Senior Backend Engineer

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 Operate team, you’ll help self-managed customers run GitLab reliably by building and supporting 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 decisions, 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 support 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.
• Understanding of secure, scalable, and supportable 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 Operate 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 and Related Initiative.

How GitLab will support you

• 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 
• Home office support

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.  

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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.