Backend Engineer, GitLab
Knowledge Graph, Rust
$98-210k
+ Bonuses + Equity
One DevOps platform
Be an early applicant
One DevOps platform
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$98-210k
+ Bonuses + Equity
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
- Professional experience building and maintaining backend systems in production, with an understanding of reliability, maintainability, and how to support services over time (incident responses, and follow-ups, etc)
- Proficiency in at least one modern backend language and strong interest in Rust, with either prior Rust experience or clear evidence you can ramp quickly and deliver in a Rust-first, performance-sensitive codebase
- Some exposure to distributed data or analytics systems (for example, OLAP databases, Kafka- or NATS-style messaging, or change data capture (CDC) pipelines), or strong motivation to develop those skills in this role
- Interest in graph data modeling and query patterns (property graphs, multi-step (n-hop) traversals, aggregations), and willingness to learn the tools and concepts used in Knowledge Graph over time
- Practical experience (or strong interest) using AI tools in day-to-day development, along with a thoughtful approach to validating outputs and integrating AI into your workflow
- A language-agnostic mindset and evidence that you can pick up new languages and frameworks as needed (for example, Ruby, Go, or TypeScript/Vue where the work touches adjacent systems)
- Solid fundamentals in system design for your level, including the ability to reason about trade-offs, ask good questions, and align your implementation work with documented architectural decisions
- Comfort working in a low-process, high-ownership environment where you take responsibility for your work, communicate progress clearly, and help refine problem statements with your teammates
- Strong written communication and comfort collaborating asynchronously across time zones in an all-remote team
What the job involves
- As an Intermediate Backend Engineer on the GitLab Knowledge Graph team, you'll help build and operate a graph data service that supports GitLab Duo agents, analytics, and architecture-level features across GitLab.com, Dedicated, and Self-Managed deployments
- You’ll join a small, Rust-first team that values clear ownership, thoughtful system design, and rigorous thinking about data and reliability
- The Knowledge Graph service is a Rust backend that builds a property graph from GitLab’s software development lifecycle (SDLC) and code data
- It uses ClickHouse, NATS JetStream, and the Data Insights Platform
- It exposes secure graph queries and MCP tools used by AI agents and product features
- In this role, you’ll deliver features and improvements in well-scoped areas, learn the broader architecture, and contribute to reliability, observability, and operational readiness
- In your first year, you’ll take clear ownership of specific components or features (for example, parts of the SDLC indexing pipeline or query paths)
- You’ll help reduce single points of failure with better tests and runbooks, and you’ll help the team ship analytical services that are easier to maintain and evolve over time
- Implement and iterate on backend features in the Rust-based Knowledge Graph service, including changes to the query engine, SDLC and code indexing flows, and API endpoints (including MCP endpoints) under guidance from senior and staff engineers
- Help maintain integrations between Knowledge Graph and the rest of the GitLab platform, working in areas that touch GitLab Rails, the Data Insights Platform (Siphon, NATS, ClickHouse), and GitLab Duo Agent Platform
- Contribute to system design discussions by proposing options, raising questions, and documenting decisions, with a focus on reliability, scalability, and maintainability for analytical graph workloads
- Improve the operational maturity of the service by adding or enhancing metrics, logging, runbooks, alerts, and small readiness tasks, and by participating in on-call rotation as appropriate for your level and experience
- Collaborate asynchronously with product, data, infrastructure, security, and AI counterparts to clarify requirements, align on scope, and ship features safely for customers and sustainably for the team
- Use AI-assisted development workflows responsibly (for example, using Knowledge Graph-backed agents and internal Duo tooling), and share what works with the team while keeping a strong focus on code quality and correctness
- Participate in code reviews, knowledge-sharing sessions, and pairing to both learn from others and help maintain consistent standards across the codebase
- Contribute across the stack when needed, including occasional Ruby work for Rails integration and authorization paths, or small frontend changes related to Knowledge Graph features (for example, Software Architecture Map UI plumbing)
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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