Vice President of Engineering, GitLab
Architecture and Transformation
Offers equity and ESPP
One DevOps platform
Open for applications
One DevOps platform
1001+ employees
Open for applications
Offers equity and ESPP
1001+ employees
Company mission
To make it so that everyone can contribute. When everyone can contribute, users become contributors and we greatly increase the rate of innovation.
Role
Who you are
- Large-Scale Engineering Leadership: Proven experience leading large-scale engineering organizations, including horizontal or platform functions that span multiple product areas
- World-Scale Service Operations: Deep background in building, operating and evolving highly available, world-scale services with a strong focus on reliability and quality
- Architectural Expertise: Demonstrated technical depth across modern software architectures, including experience driving major architectural transitions such as decoupling monoliths and defining foundational primitives
- Hands-On Technical Leadership: Hands-on engineering leadership style, with the ability to engage directly in code and technical design when needed while guiding teams from strategy through execution
- AI-Assisted Development: Expertise in AI-assisted development and tooling, with a track record of using AI to improve developer productivity and inform product direction
- Cost-Conscious Architecture: Experience driving COGS-conscious engineering decisions, optimizing architectures and operations for both performance and cost efficiency
- Cross-Functional Influence: Ability to influence without direct authority in a matrixed environment, aligning engineering, product and executive stakeholders around shared outcomes
- Product-Minded Change Leadership: Strong product mindset and change leadership skills, including managing the human side of large technical shifts in similarly complex, high-scale environments
- If you're excited about this role, please apply and allow our recruiters to assess your application
What the job involves
- As the Vice President of Engineering, Architecture and Transformation, you'll create and lead a new Engineering Leadership Team (ELT)-level engineering pillar focused on AI-powered productivity, next-generation architecture and horizontal execution across GitLab
- You'll tackle critical cross-cutting problems such as improving engineering productivity with AI tools like Claude Code, solving major architectural challenges like decoupling the monolith and building next-generation primitives and improving responsiveness by embedding a horizontal engineering team into high-priority verticals
- You'll lead two new charters: Architecture, Quality and Engineering Excellence and Horizontal Engineering
- Together, these charters will define and roll out engineering best practices, serve as "Customer Zero" for GitLab's AI-assisted development workflows and provide dynamic, high-context capacity that accelerates delivery and improves reliability toward targets like 99.99% availability
- In your first year, you'll work closely with the ELT and PMO to set and deliver a clear AI and architecture roadmap
- You'll establish standards that raise quality and operational efficiency and build a high-trust model for embedded horizontal teams that strengthens GitLab's global, always-on innovation cycle
- Some examples of our projects:
- The AI-Augmented Delivery Engine: A strategic initiative to use GitLab as "Customer Zero" by integrating state-of-the-art agents—leveraging tools like Claude Code or equivalent open-source models—to automate non-creative tasks like refactoring and MR generation, establishing a blueprint for non-linear productivity gains
- The "Act 2" Alignment Charter: A strategic roadmap co-authored with senior leadership that identifies systemic technical bottlenecks and defines the architectural evolution required to move GitLab from a DevSecOps platform to an AI-autonomous delivery engine
- Lead the new Engineering, Architecture and Transformation pillar as part of the ELT, setting a clear vision for horizontal engineering excellence across GitLab
- Drive the definition, adoption and continual improvement of engineering best practices, partnering with Product, PMO and vertical engineering leaders to raise quality, reliability and delivery consistency
- Own the "Customer Zero" charter by championing internal use of GitLab, unblocking teams and directly contributing to code when needed to validate workflows and accelerate critical initiatives
- Define and guide the transition to next-generation, AI-optimized architecture, including the design and rollout of core primitives that enable vertical teams to decouple legacy systems and scale for ultra-scale customers
- Build and lead the Architecture, Quality and Engineering Excellence team to deliver non-linear productivity gains through AI-assisted development, including tools such as Claude Code and GitLab Duo
- Establish and manage the Horizontal Engineering team as a flexible, embedded group that joins target teams, gains deep context in their codebases and delivers high-impact features and fixes during US business hours
- Collaborate across the ELT and senior leaders to identify systemic horizontal challenges, prioritize cross-cutting initiatives and ensure clear technical ownership and accountability for their execution
- Champion an operationally frugal mindset by aligning AI and architectural decisions with cost of goods sold optimization, while maintaining high availability, service reliability targets and a strong culture of engineering excellence
- You'll join a small, high-context, globally distributed group that works asynchronously
Our take
GitLab is an open-source collaboration platform for developers. It enables teams to build code quickly from anywhere without compromising on security or quality. GitLab already has an estimated 30M+ users from all over the world.
According to a 2021 GitLab report, 60% of developers can release code 2x faster with DevOps platforms that bring teams together and accelerate processes. It stands out by catering to programmers of all experiences. Gitlab's version control system helps streamline the process of creating, maintaining, and deploying code, whoever you are.
GitLab was in the right place to capitalise on the recent trend toward rapid digital transformation and remote working. This trend is expected to grow, and with it, GitLab's popularity. With its successful 2021 IPO and the patronage of major brands such as Nasdaq and Jaguar Land Rover, GitLab is expected to solidify its position as the go-to platform for development teams.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
15% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 8 rounds)
Sep 2019
$268m
SERIES E
Dec 2018
$20m
SERIES D
Total funding: $434.7m
Company benefits
- We offer benefits to manage your health, wealth, and well-being regardless of location
- Flexibility in schedule to be there for life’s important moments
- Equity compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan offered
- Generous Paid Time Off
Company HQ
Financial District, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Sid Sijbrandij
(CEO)Studied Physics at the University of Twente. Interned at P&G and IBM. Was Lead Architect at the Netherlands' Ministry of Justice from 2009 to 2012. Founded app store Comcoaster in 2008, and then co-founded GitLab in 2012.
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