Staff Engineer, GitLab Delivery - Operate

GitLab is an open‑core software company that develops the most comprehensive AI‑powered DevSecOps Platform, used by more than 100,000 organizations. Our mission is to enable everyone to contribute to and co‑create the software that powers our world. When everyone can contribute, consumers become contributors, significantly accelerating human progress. Our platform unites teams and organizations, breaking down barriers and redefining what’s possible in software development. Thanks to products like Duo Enterprise and Duo Agent Platform, customers get AI benefits at every stage of the SDLC.

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.

An Overview Of This Role

As a Staff Engineer within the GitLab Operate team, you will lead the technical direction for GitLab’s self‑managed deployment strategy, with a particular focus on solving zero‑downtime upgrades and operational excellence at scale. This is a high‑impact technical leadership role where you’ll architect and implement the systems that enable thousands of organizations to deploy, upgrade, and operate GitLab reliably in their own infrastructure.

You’ll be the technical anchor for our newly formed Operate team, driving the evolution of GitLab’s deployment tooling from traditional packaging approaches toward cloud‑native, operator‑driven automation. Your work will directly impact GitLab’s ability to deliver new features to self‑managed customers faster while dramatically reducing operational complexity and upgrading friction.

The GitLab Operate team serves as a critical bridge between GitLab engineering and our self‑managed customers, ensuring our products are easily deployable, secure, and scalable across a range of environments—from single‑node VM deployments to large‑scale Kubernetes clusters supporting tens of thousands of users.

What You’ll Do

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Define the technical vision for GitLab’s cloud‑native deployment and upgrades future, balancing operational simplicity, customer needs, and engineering constraints.
• Lead the design and implementation of the new tooling, including Operator(s), enabling automated lifecycle management and zero‑downtime upgrades.
• Architect upgrade orchestration systems that safely coordinate complex multi‑component upgrades across databases, application services, and auxiliary components.
• Establish operational maturity standards and guidance for new services being integrated into GitLab’s deployment tooling and empower development teams for the end‑to‑end of their components.
• Drive technical decisions around service integration patterns, deployment models, and operational interfaces.

Platform Engineering & Development

Database & Application Lifecycle Management

Cross‑Functional Collaboration & Enablement

Production Operations & Reliability

What You’ll Bring

Required Experience & Skills

Building and maintaining Kubernetes Operators.

Highly Valued Experience

Technical Leadership Qualities

What Makes You Stand Out

About The Team

The Operate team is part of GitLab Delivery and focuses on delivering GitLab to self‑managed users through supported and validated tooling. This includes maintaining and evolving the GitLab Omnibus package, Helm Charts, GitLab Operator, and the GitLab Environment Toolkit (GET). We partner with SRE, Release, Security, and Development teams to ensure GitLab is easily deployable, supportable, and production‑ready in diverse environments—from small single‑node deployments to large enterprise‑scale Kubernetes clusters.

Current Challenges We’re Tackling

Team Structure

You’ll be joining a newly consolidated Operate team that is building the capability to deliver GitLab’s expanding service architecture to self‑managed customers. As a Staff Engineer, you’ll work closely with the engineering manager and product manager to define technical direction while mentoring other engineers on the team.

How GitLab Will Support You

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, national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, mental or physical disability, genetic information, military status, 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.

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