Remote opportunity at
GitLabSenior Backend Engineer, Database Excellence (Ruby)
GitLab operates an intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps, serving over 50 million registered users and more than half of the Fortune 100. The company seeks a…
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About This Role
GitLab operates an intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps, serving over 50 million registered users and more than half of the Fortune 100. The company seeks a Senior Backend Engineer to join the Database Excellence group within the Data Engineering organization. In this fully remote position, the engineer will build and evolve application datastore frameworks and tooling to maintain scalability, health, and safety for both GitLab.com and numerous self-managed instances. Key…
Job Description
GitLab operates an intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps, serving over 50 million registered users and more than half of the Fortune 100. The company seeks a Senior Backend Engineer to join the Database Excellence group within the Data Engineering organization. In this fully remote position, the engineer will build and evolve application datastore frameworks and tooling to maintain scalability, health, and safety for both GitLab.com and numerous self-managed instances. Key initiatives include establishing proactive data growth controls, lifecycle management frameworks, retention policy enforcement during schema changes, SQL traffic replay tooling, and background operations frameworks.
This role suits professionals with extensive backend and database experience who excel in an asynchronous, distributed environment. Team members are expected to integrate AI as a daily productivity multiplier. Responsibilities involve designing shift-left guardrails, reviewing database-related changes from engineers and community contributors, and documenting architectural best practices. Candidates with varying levels of experience are encouraged to apply, and the organization supports its staff through equity compensation, flexible paid time off, parental leave, and professional development funds.
Responsibilities
- Develop and iterate backend features and data frameworks for SaaS and self-managed deployments
- Design and build data retention and lifecycle management frameworks, including bulk data removal tooling and automated table identification
- Build shift-left guardrails such as static analysis checks and schema-change-time enforcement
- Collaborate with product, UX, frontend, infrastructure, software delivery, and analytics teams
- Review and improve database-related changes from other engineers and community contributors
- Maintain tooling like SQL traffic replay and background operations frameworks to address performance issues
- Implement improvements to database performance, scalability, soft delete strategies, and migration testing
- Document database best practices, anti-patterns, and architecture guidance for developers
- Participate in a tier 2 database on-call rotation in your time zone
Requirements
- Professional software engineering experience working with PostgreSQL in large, complex production environments
- Experience with high availability solutions featuring automatic failover and zero-downtime data migrations
- Experience managing large or fast-growing datasets using data retention, archiving, partitioning, or lifecycle management
- Proficiency with Ruby on Rails or another Ruby framework for backend design and code review
- Strong written communication skills and the ability to work asynchronously in a distributed team
- Self-directed work style with organizational skills to manage priorities independently
- Alignment with company values of transparency, collaboration, inclusion, and open source contribution
- Willingness to participate in a tier 2 database on-call rotation
Qualifications
- Transferable experience from related data, infrastructure, or developer tooling domains
- Openness to learning and applying new tools and approaches
Core Skills
Benefits
- Flexible Paid Time Off
- Team Member Resource Groups
- Equity Compensation and Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Growth and Development Fund
- Parental Leave
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers are based only on the employer’s listing; where it doesn’t say, neither do we.
Is this position remote?
Yes, this is a fully remote role within a distributed team, though some roles may carry specific location-based eligibility requirements.
What technologies are used in this role?
The position involves hands-on work with PostgreSQL and Ruby on Rails or another Ruby framework.
What is the salary for this position?
The salary is not stated in the job posting.
What type of employment is this?
This is a full-time employment position.
Sample Interview Questions
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