Staff Backend Engineer, Database Automation (Go)

Details

As a Senior or Staff Backend Engineer with GitLab's Database Excellence group, you will build and evolve database automation and PostgreSQL-as-a-service capabilities. You will use Go to automate the full lifecycle of PostgreSQL across GitLab's infrastructure, making database operations safer, more consistent, and easier to scale for high-throughput, always-on internet services. The role involves close collaboration with partner teams in a fully remote, highly collaborative environment.

Example projects include SQL traffic replay tooling, a PostgreSQL-as-a-service platform, and PostgreSQL major version upgrade automation.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain Go-based automation for the full PostgreSQL lifecycle, including provisioning, configuration, upgrades, failover, scaling, and decommissioning.
• Build automation across infrastructure-as-code tooling and cloud infrastructure, and evaluate operator-based approaches.
• Use AI agents regularly for implementation, review, and reducing repetitive work.
• Design automation and services for high-throughput, always-on production workloads.
• Integrate compute, storage, networking, identity and access management, and managed data services across cloud providers into a coherent PostgreSQL platform.
• Build GitLab's PostgreSQL-as-a-service platform with standardized, automated provisioning and lifecycle management.
• Collaborate with product management, infrastructure, software delivery, and other engineering teams.
• Research and implement improvements to PostgreSQL performance, scalability, and data health.
• Review database automation and Go changes with attention to safety, maintainability, and performance.
• Document automation practices, PostgreSQL operational patterns, and platform guidance.
• Build safe, repeatable PostgreSQL major version upgrade automation and validate changes against real production traffic.
• Operate the systems you build in production and use production feedback to guide iteration.

Requirements

• Professional software engineering experience working with PostgreSQL in large, complex production environments, including experience building or operating a database-as-a-service product.
• Proficiency with Go, including designing, implementing, testing, and reviewing backend services.
• Experience developing Kubernetes operators, controllers, or similar automation for the lifecycle of stateful services, especially databases. Comparable database or infrastructure automation experience is also welcome.
• Comfort with infrastructure as code and database operations concepts including high availability, replication, backups, and system-level performance trade-offs.
• Familiarity with Ruby is a plus but not required. GitLab's application codebase uses Ruby on Rails, and the ability to read it is helpful.
• Strong written communication skills and comfort working asynchronously in an all-remote, distributed team.
• A self-directed work style, effective organizational skills, and the ability to manage priorities as a manager of one.
• Alignment with GitLab's values of transparency, collaboration, inclusion, and open source contribution.
• Experience owning the technical direction of a major initiative, turning an ambiguous problem into an architecture and sequenced plan.
• Ability to influence beyond the team, establish engineering patterns, partner with database, infrastructure, and platform teams, and mentor engineers.

Team

The Database Excellence group keeps GitLab's databases reliable through proactive health management, operational excellence, and strategic enablement. The group focuses primarily on GitLab.com and is expanding database health frameworks and tooling to benefit self-managed customers.

Salary

The United States base salary range is $152,800–$259,200 USD. This range applies to United States residents and excludes bonuses, equity, and benefits. Grade level and salary are determined based on interviews, education, experience, skills, market data, and geographic location.

Benefits

• Health, financial, and well-being benefits
• Flexible paid time off
• Team Member Resource Groups
• Equity compensation and Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Growth and Development Fund
• Parental leave

GitLab is an equal opportunity workplace. All roles are remote, though some roles may have location-based eligibility requirements.