Backend Engineer

GitLab is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps. GitLab enables organizations to increase developer productivity, improve operational efficiency, reduce security and compliance risk, and accelerate digital transformation. More than 50 million registered users and more than 50% of the Fortune 100* trust GitLab to ship better, more secure software faster.

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.

*Fortune 500® is a registered trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, used under license. Claim based on GitLab data. Fortune 100 refers to the top 20% ranked companies in the 2025 Fortune 500 list, published in June 2025. Fortune and Fortune Media IP Limited are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of GitLab.

An overview of this role

As a Backend Engineer on the Tenant Scale: Git team, you'll help improve one of the most widely used foundations of modern software development. Git is at the core of how developers collaborate, and this role focuses on making Git and Gitaly more capable, reliable, and efficient for GitLab and the people who use our platform. You'll contribute directly to upstream Git, help shape technical direction, and connect open source community discussions with GitLab product needs.

Reporting to the Git team lead, you'll work across Git and Gitaly to deliver changes that improve repository access, performance, and long-term maintainability. This is a unique opportunity to influence both an essential open source project and the systems GitLab uses to serve repositories at scale, while helping guide larger efforts that affect the future direction of Git.

• Some examples of our projects: contributing new features and fixes to upstream Git, and adapting Gitaly to make effective use of new and existing Git capabilities

What you’ll do

• Participate in architectural discussions and technical decisions related to Git and Gitaly, helping drive implementation choices that improve correctness, performance, and maintainability.
• Contribute features, bug fixes, and performance improvements to upstream Git in line with team and community goals, delivering changes that improve repository access and reliability for users.
• Adapt Gitaly to make effective use of Git capabilities, including integrating newly available features to improve scalability, efficiency, and long-term maintainability.
• Connect discussions in the open source Git project with GitLab's product direction and engineering work, helping align upstream contributions with product and platform needs.
• Scope tasks, estimate effort, and describe implementation plans that support the team's priorities and enable predictable delivery of technical work.
• Test and validate the features you build and integrate, with a focus on correctness and reliability to reduce regressions and support stable production use.
• Collaborate with team members, contributors and the Git ecosystem
• Represent GitLab as a constructive participant in the open source ecosystem, building productive relationships that support ongoing collaboration with the Git community.

What you’ll bring

• Experience building instrumented, observable software systems.
• Knowledge of Git internals, including its code and data structures, or practical experience operating Git servers.
• Experience writing and testing production-quality code in C.
• Experience contributing to open source projects, including Git or similar systems, and working effectively in public collaboration spaces.
• Familiarity with Go for backend development and understanding of Linux internals such as processes, memory management, input/output, and filesystems.
• Interest or experience in large-scale or distributed systems, storage formats, graph theory, or highly available production environments, including transferable backend or infrastructure experience.

About the team

The Tenant Scale: Git team works on the Git capabilities that underpin repository access in GitLab, with a strong connection to Gitaly and the upstream Git project. The team contributes directly to open source Git, improves how GitLab uses Git in production, and helps shape technical direction in areas such as performance, correctness, and maintainability. Team members collaborate asynchronously across regions, balancing internal engineering needs with active participation in public open source discussions. For more on the domain this role supports, see the Team Direction Page.

How GitLab Supports Full-Time Employees

• 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 

Please note that we welcome interest from candidates with varying levels of experience; many successful candidates do not meet every single requirement. Additionally, studies have shown that people from underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to a job unless they meet every single qualification. If you're excited about this role, please apply and allow our recruiters to assess your application.

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GitLab is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. GitLab’s policies and practices relating to recruitment, employment, career development and advancement, promotion, and retirement are based solely on merit, regardless of race, color, religion, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, lactation, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression), national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, mental or physical disability, genetic information (including family medical history), discharge status from the military, protected veteran status (which includes disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, active duty wartime or campaign badge veterans, and Armed Forces service medal veterans), or any other basis protected by law. GitLab will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. See also GitLab’s EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know during the recruiting process.