Principal Engineer, Software Supply Chain Security

Overview of the Principal Engineer, Software Supply Chain Security Role at GitLab

As the Principal Engineer, Software Supply Chain Security, you will be the technical owner of the strategy that secures how software is built and delivered on GitLab’s DevSecOps platform. This role involves providing architectural leadership across multiple engineering teams and partnering closely with infrastructure and CI/CD teams to strengthen pipelines, infrastructure, and access layers. Your work will significantly influence GitLab’s enterprise security posture in the expanding software supply chain security market. Key focus areas include SLSA Level 3 compliance, secrets management, CI/CD security hardening, and establishing the foundations of GitLab’s global zero trust architecture. You will mentor Staff Engineers and individual contributors, guiding critical technical decisions and acting as a spokesperson for GitLab’s secure, mission-critical SaaS to customers and external stakeholders.

Key Projects and Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end software supply chain security architecture for GitLab’s CI/CD platform, including SLSA Level 3 implementation and CI infrastructure hardening.
• Drive cross-team technical strategy and decisions across Software Supply Chain Security (SSCS) stage teams, aligning engineering work to SSCS strategic plans.
• Collaborate with infrastructure and CI/CD teams to design and implement long-term initiatives for secure, scalable runner architecture, container isolation, and pipeline security at scale.
• Propose and validate technical implementations that support architectural changes to improve CI/CD scaling and performance on critical paths.
• Teach, mentor, and coach Staff Engineers and individual contributors on supply chain threat modeling, secrets management, artifact signing, and SBOM lifecycle practices.
• Partner with Engineering Managers and senior leadership to define roadmaps, break down complex initiatives, and empower Staff Engineers to lead sub-department-wide efforts.
• Engage with customers and external stakeholders as a technical consultant and spokesperson for GitLab’s software supply chain security capabilities and roadmap.
• Collaborate with product, security, and compliance stakeholders to ensure features meet enterprise security, governance, and regulatory expectations in the software supply chain security market.

What You'll Bring to GitLab

• Deep expertise in software supply chain security, including threat modeling for supply chain attack vectors, SLSA implementation and attestation systems, and SBOM generation and lifecycle management.
• Strong knowledge of artifact signing and verification using the Sigstore ecosystem, including Cosign, Fulcio, Rekor, and in-toto attestations.
• Experience designing and hardening CI/CD security, such as runner isolation, pipeline security controls, and secrets management in large-scale environments.
• Background in distributed systems and infrastructure, including building resilient CI/CD platforms that process high pipeline volumes and optimizing performance for critical paths.
• Practical experience with container security and Kubernetes security, including admission controllers, policy controllers, workload isolation, and registry hardening.
• Proficiency in Go or Rust in a production environment, combined with expert-level understanding of CI/CD workflows and DevSecOps best practices.
• Experience operating as a Principal or Staff Engineer across multiple development teams, providing architectural leadership and partnering with Engineering Managers and senior leaders.
• Demonstrated capacity to clearly communicate complex problems and solutions.

About the Team

The Software Supply Chain Security stage engineering teams at GitLab are responsible for authentication and access within GitLab. They also develop features that help customers manage vulnerabilities, dependencies, security policies, and compliance frameworks across their organizations. This group comprises four core teams: Authentication, Authorization, Pipeline Security, and Compliance, with over 40 engineers. The team operates asynchronously across regions, collaborating closely with product, security, and infrastructure to deliver secure-by-default features for customers in highly regulated industries.

Key skills/competency

• Software Supply Chain Security
• SLSA Compliance
• CI/CD Security
• Secrets Management
• Artifact Signing
• SBOM Lifecycle Management
• Kubernetes Security
• Distributed Systems
• Go/Rust Programming
• DevSecOps Best Practices