Principal Engineer, Production Engineering

Principal Engineer, Production Engineering Join to apply for the Principal Engineer, Production Engineering role at GitLab . GitLab is an open‑core software company that develops the most comprehensive AI‑powered DevSecOps Platform, used by more than 100,000 organizations. Our mission is to enable everyone to contribute to and co‑create the software that powers our world. When everyone can contribute, consumers become contributors, significantly accelerating human progress. Our platform unites teams and organizations, breaking down barriers and redefining what’s possible in software development. Thanks to products like Duo Enterprise and Duo Agent Platform, customers get AI benefits at every stage of the SDLC. 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 and continuous knowledge exchange, enabling our team members to reach their full potential while collaborating with industry leaders to solve complex problems. Co‑create the future with us as we build technology that transforms how the world develops software. An Overview Of This Role GitLab.com is one of the largest DevSecOps platforms in the world. As a Principal Engineer on the Production Engineering team, you will shape how it scales for reliability, performance, and global reach. This is a career‑defining opportunity to guide the technical strategy for GitLab’s multi‑tenant SaaS platform, tackling challenges that few companies face at this scale. You will influence infrastructure decisions across Observability, Disaster Recovery, Fleet Management, and Service Delivery, while partnering with product and executive leadership to align technology with business outcomes. Your work will set the foundation for how millions of users experience GitLab and how thousands of engineers across the company deliver value. What You Will Do Own the long‑term roadmap for Production Engineering, driving modernization and scale initiatives that directly impact GitLab.com availability and performance. Lead design for complex distributed systems challenges such as sharding, multi‑tenant isolation, observability, and failure recovery. Collaborate with leaders across engineering and product to ensure infrastructure choices deliver both technical and business value. Anticipate evolving needs at scale and define patterns that make our platform more resilient, efficient, and cost‑effective. Mentor senior and staff engineers, multiplying impact by raising technical excellence across teams. Champion observability and production readiness practices that improve the speed and quality at which we ship features to customers, along with improving reliability for customers worldwide. What You Will Bring Proven expertise designing and operating distributed systems at massive scale in SaaS or cloud platforms. Strong background in backend, reliability, or platform engineering, with hands‑on experience in Go, Ruby, or similar languages. Deep understanding of observability, incident response, and strategies for ensuring reliability in complex systems. Ability to drive alignment across teams and influence senior leaders without formal authority. Track record of delivering technical outcomes that shaped business direction. Strong communicator who can simplify complex topics for engineers, executives, and customers alike. Passion for mentoring and developing senior technical talent. About The Team Production Engineering is responsible for the reliability, performance, and scalability of GitLab.com, one of the largest SaaS platforms in the world. The team builds the infrastructure and practices that keep GitLab.com available and resilient, covering areas such as observability, disaster recovery, fleet management, and service delivery. Our mission is to ensure every GitLab.com customer benefits from a stable, performant, and production‑ready platform. We partner across engineering to embed reliability into how GitLab ships software while balancing modernization with efficiency and cost‑effectiveness. As part of this team, you will be at the forefront of GitLab.com’s evolution. You will help guide the strategy for operating at massive scale, solve complex distributed systems challenges, and shape the foundation on which thousands of engineers and millions of users rely every day. We welcome interest from candidates with varying levels of experience. Many successful candidates do not meet every single requirement, and we encourage applying if you are excited about the role. Our recruiters will assess your application. How GitLab Will Support You Benefits to support your health, finances, and well‑being. Flexible Paid Time Off. Team Member Resource Groups. Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Growth and Development Fund. Parental leave. Home office support. Country Hiring Guidelines GitLab hires new team members in countries around the world. All of our roles are remote; however, some roles may carry specific location‑based eligibility requirements. Our Talent Acquisition team can help answer any questions about location after starting the recruiting process. Privacy Policy Please review our Recruitment Privacy Policy. Your privacy is important to us. GitLab is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. GitLab’s policies and practices relating to recruitment, employment, career development and advancement, promotion, and retirement are based solely on merit, regardless of race, color, religion, ancestry, sex, national origin, age, citizenship, disability, or any other basis protected by law. GitLab will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. See also GitLab’s EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know during the recruiting process. United States Salary Range $171,400—$367,200 USD #J-18808-Ljbffr