Remote opportunity at
GitLabStaff Backend Engineer, Developer Experience
GitLab operates an intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps, helping organizations boost developer efficiency, streamline operations, mitigate security risks, and speed up digital transformation. The company serves…
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About This Role
GitLab operates an intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps, helping organizations boost developer efficiency, streamline operations, mitigate security risks, and speed up digital transformation. The company serves over 50 million registered users and more than half of the Fortune 100. GitLab seeks a Staff Backend Engineer to join the Developer Experience group and work cross-functionally to identify and eliminate major points of friction affecting internal engineering teams. This visible position splits…
Job Description
GitLab operates an intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps, helping organizations boost developer efficiency, streamline operations, mitigate security risks, and speed up digital transformation. The company serves over 50 million registered users and more than half of the Fortune 100. GitLab seeks a Staff Backend Engineer to join the Developer Experience group and work cross-functionally to identify and eliminate major points of friction affecting internal engineering teams.
This visible position splits time between hands-on coding in Ruby and Go, shaping scalable solutions, and guiding the developer experience strategy. The group consists of six globally distributed teams of Backend Engineers and Software Engineers in Test. Key initiatives include driving internal developer platform adoption, creating Kubernetes service onboarding patterns, building reliable development and CI environments, and partnering with infrastructure teams to boost operational visibility and rollout safety.
Responsibilities
- Lead and expand a team focused on internal platform capabilities and developer tooling
- Define and implement a roadmap for Kubernetes-based developer workflows
- Design reusable service onboarding and deployment patterns covering workloads, networking, and security
- Establish deterministic environment bring-up and teardown by resolving dependency orders between custom resource definitions, controllers, and workloads
- Collaborate with security, infrastructure, and application teams to turn Kubernetes features into supported workflows
- Set technical standards, automation, and documentation to accelerate service delivery from development to production
- Mentor engineers on architectural choices, production operations, and incident follow-up
- Engage with technical and organizational stakeholders to communicate tradeoffs and direct prioritization
Requirements
- Extensive experience in creating developer tooling, continuous integration systems, testing frameworks, or developer experience platforms at scale
- Solid hands-on software development experience using Go for production-grade services, CLI tools, and platform automation
- Practical background in Kubernetes deployment and operation, covering networking, configuration, storage, and troubleshooting
- Familiarity with Kubernetes release management using Helm, managing multi-cluster contexts, and integrating third-party operators
- Demonstrated ability to design scalable solutions that enhance delivery workflows and engineering productivity across multiple teams
- Strong technical leadership skills with the ability to influence without authority across diverse functions
- Familiarity with production operations, release automation, and DevOps pipelines
- Proficient written and verbal communication skills tailored for a remote-first working environment
Qualifications
- Experience contributing to software systems built with Ruby
- Prior experience authoring a Kubernetes controller or operator
- A product-oriented mindset focused on empowering developers through reliable and streamlined workflows
- Demonstrated alignment with GitLab values including iteration, transparency, and collaboration
Core Skills
Benefits
- Flexible paid time off
- Access to 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, all roles at GitLab are remote, though certain positions may carry specific location-based eligibility requirements.
What is the salary range for this role?
For United States residents, the base salary range is USD 131,600 to 282,000 per year, determined through interviews, market data, and experience.
What programming languages are used in this role?
The position involves hands-on coding primarily in Go and Ruby.
What is the employment type?
This position is full-time.
Sample Interview Questions
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