Senior Backend Engineer, Auth Infrastructure

Overview of the Senior Backend Engineer, Auth Infrastructure 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.

As a Senior Backend Engineer, Auth Infrastructure on the Auth Infrastructure team at GitLab, you’ll build the critical infrastructure layer that powers authentication and authorization for millions of users across GitLab.com, self-managed, Dedicated, and air-gapped environments. You’ll focus on secure, performant, and reliable identity services while helping GitLab move toward a zero-trust architecture and microservices-based future. You’ll work closely with Authentication, Authorization, Platform, and Infrastructure teams to design and implement components like Envoy proxy configuration, token services, bi-directional gRPC tunnels, mTLS, and service mesh architecture, and to add robust observability and debugging for distributed auth systems.

This role gives you the opportunity to solve authentication infrastructure challenges at global scale and directly influence the roadmap for GitLab’s secure and scalable authentication solution. Your work will empower GitLab system administrators to balance security and accessibility, shaping the first impression customers have when they log in, onboard users, and manage core security rules for their instances.

What You’ll Do

• Design and implement core components of GitLab's authentication infrastructure layer, including Envoy proxy configuration, token services, and policy decision systems.
• Develop solutions for critical infrastructure challenges such as bi-directional gRPC tunnels, mutual Transport Layer Security (mTLS), and service mesh architecture.
• Build and maintain authentication infrastructure that supports GitLab.com, self-managed, Dedicated, and air-gapped deployment models.
• Optimize the performance and reliability of authentication and authorization decisions at scale across distributed systems.
• Implement and refine monitoring, observability, and debugging capabilities for authentication services to ensure secure and stable operation.
• Collaborate with Authentication, Authorization, Platform, and Infrastructure teams to align infrastructure capabilities with product and architectural requirements.
• Contribute to the team’s technical direction and roadmap for secure, scalable authentication, including standards for style, maintainability, and best practices.
• Represent GitLab and its values through participation in public communication, broader initiatives, and contributions to relevant open source projects.

What You’ll Bring

• Strong experience building high-performance backend services in Go, ideally in large-scale, distributed environments.
• Hands-on experience with proxy and edge technologies such as Envoy, Traefik, HAProxy, or nginx, including configuration and operation in production.
• Practical experience with service mesh architectures, mutual TLS (mTLS), zero-trust networking, and secure service-to-service communication patterns (gRPC, REST).
• Working knowledge of database and storage technologies such as RDS, Google Spanner, Postgres or similar, including schema design and performance considerations.
• Understanding of token systems (for example JWT or Macaroons), cryptographic signing, and key management for authentication and authorization workflows.
• Experience with Kubernetes, container orchestration, and cloud-native deployment patterns, including observability, monitoring, and debugging of distributed systems.
• Ability to own projects from concept to production, including proposing designs, driving discussions, and delivering in a highly agile, iterative environment.
• Effective written and verbal communication in English, with a collaborative, solution-oriented mindset and openness to learning from and supporting team members with diverse backgrounds and transferable skills.

About The Team

At GitLab, we on the Auth Infrastructure team sit within the Software Supply Chain Security group and focus on building and maintaining the core authentication and authorization infrastructure that underpins all GitLab deployment models. Our mission is to give GitLab system administrators the tools they need to balance security and accessibility, making the first authentication experience smooth while ensuring identity services are secure, flexible, and scalable. You’ll work as part of a small, distributed team that collaborates asynchronously across time zones with Authentication, Authorization, Platform, and Infrastructure teams to support GitLab’s shift toward microservices and zero-trust networking. We are currently focused on solving challenges like high-scale auth performance, secure service-to-service communication, and supporting complex environments including GitLab.com, self-managed, Dedicated, and air-gapped deployments.

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

Key skills/competency

• GoLang
• Distributed Systems
• Authentication
• Authorization
• Envoy Proxy
• Service Mesh
• Kubernetes
• Zero-Trust Architecture
• mTLS
• Observability
• Cloud-Native