[Remote] Principal Engineer, Production Engineering at GitLab

Remote

GitLab Logo
Not SpecifiedCompensation
Expert & Leadership (9+ years)Experience Level
Full TimeJob Type
UnknownVisa
Technology, Software DevelopmentIndustries

Requirements

  • Proven expertise designing and operating distributed systems at massive scale in SaaS or cloud platforms
  • Strong background in backend, reliability, or platform engineering, with hands-on experience in Go, Ruby, or similar languages
  • Deep understanding of observability, incident response, and strategies for ensuring reliability in complex systems
  • Ability to drive alignment across teams and influence senior leaders without formal authority
  • Track record of delivering technical outcomes that shaped business direction
  • Strong communicator who can simplify complex topics for engineers, executives, and customers alike
  • Passion for mentoring and developing senior technical talent

Responsibilities

  • Own the long-term roadmap for Production Engineering, driving modernization and scale initiatives that directly impact GitLab.com availability and performance
  • Lead design for complex distributed systems challenges such as sharding, multi-tenant isolation, observability, and failure recovery
  • Collaborate with leaders across engineering and product to ensure infrastructure choices deliver both technical and business value
  • Anticipate evolving needs at scale and define patterns that make our platform more resilient, efficient, and cost-effective
  • Mentor senior and staff engineers, multiplying impact by raising technical excellence across teams
  • Champion observability and production readiness practices that improve the speed and quality at which we ship features to customers, along with improving reliability for customers worldwide

Skills

Key technologies and capabilities for this role

DevSecOpsObservabilityDisaster RecoveryFleet ManagementService DeliverySaaSReliability EngineeringPerformance OptimizationInfrastructureAI Integration

Questions & Answers

Common questions about this position

What is the salary or compensation for this Principal Engineer role?

This information is not specified in the job description.

Is this Principal Engineer position remote or does it require office work?

This information is not specified in the job description.

What skills and experience are required for this role?

Proven expertise designing and operating distributed systems at massive scale in SaaS or cloud platforms is required.

What is the company culture like at GitLab?

GitLab has a high-performance culture driven by values and continuous knowledge exchange, where every voice is valued, careers accelerate, and innovation flourishes through collaboration with industry leaders.

What makes a strong candidate for this Principal Engineer position?

A strong candidate has proven expertise in designing and operating distributed systems at massive scale in SaaS or cloud platforms, with the ability to lead complex designs, own roadmaps, mentor engineers, and collaborate across teams.

GitLab

Unified DevOps platform for software development

About GitLab

GitLab offers a DevOps platform that simplifies the software development process by providing a single application for collaboration, visibility, and speed. The platform integrates various tools needed for software development, which helps teams manage their projects more efficiently without juggling multiple tools. This allows companies to concentrate on enhancing their products instead of spending too much time on builds. GitLab serves a wide range of clients, including large corporations from different industries, demonstrating its versatility. The company operates on a subscription-based model, where clients pay for access to the platform, which includes features for continuous integration and deployment. GitLab also provides free trials and regularly updates its platform to deliver ongoing value to its users. By customizing its offerings and partnering with other technology providers, GitLab aims to enhance its ecosystem and drive revenue.

San Francisco, CaliforniaHeadquarters
2014Year Founded
$421.8MTotal Funding
IPOCompany Stage
Consulting, Enterprise SoftwareIndustries
1,001-5,000Employees

Benefits

Spending Company Money
Equity Compensation
Life Insurance
Financial Wellness
Paid Time Off
Growth and Development Benefit
GitLab Contribute
Business Travel Accident Policy
Immigration
Employee Assistance Program
Incentives
All-Remote
Part-time contracts
Meal Train
Fertility & Family Planning
Parental Leave

Risks

AI-powered coding assistants like Claude pose a competitive threat to GitLab's platform.
Potential sale to Datadog may lead to strategic shifts misaligned with customer expectations.
Integration of Oxeye may distract from GitLab's core DevOps offerings.

Differentiation

GitLab offers a unified DevOps platform, reducing complexity in software development.
The platform integrates tools for collaboration, visibility, and speed, enhancing development processes.
GitLab's open-source model fosters continuous innovation with a large developer community.

Upsides

Acquiring Oxeye enhances GitLab's cloud security, appealing to security-conscious enterprises.
Partnership with Ooredoo Kuwait expands GitLab's influence in the telecommunications sector.
Potential sale to Datadog could create strategic synergies and expand market reach.

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