Engineering Leadership - Roles & Responsibilities

The Engineering Leadership becomes a cross-discipline management. A Senior Engineering Manager manages Engineering Managers with fullstack teams (frontend, backend, and fullstack engineers), and/or Engineering Individual Contributors (frontend, backend, and fullstack engineers)

Levels

Senior Manager, Engineering

The Senior Manager, Engineering role extends the Engineering Manager role.
The Senior Manager, Engineering reports to the Director, Engineering.

Senior Manager, Engineering Job Grade

The Senior Manager, Engineering is a grade 9.

Senior Manager, Engineering Responsibilities

Manage up to six engineering teams
Conduct managerial interviews for candidates, and train engineering managers to do said interviews
Generate and implement process improvements, especially cross-team processes
Hold regular 1:1s with team managers and skip-level 1:1s with all members of their team
Management mentorship

Senior Manager, Engineering Requirements

Professional experience as an engineer in at least one primary language or framework of the organization, or a closely related language or framework.
Ability to discuss architectural concepts and systems design, and to broker technical decisions at a high-level between individual contributors.
Experience across the devops lifecycle, with deep understanding of at least one area.
Exposure to automation through CI/CD pipelines.
An understanding of multiple delivery and distribution strategies, including an ability to maintain velocity within GitLab’s dual cadence of continuous deployment and a monthly release cycle.
Understanding of a variety of security principles and best practices including the ability to ensure a secure development process.
Understands how to maintain and enforce Quality Assurance through testing frameworks and code review standards.
Ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
Past experience (3 to 5 years) as an engineering manager.
Proven track record of execution that demonstrates an understanding of the software development lifecycle.
Ability to understand, communicate and improve the quality of multiple teams
Demonstrate longevity at, at least, one recent job
Ability to be successful managing at a remote-only company
Humble, servant leader
Ability to use GitLab

Senior Manager, Engineering Nice-to-have Requirements

Be a user of GitLab, or familiar with our company
Prior Developer Platform or Tool industry experience
Prior product company experience
Prior high-growth startup experience
Experience working on systems at massive (i.e. consumer) scale
Deep open source experience
Experience working with global teams
We value diversity, inclusion and belonging in leadership
Be inquisitive: Ask great questions

Principal Engineer

The Principal Engineer reports to the Senior Manager, Engineering.

Principal Engineer Job Grade

The Principal Engineer is a grade 9.

Principal Engineer Responsibilities

The Principal Engineer role acts as the individual equivalent of a Senior Engineering Manager, Development.
Extends that of the Staff Frontend Engineer and the Staff Backend Engineer responsibilities
Collaborates and makes proposals across several teams on their engineering work, and helps their team members make informed decisions in alignment with the sub-department strategic plans.
Exposes technology and organizational needs across their sub-department.
Teach, mentor, grow, and provide advice to other domain experts, individual contributors, across several teams in their sub-department.
Play a central role in technical, business, and organizational contributions affecting the sub-department/department.
Plan improvements and features with a 6 month view.
Solves technical problems of the highest scope, complexity, and ambiguity for their sub-department.
Interfaces with EMs and Senior management, and enables Staff Engineers to engage on department-level aspects of larger (sub-department wide) initiatives.
Looks for innovation opportunities between several teams with a willingness to experiment and to boldly confront problems of large complexity and scope.
Proposes initial technical implementations which support architectural changes that solve scaling and performance problems.
Ensures that OKR level goals are aligned across several teams in their sub-department.
Guides conversations to remove blockers and encourage collaboration across teams.
Provides a point of escalation for sub-department teams facing complex technical challenges.
Attain a measurable impact on the work of sub-department teams.
Interact with customers and other external stakeholders as a consultant and spokesperson for the work of your sub-department.
Exposes the work of the sub department and their business impact internally.
Knowledgeable in all specialities practiced within the Department or Sub Department

Principal Engineer Requirements

Extends either the Staff Frontend Engineer or the Staff Backend Engineer requirements

Director, Engineering

The Director of Engineering role reports to the Senior Director, Engineering.

Director, Engineering Job Grade

The Director, Engineering is a grade 10.

Director, Engineering Responsibilities

Extends that of the Senior Manager, Engineering responsibilities

Director, Engineering Requirements

Excellent communication skills
Expert hiring manager skills and experience
Experience managing managers, and a strong people management philosophy for both managers and engineers.
Experience managing relationships with external vendors.
Track record of structuring, staffing, and maintaining a high-performing organization that is resourced appropriately and cost-effectively.
Ability to coordinate complex technical projects that span multiple teams, while providing high-level progress updates in clear, business-friendly terms.
Ability to develop long-term technical roadmaps and broker architectural decisions across teams.
Ability to use understanding of both established systems and general industry direction to help guide strategic decisions.
Experience prioritizing technical debt at the organizational level, identifying risks, and balancing short-term delivery with long-term system health.
Expertise in agile methodologies, with a focus on optimizing overall organizational velocity and execution against business goals.
Thorough understanding of Security practices across the entire software lifecycle from product security to threat management.
Demonstrate longevity at, at least, one recent job
Ability to be successful managing at a remote-only company
Humble, servant leader

Director, Engineering Nice-to-have Requirements

Be a user of GitLab, or familiar with our company
Prior Developer Platform or Tool industry experience
Prior product company experience
Prior high-growth startup experience
Experience working on systems at massive (i.e. consumer) scale
Deep open source experience
Experience working with global teams
We value diversity, inclusion and belonging in leadership
Be inquisitive: Ask great questions

Distinguished Engineer

*The Distinguished Engineer reports to the Director, Development.

Distinguished Engineer Job Grade

The Distinguished Engineer is a grade 10.

Distinguished Engineer Responsibilities

The Distinguished Engineer role acts as the individual equivalent of a Director, Engineering
Extends that of the Principal Engineer responsibilities
At this level the person’s contribution plays to their strength and role on the team. These contributions come in different forms such as: Ship large feature sets with team, completes feature discovery independently, publishes technical blogs and speaks at conferences, interfaces with customers and provides technical direction to stakeholders (Product, Sales, others)
Generate technical and process improvements
Contribute to the sense of psychological safety on your team
Work cross-departmentally
Be a technical mentor for other backend engineers
Author architecture documents for epics
Hold team members accountable within their roles

Distinguished Engineer Requirements

Extends that of the Principal Engineer requirements

Senior Director, Engineering

The Senior Director, Engineering reports to the VP of Engineering.

Senior Director, Engineering Job Grade

The Senior Director, Engineering is a grade 11.

Senior Director, Engineering Responsibilities

This role is defined by the functional area(s) the person manages
Extends that of the Director, Engineering responsibilities
Organizational credibility: Past experience in managing an entire functional area of Engineering
Prioritization of hiring efforts to focus on areas of most need and quickly recruit top engineering talent
Motivate and communicate across multiple levels of their department
Have successful peer partnerships with other department leaders in Engineering, and cross-functionally (Product Management, sales, marketing, alliances, etc)
Provide a consistent/successful interface between Engineering and Product Management
Development, measurement, and management of key metrics for functional area’s performance
Drive high throughput
Standardize the development process where needed, allow local differences where advantages
Help shift the organization toward CD over time
Develop leadership skills within the organization and mentor other leaders
Develop strategies and new initiatives with their team to advance on an organizational and technical level both the department, the company and the product

Senior Director, Engineering Requirements

Extends that of the Director, Engineering requirements

Senior Distinguished Engineer

The Senior Distinguished Engineer reports to the Senior Director, Development or Director, Engineering of their sub-department.

Senior Distinguished Engineer Job Grade

The Senior Distinguished Engineer is a grade 11.

Senior Distinguished Engineer Responsibilities

The Senior Distinguished Engineer role acts as the individual equivalent of a Senior Director, Engineering
Extends that of the Distinguished Engineer responsibilities
At this level the Senior Distinguished Engineer’s minimal sphere of influence is across multiple sub-departments if not across their entire department
Generate technical and process improvements
Drive innovation within Engineering
Identifies the balance between the immediate and long term impact of technical direction and guides the organisation to execution in this balance
Be a technical, architectural, and career development mentor for other backend engineers
Author architecture documents for epics, coordinate the interaction between architectural directions across the engineering organization

Senior Distinguished Engineer Requirements

Extends that of the Distinguished Engineer requirements

Engineering Fellow

*The Engineering Fellow reports to the VP of Engineering.

Engineering Fellow Job Grade

The Engineering Fellow is a grade 12.

Engineering Fellow Responsibilities

The Engineering Fellow acts as the individual contributor equivalent of a VP of Engineering.
Extends that of the Senior Distinguished Engineer responsibilities
Advocate for improvements to product quality, security, and performance that impact all of Engineering at GitLab.
Solve technical problems of the highest scope and complexity for the entire organization.
Exert significant influence on the overall objectives and long-range goals of GitLab.
Ensure that our standards for style, maintainability, and best practices are suitable for the unique problems of scale and diversity of use represented by the GitLab product. Maintain and advocate for these standards through code review.
Drive innovation across Engineering with a willingness to experiment and to boldly confront problems of immense complexity and scope.
Actively seek out and prioritize our toughest technical challenges with a goal of creating significant improvement for GitLab’s use, ease of development, and/or technical efficiency.
Represent GitLab and its values in public communication in all aspects of our software development lifecycle and public relations. Interact with customers and other external stakeholders as a consultant and spokesperson for critical projects and aspects of our technical architecture.
Provide mentorship for Senior and Staff Engineers at the company to help them grow in their technical responsibilities and to share your great expertise across the organization.
Confidently ship immense or otherwise extremely high-impact features and improvements with minimal guidance and support from other members of the organization.
Help create the sense of psychological safety in the department

Engineering Fellow Requirements

Extends that of the Distinguished Engineer requirements

VP of Engineering

The VP of Engineering reports to the Chief Technology Officer.

VP of Engineering Job Grade

The VP of Engineering is a grade 12.

VP of Engineering Responsibilities

Extends that of the Senior Director, Engineering responsibilities. It expands the role to cover full functional and product capabilities at GitLab
Drive recruiting of a world class team at all levels
Help their (senior) directors, senior managers, managers, and engineers grow their skills and experience
Measure and improve the happiness of Engineering
Make sure the handbook is used and maintained in a transparent way
Implement technical and process improvements that are causal to most critical needs
Participate and support a sense of psychological safety of the department
Drive quarterly OKRs around company goals
Define the agile project management process
Be accountable for product quality, security, and performance
Work across departments within engineering
Work closely with Senior leaders of Product Management to provide a consistent/successful interface between Engineering and Product Management
Support constantly changing priorities between product features, availability, performance, security and reliability
Support process for incident management including quality control of RCAs

VP of Engineering Requirements

Extends that of the Senior Director, Engineering requirements

Performance Indicators

Career Ladder

For more details on the engineering career ladders, please review the engineering career development handbook page.

Hiring Process

Candidates for this position can generally expect the hiring process to follow the order below. Note that as candidates indicate preference or aptitude for one or more specialties, the hiring process will be adjusted to suit. Please keep in mind that candidates can be declined from the position at any stage of the process. To learn more about someone who may be conducting the interview, find their job title on our team page.

Selected candidates will be invited to schedule a 30 minute screening call with one of our Technical Recruiters
Next, candidates will be invited to schedule a 60 minute first interview with a Director of Engineering
Next, candidates will be invited to schedule a 45 minute second peer interview with an Engineering Manager
Next, candidates will be invited to schedule a 45 minute third interview with another member of the Engineering team
Next, candidates will be invited to schedule a 45 minute fourth interview with a member of the Product team
Next, candidates will be invited to schedule a 45 minute fifth interview with our VP of Engineering
Finally, candidates may be asked to schedule a 50 minute final interview with our CEO
Successful candidates will subsequently be made an offer via email

Chief Technology Officer

The Chief Technology Officer reports to the Chief Executive Officer.

Chief Technology Officer Job Grade

The Chief Technology Officer is a grade 12.

Chief Technology Officer Responsibilities

Drive recruiting of a world class team
Collaborate with the CEO and VP of Incubation Engineering on the 3-5 year vision
Help their directors, senior managers, managers, and engineers grow their skills and experience
Measure and improve the happiness of Engineering
Make sure the handbook is used and maintained in a transparent way
Sponsor technical and process improvements
Own the sense of psychological safety of the department
Set quarterly OKRs around company goals
Define the agile project management process
Spend time with customers to understand their needs and issues
Be accountable for product quality, security, and performance

Chief Technology Officer Requirements

Chief Technology Officer Performance Indicators

Chief Technology Officer Hiring Process

Selected candidates will be invited to schedule a 30 minute screening call with one of our Technical Recruiters
Next, candidates will be invited to schedule a 60 minute first interview with a Director of Engineering
Next, candidates will be invited to schedule a 45 minute second peer interview with an Engineering Manager
Next, candidates will be invited to schedule a 45 minute third interview with another member of the Engineering team
Next, candidates will be invited to schedule a 45 minute fourth interview with a member of the Product team
Next, candidates will be invited to schedule a 45 minute fifth interview with our VP of Engineering
Finally, candidates may be asked to schedule a 50 minute final interview with our CEO
Successful candidates will subsequently be made an offer via email

*This is the typical reporting structure however deviations can be made based business need, technical alignment, current positions, career development, and/or organization size.

About 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 the rate of human progress. This mission is integral to our culture, influencing how we hire, build products, and lead our industry. We make this possible at GitLab by running our operations on our product and staying aligned with our values. Learn more about Life at GitLab. Thanks to products like Duo Enterprise, and Duo Workflow, customers get the benefit of AI 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. All team members are encouraged and expected to incorporate AI into their daily workflows to drive efficiency, innovation, and impact across our global organisation.

See our culture page for more!

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Last modified May 1, 2025: Deduplicate Sr. Director and VP of engineering job families (153ff9c9)

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