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An overview of this role
As Director, Engineering, Platform Operations & Productivity, you'll own three functions that all require hands-on technical depth, not just people management.
Platform Staff is a small, senior, AI-native team that moves to wherever the organization needs the most leverage, from standing up early scaffolding for an initiative, to taking on a high-impact customer request that doesn't fit any existing team's charter, to stepping directly into a production crisis until it's resolved.
This role is for a technical engineering director who has personally built distributed systems, not only managed people who did. You'll use clear metrics, strong operating rhythms, and direct technical judgment so these teams deliver predictable outcomes without relying on one-person heroics.
What you’ll do
- Own outcomes for Git & Gitaly Operations, including hiring and developing the Manager, Git & Gitaly Operations, and holding the function to its reliability bar across Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated, and SaaS.
- Own outcomes for Nonlinear Productivity, also known as Friction Elimination, including hiring and developing the Manager, Nonlinear Productivity, and holding the function to measurable metric movement rather than activity.
- Build and oversee Platform Staff directly as a small, senior team that uses AI-assisted tools as a standard part of its work.
- Assess, case by case, what Platform Staff picks up, such as a new team that needs bootstrapping, a customer request too specific for any existing team's charter, or a crisis that needs someone in the room immediately.
- Assess when Platform Staff should hand work off to a permanent team once it's stable.
- Set the technical bar across all three functions by personally reviewing distributed systems designs, friction-elimination fixes, and crisis management plans with equal depth.
- Build the operating rhythm and metrics that keep all three functions running predictably, so none of them relies on any one person working unsustainable hours.
- Represent all three functions to peer engineering stakeholders, and step in front of customers directly when Platform Staff is engaged mid-crisis.
What you’ll bring
- Working knowledge of GitLab's development workflows and platform capabilities so you can assess productivity friction, operational trade-offs, and team needs in context.
- Hands-on experience designing and shipping distributed systems personally, not only through teams you've managed.
- A track record running highly effective engineering operations, including production reliability and incident management, at meaningful scale.
- A track record driving measurable engineering productivity improvements across more than one team or organization.
- Experience with AI-assisted development tools, and sound judgment about when they help a small team do work that would otherwise require a larger team.
- People management experience across multiple managers or functions at once.
- Ability to context-switch effectively across genuinely different problem types, including infrastructure operations, developer productivity, and ad hoc crisis response, sometimes in the same week.
- A track record making staffing decisions that keep a high-leverage team intentionally small, and building alignment around those decisions rather than growing the team by default.
About the team
We work across three connected platform and productivity functions. Through Git & Gitaly Operations, we are responsible for the production reliability of the infrastructure layer underneath GitLab's own version control system. Through Nonlinear Productivity, we drive measurable improvements to GitLab's software development lifecycle and code-generation workflows. Through Platform Staff, we provide focused senior engineering capacity for high-leverage work that needs direct ownership before it can be stabilized or handed off to a permanent team.
Collectively, we help GitLab improve the reliability, productivity, and responsiveness of the platform that powers how our customers and GitLab team members build software.
How GitLab Supports Full-Time Employees
- Benefits to support your health, finances, and well-being
- Flexible Paid Time Off
- Team Member Resource Groups
- Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Growth and Development Fund
- Parental Leave
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.
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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 (including pregnancy, lactation, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression), national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, mental or physical disability, genetic information (including family medical history), discharge status from the military, protected veteran status (which includes disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, active duty wartime or campaign badge veterans, and Armed Forces service medal veterans), 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.