Staff Forward Deployed Engineer - AI and DevSecOps Integration

About GitLab and the Role

GitLab is a comprehensive orchestration platform for DevSecOps, trusted by over 50 million users and more than half the Fortune 100 companies to enable faster and more secure software delivery. We integrate AI deeply into our workflows to enhance productivity, foster innovation, and increase impact. Joining our high-performance and collaborative culture means working alongside top industry experts to co-create transformative technology solutions.

The Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team is a unique product engineering group focused on strategic customer needs, AI adoption, and product development. This Staff-level role combines advanced engineering with direct engagement on customer challenges, intersecting urgent technical issues with GitLab’s product advancements.

Key Responsibilities

• Deliver robust, production-level code contributions to GitLab products and connected systems, including bug fixes, new features, integrations, and performance improvements.
• Follow GitLab’s product and engineering methodologies for efficient issue resolution, code review, testing, and documentation while ensuring maintainability.
• Collaborate with Product and Engineering teams to align customer-driven solutions with long-term product strategies, avoiding ad hoc customizations.
• Transform complex customer obstacles into scalable product improvements, reusable architectures, and detailed documentation.
• Engage with critical customers to resolve adoption risks, retention challenges, and issues affecting executive confidence or public trust.
• Investigate and troubleshoot multifaceted problems spanning GitLab product behaviors, CI/CD workflows, Git internals, cloud infrastructure, networking, and observability.
• Coordinate cross-team efforts involving Product, Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering, Support, Solutions Architecture, Customer Success, and Professional Services to ensure comprehensive resolutions.
• Analyze data and system traces to provide actionable recommendations improving GitLab utilization, automation, workflows, and infrastructure.
• Promote governed and measurable adoption of GitLab Duo Agent Platform addressing AI governance, compliance, and operational controls.
• Develop and disseminate customer-safe adoption patterns for agentic software development lifecycle, AI-assisted coding, and human-in-the-loop software delivery.
• Create technical thought leadership through whitepapers, frameworks, webinars, and strategic documents influencing industry practices and guiding company-wide initiatives.

Qualifications and Skills

• Proven Staff-level experience designing, operating, or enhancing large-scale, complex production software systems.
• Expertise contributing to mature product codebases with strict standards in testing, maintainability, security, and performance.
• Proficient in Ruby on Rails or Go programming languages, with the capability to contribute effectively to GitLab’s systems.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted development technologies, AI workflows, governance models, and enterprise-level AI adoption challenges.
• Strong diagnostics skills across application layers, data storage, infrastructure, networking, APIs, and user behavior analysis.
• Comprehensive understanding of modern DevSecOps practices including Git, CI/CD pipelines, security controls, and compliance requirements.
• Experience collaborating with senior technical stakeholders and strategic customers in complex and impactful environments.
• Effective coordination skills managing cross-functional teams without direct authority.
• Excellent written communication with sound judgment, capable of creating compelling technical narratives distinguishing reusable solutions from custom requests.

Highly Desired Experience

• Hands-on knowledge of GitLab platform variants (com.com, Dedicated, or Self-Managed).
• Practical experience with PostgreSQL, Redis, Sidekiq, Vue.js, TypeScript, Kubernetes, Docker, Linux, and observability tools.
• In-depth understanding of Git internals, repository performance optimization, and Runner behaviors.
• Track record producing technical thought leadership such as whitepapers, talks, architectural frameworks, and strategic documents.
• Background in performance engineering, site reliability, platform or infrastructure engineering, or distributed systems.
• Exposure to open source development or asynchronous engineering cultures.

Technologies and Domains Relevant to This Role

• Ruby on Rails development and Go language.
• AI-assisted software development and agentic software development lifecycle models.
• Database management with PostgreSQL, caching with Redis and background processing using Sidekiq.
• Git architecture and GitLab CI/CD Runner systems.
• Container orchestration via Kubernetes and Docker usage.
• Infrastructure automation using Terraform.
• Linux-based systems, network configuration, observability, and performance analysis.
• Front-end technologies including Vue.js and TypeScript.
• API development and automation tools.
• DevSecOps-oriented governance, security frameworks, and compliance management.

Additional Information

This role is not a typical field engineering, proof-of-concept, or customer-specific customization role. It does not substitute professional services or support, nor is it solely a product requirements gathering or AI evangelism position disconnected from hands-on delivery. Success metrics include stabilizing customer adoption risks, contributing product fixes and features, resolving AI adoption issues, generating reusable solutions, and fostering broad cross-team enablement without creating ongoing dependency on the FDE team.

Team Environment

The Forward Deployed Engineering team integrates strategic customer challenges with GitLab's product executions by providing direct solutions, durable enhancements, and scalable guidance. The aim is to stabilize urgent scenarios, improve products, and ensure seamless handoffs to long-term owners.

Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a Staff-level product or platform engineer skilled in analysis, coding, debugging, AI governance, customer technical leadership, and cross-team collaboration. They are a credible engineer with strong judgment and communication abilities, capable of transforming customer needs into product improvements and strategic thought leadership. Candidates from diverse backgrounds and experiences are encouraged to apply.

Employee Benefits

• Comprehensive health, financial, and wellness benefits.
• Flexible paid time off policies.
• Employee resource groups for team support.
• Equity compensation and stock purchase opportunities.
• Funds for personal growth and development.
• Parental leave provisions.