VP of Engineering, Architecture and Transformation

Overview of the VP of Engineering, Architecture and Transformation Role at GitLab

As the Vice President of Engineering, Architecture and Transformation at GitLab, you will establish and lead a pivotal new Engineering Leadership Team (ELT)-level engineering pillar. This role is crucial for driving AI-powered productivity, defining next-generation architecture, and ensuring horizontal execution across the entire organization. You will address critical cross-cutting challenges, including enhancing engineering productivity through AI tools like Claude Code, resolving significant architectural hurdles such as decoupling the monolith, and developing next-generation primitives. Furthermore, you will boost responsiveness by integrating a horizontal engineering team into high-priority vertical initiatives. This position oversees two key charters: Architecture, Quality and Engineering Excellence, and Horizontal Engineering. These charters are responsible for establishing and implementing engineering best practices, serving as "Customer Zero" for GitLab's AI-assisted development workflows, and providing agile, high-context capacity to accelerate delivery and improve reliability, aiming for targets like 99.99% availability. During your first year, you will collaborate closely with the ELT and PMO to define and execute a clear AI and architecture roadmap. You will also set standards that elevate quality and operational efficiency, and cultivate a high-trust model for embedded horizontal teams, thereby strengthening GitLab's global, always-on innovation cycle.

Key Projects You'll Lead

• The AI-Augmented Delivery Engine: Lead a strategic initiative to utilize GitLab internally as "Customer Zero." This involves integrating advanced AI agents, such as Claude Code or comparable open-source models, to automate routine tasks like refactoring and Merge Request generation, thereby creating a blueprint for exponential productivity gains.
• The "Act 2" Alignment Charter: Co-author a strategic roadmap with senior leadership to identify systemic technical bottlenecks and outline the architectural evolution necessary for GitLab to transform from a DevSecOps platform into an AI-autonomous delivery engine.

What You Will Do

• Lead the newly formed Engineering, Architecture and Transformation pillar as a key member of the ELT, establishing a clear vision for horizontal engineering excellence throughout GitLab.
• Drive the definition, adoption, and continuous improvement of engineering best practices, collaborating with Product, PMO, and vertical engineering leaders to enhance quality, reliability, and delivery consistency.
• Champion the "Customer Zero" initiative by advocating for internal use of GitLab, unblocking teams, and directly contributing to code when necessary to validate workflows and accelerate critical projects.
• Define and guide the transition to an AI-optimized, next-generation architecture, including the design and deployment of core primitives that empower vertical teams to decouple legacy systems and scale for ultra-large customers.
• Build and lead the Architecture, Quality and Engineering Excellence team to achieve non-linear productivity gains through AI-assisted development, leveraging tools like Claude Code and GitLab Duo.
• Establish and manage the Horizontal Engineering team as a flexible, embedded unit that integrates with target teams, develops deep context in their codebases, and delivers high-impact features and fixes during US business hours.
• Collaborate across the ELT and senior leadership to identify systemic horizontal challenges, prioritize cross-cutting initiatives, and ensure clear technical ownership and accountability for execution.
• Foster an operationally frugal mindset by aligning AI and architectural decisions with cost of goods sold optimization, while upholding high availability, service reliability targets, and a robust culture of engineering excellence.

What You Will Bring

• Large-Scale Engineering Leadership: Demonstrated experience leading significant engineering organizations, including horizontal or platform functions that span multiple product areas.
• World-Scale Service Operations: Extensive background in building, operating, and evolving highly available, world-scale services with a strong emphasis on reliability and quality.
• Architectural Expertise: Proven technical depth in modern software architectures, including experience driving major architectural transitions like monolith decoupling and defining foundational primitives.
• Hands-On Technical Leadership: A hands-on engineering leadership approach, with the capability to directly engage in code and technical design when required, while guiding teams from strategic planning through execution.
• AI-Assisted Development: Expertise in AI-assisted development and tooling, with a history of using AI to boost developer productivity and influence product direction.
• Cost-Conscious Architecture: Experience in making COGS-conscious engineering decisions, optimizing architectures and operations for both performance and cost efficiency.
• Cross-Functional Influence: Ability to influence effectively without direct authority in a matrixed environment, aligning engineering, product, and executive stakeholders around shared outcomes.
• Product-Minded Change Leadership: Strong product mindset and change leadership capabilities, including adeptly managing the human aspects of significant technical shifts in similarly complex, high-scale environments.

About The Team

GitLab's ELT-led engineering pillar drives platform-wide impact. We partner with product and engineering leaders across all verticals to raise engineering standards and support long-term architectural and AI initiatives. You'll join a small, high-context, globally distributed group that works asynchronously. We also provide responsive coverage during US business hours through embedded engineers who join target teams as full contributors. We focus on solving systemic, cross-cutting engineering challenges and accelerating delivery where capacity or geographic gaps exist, turning GitLab's global footprint into a strategic advantage.

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

• Engineering Leadership
• AI-Powered Productivity
• Software Architecture
• DevSecOps Platform
• Monolith Decoupling
• System Reliability
• Operational Efficiency
• Cross-functional Collaboration
• Technical Strategy
• Cost Optimization