Principal Engineer, Infrastructure Platforms

Overview of the Principal Engineer, Infrastructure Platforms Role

GitLab, a leading open-core software company, is seeking a Principal Engineer to define the technical direction for its most critical infrastructure platforms. This pivotal role operates at an organizational scale, encompassing architecture ownership, complex systems problem-solving, and driving initiatives essential for GitLab's growth, performance, and reliability. As a technical authority and force multiplier, you will lead architectural decisions across distributed and cloud-native systems, translating business strategy into durable technical direction. This is a hands-on, high-impact position for leaders who excel at driving success through influence, shaping the foundational platforms upon which the entire organization depends.

GitLab is dedicated to enabling everyone to contribute to and co-create software, leveraging an AI-powered DevSecOps Platform used by over 100,000 organizations. The company's principles of contribution and AI integration are embedded in team workflows, fostering efficiency, innovation, and impact. GitLab offers a culture where careers accelerate, innovation flourishes, and every voice is valued, driven by continuous knowledge exchange and collaboration with industry leaders.

Organizational Focus Areas for Principal Engineers

Principal Engineers at GitLab guide strategy across critical infrastructure and delivery groups. Role placement is determined by business need and organizational priority, spanning:

• Production Engineering (Infrastructure Platforms): Lead high-impact platform initiatives for GitLab's multi-tenant SaaS infrastructure, driving the technical roadmap to ensure global operations remain resilient and modern. This involves leading strategy and execution for SaaS infrastructure in collaboration with Database Operations and Cells teams.
• Group Tenant Scale (GTS): Architect GitLab’s next-generation, multi-tenant, horizontally scalable, and resilient SaaS platform. This includes leading the design and evolution of projects for distributed, multi-tenant SaaS transformation (e.g., Cells, Organizations, OrgMover), designing for zero downtime and transparent relocation, and guiding architectural decisions based on availability, reliability, resiliency, performance, and cost.
• GitLab Delivery: Focus on enhancing the reliability, efficiency, and speed of GitLab’s end-to-end software delivery across all platforms. This involves leading platform strategy for Developer Experience, CI infrastructure, packaging, and release delivery across SaaS, Self-Managed, and Dedicated offerings, treating GitLab engineers as customers, and architecting reliable, automated pipelines.

What You'll Do as a Principal Engineer, Infrastructure Platforms

• Own and drive the architectural direction for critical infrastructure platforms supporting GitLab at a global scale.
• Lead the design and evolution of large, scalable, resilient, secure, and cost-efficient platforms and distributed systems.
• Serve as the technical authority on complex initiatives, guiding decisions impacting multiple teams and product areas.
• Translate business and product strategy into long-term technical roadmaps and execution plans.
• Drive alignment across engineering, product, and leadership through clear communication of tradeoffs and recommendations.
• Establish technical standards and architectural patterns to enhance quality and consistency across the organization.
• Be accountable for production outcomes, including reliability, performance, and operational excellence.
• Mentor senior engineers, acting as a force multiplier through influence rather than direct authority.
• Operate effectively within ambiguous problem spaces, defining both the problem and the solution.

What You'll Bring to GitLab

• Proven experience designing and evolving large-scale platforms or distributed systems in cloud-native environments.
• Strong proficiency in Golang and/or Ruby, with the ability to contribute to, review, and guide core architectural changes in production codebases.
• Strong architectural judgment, balancing scalability, reliability, performance, security, and cost considerations.
• Experience owning platform-level technical decisions that impacted multiple teams or an entire engineering domain.
• Solid understanding of Kubernetes-based environments as a production platform, including their influence on system design, deployment models, reliability, and operational complexity.
• Experience being accountable for production systems, extending beyond just design recommendations.
• Ability to author and drive long-term technical strategy and multi-month roadmaps.
• Track record of leading through influence and shaping technical direction without direct authority.
• Comfort making high-impact technical decisions, including build vs. buy vs. partner tradeoffs.
• Strong communication skills, capable of explaining complex technical concepts to engineers, leadership, and non-technical stakeholders.

About The Team

The Principal Engineer role is part of GitLab’s Infrastructure Platforms organization, collaborating across multiple teams to shape the scaling and operation of our platform. This group manages GitLab’s most critical systems, including the multi-tenant SaaS platform, core delivery pipelines, and underlying infrastructure for millions of users. As a Principal Engineer, you will define technical direction, guide architectural decisions, and ensure platforms remain resilient, performant, and modern. The team operates fully remotely, collaborating asynchronously across time zones, upholding GitLab’s values of transparency, autonomy, and open communication. You will contribute to tackling complex distributed systems challenges at scale, mentor engineers, and foster a culture of reliability, efficiency, and continuous improvement.

GitLab supports its team members with benefits for health, finances, and well-being, including flexible Paid Time Off, Team Member Resource Groups, Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan, Growth and Development Fund, Parental Leave, and Home Office Support. GitLab is a remote-first company globally, and while roles are remote, some may have location-based eligibility requirements. The base salary range for US residents for this role is $171,400–$367,200 USD. GitLab is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer, welcoming candidates from all backgrounds.

Key skills/competency

• Architectural Leadership
• Distributed Systems
• Cloud-Native Environments
• Golang
• Ruby
• Kubernetes
• Platform Strategy
• Reliability Engineering
• Scalability
• DevSecOps