upgrade, and day-to-day operations for production-grade GitLab deployments. Some examples of our projects: * Evolving Omnibus GitLab, Helm Charts, GET, and the GitLab Operator to support validated reference architectures for enterprise-scale deployments * Building automation pipelines and observability into deployment tooling to validate, test, and operate GitLab across Kubernetes and other self-managed environments WHAT YOU’LL DO * Maintain and evolve the Omnibus GitLab package to support reliable, production-ready self-managed deployments, improving deployment stability, increasing upgrade success rates, and reducing escalation rates. * Develop and improve GitLab Helm Charts so core components integrate cleanly and scale across supported environments, reducing deployment friction, shortening time to deploy, and improving operational consistency at scale. * Enhance the GitLab Environment Toolkit (Get), validated reference architectures, and the GitLab Operator for secure, Kubernetes-native lifecycle management, improving reliability, strengthening security baselines, and accelerating adoption in customer environments. * Improve installation, upgrade, and operational workflows across deployment methods to create a consistent experience for self-managed customers, reducing operational overhead, lowering failure rates, and increasing consistency across deployment methods. * Partner with Security to address vulnerabilities and deliver secure defaults and configurations in the deployment stack, reducing exposure to vulnerabilities and improving baseline security across self-managed deployments. * Build and maintain automation and continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines that validate and test Omnibus, Charts, Get, and the Operator, increasing release confidence, improving test coverage, and reducing regressions across deployment tooling. * Work closely with Distribution Engineers, Site Reliability Engineers, Release Managers, and Development teams to integrate new features into deployment methods and keep them reliable, scalable, and aligned with customer needs, improving delivery readiness and reducing operational issues after release. * Guide architectural direction, mentor backend engineers, and contribute to the roadmap for self-managed delivery, improving technical quality, accelerating delivery effectiveness, and strengthening team execution. WHAT YOU’LL BRING * Experience operating backend services in production, including deployment, monitoring, and maintenance in Kubernetes- and Helm-based environments. * Proficiency in Go for building observable and resilient services, with working knowledge of Ruby as a useful addition. * Hands-on practice with infrastructure as code, including tools such as Terraform, and with managing infrastructure across cloud providers such as Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, or Microsoft Azure. * Knowledge of database design, operations, and troubleshooting, especially for PostgreSQL in secure and scalable setups. * Knowledge of secure, scalable, and reliable deployment practices, including service scaling and rollout strategies. * Familiarity with observability tools and patterns such as Prometheus and Grafana to monitor system health and performance. * Ability to work effectively in large codebases and coordinate across distributed, cross-functional teams using clear written communication. * Openness to transferable experience from related backend or infrastructure roles, along with the ability to write user-focused documentation and implementation guides. ABOUT THE TEAM The Upgrades team is part of GitLab Delivery and focuses on helping self-managed customers run GitLab successfully in their own environments, from smaller deployments to large enterprise footprints. We own deployment and operational tooling across our work on Omnibus GitLab, Helm Charts, Get, and the GitLab Operator, and we work as a globally distributed, all-remote group that works asynchronously with Site Reliability Engineering, Release, Security, and Development teams across regions. We are focused on making self-managed GitLab easier to deploy, upgrade, secure, and operate at scale. For more on how we work, see Team Handbook Page. HOW GITLAB SUPPORTS FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES * Benefits to support your health, finances, and well-being * Flexible Paid Time Off  * Team Member Resource Groups * Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan * Growth and Development Fund * Parental Leave  Please note that we welcome interest from candidates with varying levels of experience; many successful candidates do not meet every single requirement. Additionally, studies have shown that people from underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to a job unless they meet every single qualification. If you're excited about this role, please apply and allow our recruiters to assess your application. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Country Hiring Guidelines: GitLab hires new team members in countries around the world. All of our roles are remote, however some roles may carry specific location-based eligibility requirements. Our Talent Acquisition team can help answer any questions about location after starting the recruiting process.   Privacy Policy: Please review our Recruitment Privacy Policy. Your privacy is important to us. GitLab is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. GitLab’s policies and practices relating to recruitment, employment, career development and advancement, promotion, and retirement are based solely on merit, regardless of race, color, religion, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, lactation, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression), national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, mental or physical disability, genetic information (including family medical history), discharge status from the military, protected veteran status (which includes disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, active duty wartime or campaign badge veterans, and Armed Forces service medal veterans), or any other basis protected by law. GitLab will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. See also GitLab’s EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know during the recruiting process.

Gitlab

GitLab is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps. GitLab enables organizations to increase developer productivity, improve operational efficiency, reduce security and compliance risk, and accelerate digital transformation. More than 50 million registered users and more than 50% of the Fortune 100* trust GitLab to ship better, more secure software faster. The same principles built into our products are reflected in how our team works: we embrace AI as a core productivity multiplier, with all team members expected to incorporate AI into their daily workflows to drive efficiency, innovation, and impact. GitLab is where careers accelerate, innovation flourishes, and every voice is valued. Our high-performance culture is driven by our values and continuous knowledge exchange, enabling our team members to reach their full potential while collaborating with industry leaders to solve complex problems. Co-create the future with us as we build technology that transforms how the world develops software. *Fortune 500® is a registered trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, used under license. Claim based on GitLab data. Fortune 100 refers to the top 20% ranked companies in the 2025 Fortune 500 list, published in June 2025. Fortune and Fortune Media IP Limited are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of GitLab. An overview of this role As Manager / Senior Manager, Cell Infrastructure, you'll help shape the foundation that lets GitLab run reliably across multiple cloud providers in the agentic era. As more enterprise customers adopt AI-driven development workflows, GitLab needs a cell-based infrastructure that can scale horizontally, support strong reliability, and operate with clear cost efficiency. In this role, you'll report to the VP Engineering, Platform Scale & Architecture and lead a 0 to 1 effort to build the control layer that determines how GitLab cells are provisioned, placed, and operated across clouds. This is a high-impact leadership role where you'll define architecture as much as you'll deliver it. In your first year, you'll help establish the technical direction for multi-cloud cell infrastructure, build and grow the team based on level, and create the operational model for reliability, developer enablement, and cost visibility. You'll work across platform, infrastructure, CI/CD, and AI-related areas, including support for the Duo Agent Platform, to make sure the cellular substrate can meet GitLab's next stage of scale.   What you’ll do * Lead the design and delivery of multi-cloud cell placement and orchestration systems that support GitLab's cell-based architecture. * Build and grow the engineering team responsible for cell infrastructure, spanning architecture, delivery, and production operations. * Drive infrastructure cost visibility and optimization by partnering with finance and platform teams to make unit economics part of the system design. * Own the reliability model for cell infrastructure, including on-call practices, incident response, and postmortem follow-through. * Partner with adjacent teams such as Git infrastructure, Artifact Registry, Duo Agent Platform, and CI/CD to support their scaling and deployment needs. * Define and evolve architectural decisions for cross-cloud routing, data residency, and infrastructure portability. * Develop platform capabilities and developer tooling that let teams deploy on top of cell infrastructure without needing to understand its internal complexity. * Represent the team in cross-functional planning with senior engineering stakeholders on GitLab's broader cells and multi-cloud strategy. What you’ll bring * Hands-on experience designing, building, and operating distributed systems in production using cell-based architecture. * Operational ownership of highly reliable systems, including experience with on-call, incident management, and site reliability engineering practices. * Strong knowledge of distributed systems fundamentals such as consistency models, partitioning and sharding, failure modes, and multi-region or multi-cloud tradeoffs. * Experience leading engineering teams in a distributed environment, with scope aligned to either a single team or a broader multi-team organization. * Ability to hire, support, and develop engineers, including senior individual contributors and, at the senior manager level, engineering managers. * Experience building platform capabilities or developer tools that other engineering teams use to build and deploy software. * Comfort working in ambiguity and helping define direction in an early-stage build rather than stepping into a maintenance-focused role; transferable experience from comparable large-scale infrastructure, multi-cloud platforms, FinOps, AI-supporting systems, or major architecture transitions is welcome. * Clear cross-functional communication skills and the ability to work effectively with VP-level and CTO-level stakeholders. About the team The Platform Scale & Architecture team focuses on evolving the core infrastructure patterns that let GitLab scale securely, reliably, and efficiently as customer and product demands grow. Within that group, the Cell Infrastructure area focuses on the platform layer behind cell provisioning, placement, routing, and operations across cloud environments. Depending on level, you'll oversee either a focused team working on one part of the problem or a broader set of teams across the cell infrastructure space. We work asynchronously across regions and partner closely with Git infrastructure, Artifact Registry, Duo Agent Platform, and CI/CD teams to support GitLab's broader multi-cloud strategy. A key focus for us is balancing portability, data residency, reliability, and cost as GitLab moves further into a cell-based architecture. For more on how this organization works, see Team Handbook Page. HOW GITLAB SUPPORTS FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES * Benefits to support your health, finances, and well-being * Flexible Paid Time Off  * Team Member Resource Groups * Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan * Growth and Development Fund * Parental Leave  Please note that we welcome interest from candidates with varying levels of experience; many successful candidates do not meet every single requirement. Additionally, studies have shown that people from underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to a job unless they meet every single qualification. If you're excited about this role, please apply and allow our recruiters to assess your application. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Country Hiring Guidelines: GitLab hires new team members in countries around the world. All of our roles are remote, however some roles may carry specific location-based eligibility requirements. Our Talent Acquisition team can help answer any questions about location after starting the recruiting process.   Privacy Policy: Please review our Recruitment Privacy Policy. Your privacy is important to us. GitLab is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. GitLab’s policies and practices relating to recruitment, employment, career development and advancement, promotion, and retirement are based solely on merit, regardless of race, color, religion, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, lactation, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression), national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, mental or physical disability, genetic information (including family medical history), discharge status from the military, protected veteran status (which includes disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, active duty wartime or campaign badge veterans, and Armed Forces service medal veterans), or any other basis protected by law. GitLab will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. See also GitLab’s EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know during the recruiting process.