Senior Engineering Manager, Non-Linear Productivity

Details

GitLab is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps used by millions and more than half of the Fortune 100. The team embraces AI as a core productivity multiplier and values a high-performance, metrics-driven culture.

This role reports to a VP-level engineering leader and owns outcomes for a defined engineering domain. The Senior Engineering Manager will build and lead a small, hand-picked 0-to-1 pilot squad focused on removing the highest-leverage friction in GitLab's SDLC to drive non-linear improvements in system-level metrics (MRPM, pipeline success rate, pipeline latency).

Responsibilities

• Define and continuously refine the operating model for the non-linear productivity pilot: define "friction", diagnose it, and prioritize fixes against the three system-level metrics.
• Identify and prioritize step-change opportunities across the SDLC (e.g., flaky tests, review latency, pipeline reliability, tooling gaps, context loss for human and agent contributors).
• Translate a broad ambiguous mandate into a concrete, time-boxed roadmap with milestones for a 3-month pilot window.
• Personally source, evaluate, and hire 4 exceptional engineers for the pilot squad and negotiate allocation models with affected engineering managers.
• Set technical direction and working norms for a small, fast-moving team; scope work, make decisions, and report progress.
• Mentor engineers on root-cause diagnosis and shift-left thinking; raise the bar for rigor versus tactical patches.
• Lead hands-on investigation to instrument and baseline MRPM, pipeline success rate, and pipeline latency before proposing fixes.
• Diagnose high-leverage friction points using real data and validate hypotheses before committing team time to fixes.
• Design and implement compounding fixes (shift-left quality changes, tooling investments, better context/interfaces for humans and agents) rather than one-off patches.
• Stay hands-on to review architecture, dig into pipeline internals, and unblock the team on hard technical problems.
• Drive adoption of fixes with affected engineering teams and ensure fixes are trusted and durable (not reverted or worked around).
• Track and report metric movement honestly, including failures, and capture reusable patterns and playbooks for org-wide adoption.
• Set cadence for reporting impact to EM peers and leadership, and ensure pilot fixes degrade gracefully without introducing new CI/CD reliability risks.
• Help define graduation criteria from pilot to permanent function and build the business case (or counter-case) based on results.

Requirements

General qualifications:

• Proven track record leading small, high-autonomy engineering teams, ideally in developer productivity, CI/CD, platform, or infrastructure reliability, measured on system-level outcomes rather than feature delivery.
• Deep comfort with CI/CD and build systems; understanding of why pipelines flake, why they're slow, and what actually impacts success-rate and latency numbers.
• Demonstrated root-cause diagnostic instincts and a talent-over-headcount hiring philosophy.
• Comfortable operating under metrics-driven accountability, including publicly baselining numbers and reporting honestly.
• Strong executive-level communication; this pilot has direct visibility to engineering leadership.

Nice to have:

• Experience with agentic or AI-assisted development workflows and insight into human/agent friction differences.
• Prior experience running a defined-window pilot or 0-to-1 initiative with explicit success criteria.
• Familiarity with GitLab's CI/CD internals or equivalent depth on another large-scale build/test system.

Other details:

• You will personally recruit and mentor the pilot engineers, negotiate allocation with their current managers, and stay technically involved to remove blockers and validate fixes.
• The role emphasizes system-level metrics (MRPM, pipeline success rate, pipeline latency) as the measure of success.

Compensation (United States)

• Base salary range for US residents: $190,000 - $245,000 USD (base salary only; does not include bonuses, equity, or benefits).

Benefits

• Health, financial, and well-being benefits
• Flexible Paid Time Off
• Team Member Resource Groups
• Equity compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Growth and Development Fund
• Parental Leave

Other information

• This role is remote and GitLab hires new team members in countries around the world; some roles may carry location-based eligibility requirements.
• GitLab is an equal opportunity employer and provides accommodations during the recruiting process upon request.