Staff Backend Engineer, Developer Experience

About this role

<div class="content-intro"><p>GitLab is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps. GitLab enables organizations to increase developer productivity, improve operational efficiency, reduce security and compliance risk, and accelerate digital transformation. More than 50 million registered users and more than 50% of the Fortune 100* trust GitLab to ship better, more secure software faster.</p> <p>The same principles built into our products are reflected in how our team works: we embrace AI as a core productivity multiplier, with all team members expected to incorporate AI into their daily workflows to drive efficiency, innovation, and impact. GitLab is where careers accelerate, innovation flourishes, and every voice is valued. Our high-performance culture is driven by our values&nbsp;and continuous knowledge exchange, enabling our team members to reach their full potential while collaborating with industry leaders to solve complex problems. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuZIb5zszQI">Co-create the future with us</a> as we build technology that transforms how the world develops software.</p> <p>*<em>Fortune 500® is a registered trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, used under license. Claim based on GitLab data. Fortune 100 refers to the top 20% ranked companies in the 2025 Fortune 500 list, published in June 2025. Fortune and Fortune Media IP Limited are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of GitLab.</em></p></div><p>As a Staff Backend Engineer in the <a href="https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/infrastructure-platforms/developer-experience/"><strong>Developer Experience</strong></a> group, you’ll work cross-functionally to help us identify and improve the engineering experience across GitLab’s internal engineering teams. We’re at a pivotal time in transforming our testing approach and development experience to enable engineers to deliver high-quality code efficiently and with confidence.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/infrastructure-platforms/developer-experience/test-governance/">Developer Experience</a> currently has six, globally distributed teams of Backend Engineers and Software Engineers in Test. This role will work across the entire group to help us identify and remove the biggest points of friction that affect development at GitLab. Expect to split your time between hands-on coding in Ruby and Go, designing scalable solutions and helping every team deliver.&nbsp; You’ll be instrumental in shaping our engineering culture across GitLab.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>This is a highly visible role with strong company-wide support. You’ll be instrumental in shifting our culture and practices toward a cohesive Developer Experience Platform strategy—backed by buy-in and appetite for change.</p> <h3><strong>Some examples of our projects</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Identifying and removing the source of flakiness in our tests pipelines</li> <li>Introducing comprehensive test coverage reporting to guide our decisions about what and when to test</li> <li>Standardizing logging libraries and documentation to make it easy for all features and components to provide consistent logs</li> <li>Providing stable, configurable development environments&nbsp;</li> </ul> <h3><strong>What You’ll Do</strong></h3> <ul> <li><strong>Drive Technical Excellence Across Teams</strong>: Provide hands-on engineering contributions and technical leadership across six Developer Experience teams, jumping in to unblock critical work or accelerate high-impact initiatives</li> <li><strong>Champion Engineering Needs</strong>: Partner with engineering teams across GitLab to identify pain points, gather feedback, and translate day-to-day frustrations into actionable improvements for the Developer Experience roadmap</li> <li><strong>Transform Testing at Scale</strong>: Help us modernize our testing to support GitLab's growth—ensuring engineers have fast, reliable tools that catch issues early without slowing them down</li> <li><strong>Optimize CI/CD Pipelines</strong>: Reduce merge and CI friction by building workflows that deliver fast, actionable feedback—helping engineers iterate confidently and ship faster</li> <li><strong>Break Down Systemic Bottlenecks</strong>: Collaborate with Platform, Product, and Infrastructure teams to identify and eliminate the architectural and process friction that slows down development</li> <li><strong>Shape Engineering Culture</strong>: Foster a culture of continuous learning, inclusion, and improvement—where great developer experience is a shared value across the organization</li> </ul> <h3><strong>What You’ll Bring</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Deep experience with developer tooling, DevEx strategies, and testing frameworks at scale</li> <li>Experience leading platform or transformation initiatives across multiple teams</li> <li>Proven ability to influence without authority and collaborate across functions</li> <li>Familiarity with DevOps workflows and CI/CD pipelines</li> <li>Strong written and verbal communication skills in a remote-first environment</li> <li>A product mindset with a passion for empowering developers</li> <li>Alignment with GitLab values, especially collaboration, iteration, and transparency</li> </ul><div class="content-pay-transparency"><div class="pay-input"><div class="description"><p><em>The base salary range for this role’s listed level is currently for residents of the&nbsp;United States only. This range is intended to reflect the role's base salary rate in locations throughout the US.&nbsp;Grade level and salary ranges are determined through interviews and a review of education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities of the applicant, equity with other team members, alignment with market data,&nbsp;and geographic location.&nbsp;The base salary range does not include any bonuses, equity, or benefits. See more information on our <a class="waffle-rich-text-link" href="https://about.gitlab.c