Engineering Manager, Tenant Scale: Git

About GitLab

GitLab is a smart orchestration platform for DevSecOps that enables organizations to enhance developer productivity, streamline operations, mitigate security and compliance risks, and accelerate digital transformation. Trusted by over 50 million users and more than half of the Fortune 100 companies, GitLab delivers faster, more secure software releases.

The company's culture embraces AI as a key productivity enhancer, expecting all team members to integrate AI into their daily tasks to foster efficiency and innovation. GitLab nurtures career growth, innovation, and values diverse perspectives within a high-performing environment driven by core values and ongoing knowledge sharing.

Role Overview

The Engineering Manager role focuses on leading a technically specialized team working on the Git version control system. Responsibilities include upstream Git development, cross-team support within GitLab, tooling enhancements, performance scaling, new data formats, and maintaining the Git codebase.

The successful candidate will guide senior and staff engineers working on complex, long-term technical projects, fostering a culture of accountability, ownership, and technical excellence. It is essential to balance open source upstream development efforts alongside GitLab product and infrastructure goals.

Key Projects

• Scaling Git
• Git-related infrastructure and foundational performance improvements

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of senior and staff engineers focused on Git and related infrastructure development.
• Establish a culture emphasizing technical rigor, ownership, and clear accountability.
• Drive progress on complex, long-term goals across performance, scalability, maintainability, and core Git architecture.
• Coordinate efforts to balance upstream open source contributions with GitLab product priorities.
• Support team members' professional growth via mentoring and continuous feedback.
• Facilitate strong written communication and asynchronous collaboration within a fully distributed team.
• Collaborate with downstream teams such as Gitaly and other stakeholders dependent on Git expertise.
• Represent the team in cross-functional discussions regarding Git's roadmap, performance, and scalability.

Qualifications & Skills

• Experience managing engineering teams including hiring, performance management, and career development.
• A leadership approach that fosters engineer autonomy and ownership backed by consistent follow-through and sound technical judgment.
• Proven ability to guide specialized engineers through ambiguous and technically complex open source development cycles.
• Excellent written communication skills supporting effective asynchronous collaboration across multiple time zones.
• Demonstrated success delivering on high-impact, ambiguous projects with emphasis on long-term platform sustainability.
• Practical knowledge of version control systems, distributed systems, storage engines, or comparable low-level infrastructure domains with hands-on coding experience in languages such as C or Go.

About the Team

The Git team is dedicated to the upkeep and advancement of the Git version control system and maintaining strong ties with the Git community. Their focus includes upstream development, supporting other teams within GitLab, community engagement, and ensuring Git’s enduring viability.

This team operates with an upstream-first mindset, relying heavily on mailing list communications and asynchronous coordination to balance long-term technical initiatives with practical delivery demands. The current emphasis is on scaling Git and associated foundational performance work.

Employee Benefits

• Comprehensive health, financial, and wellness benefits
• Flexible paid time off policy
• Employee resource groups for community and support
• Equity compensation and stock purchase plans
• Funding for personal growth and development
• Parental leave support

Additional Information

GitLab encourages candidates with diverse experiences to apply, noting many successful applicants do not meet every requirement. The company is committed to equal opportunity employment and prohibits discrimination or harassment on all protected grounds. Accommodation requests during recruitment are welcomed.

Though this position is remote, some location-based eligibility criteria may apply depending on the candidate’s country. The talent acquisition team will clarify any questions during recruitment.