Senior Backend Engineer (Ruby), Tenant Scale, Geo

Remote, Americas; Remote, EMEA

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.

An overview of this role

As a Senior Backend Engineer on the Geo team in our Tenant Scale group, you’ll build and evolve the features that keep GitLab’s largest, most demanding self-managed customers fast, resilient, and always available. You’ll focus on three core areas of the GitLab product: GitLab Replication, Disaster Recovery, and Backup & Restore, designing and implementing secure, well-tested, and performant Ruby on Rails and PostgreSQL-backed services that replicate data across geographic regions, provide fault tolerance, and support business continuity. You’ll partner closely with your Engineering Manager to shape technical direction, lead architectural decisions, and turn complex customer needs into iterative solutions, while mentoring other engineers and advising Customer Support on production issues. In your first year, you’ll own key Geo features end to end, drive tangible improvements in system scalability and reliability, and help define technical best practices for distributed, highly available systems within GitLab.

Some examples of our projects:

  • Geo Proxy
  • Geo Self-Service Framework
  • Geo-based Runner Acceleration

What you’ll do

  • Design and develop secure, well-tested, and performant backend features and improvements for the GitLab Geo product, focusing on replication, disaster recovery, and backup and restore.
  • Partner with your Engineering Manager and product stakeholders to assess technical feasibility, shape solution approaches, and align implementations with customer needs.
  • Deliver proof-of-concept implementations to inform architectural choices and guide technical discussions within the Tenant Scale group.
  • Break down and drive complex technical projects in an iterative way, owning features end to end from proposal through deployment and ongoing maintenance.
  • Lead architectural design decisions for Geo Replication, Disaster Recovery, and Backup & Restore, solving challenges in distributed, fault-tolerant, and highly available systems.
  • Mentor and support other engineers by sharing best practices for Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, and distributed system design through code reviews and pairing.
  • Collaborate with Customer Support and other engineering teams to investigate and resolve production issues, feeding real-world learnings back into product and architecture improvements.

What you’ll bring

  • Professional experience developing backend services in production environments using Ruby on Rails and PostgreSQL
  • Background designing and implementing fault-tolerant, distributed, and highly available systems for large-scale applications
  • Hands-on experience with queueing and messaging systems, and with provisioning or configuration management tools
  • Ability to lead architectural design decisions, define technical approaches, and drive complex system changes from concept through delivery
  • Experience mentoring and supporting other engineers, including sharing and promoting backend and distributed systems best practices
  • Familiarity with backup and restore patterns for databases, application configuration, and infrastructure as code in distributed environments
  • Comfortable working asynchronously with cross-functional partners and translating customer or support feedback into technical improvements
  • Openness to learning new technologies and applying transferable skills, even when experience does not align with every listed requirement

About the team

The Geo team is part of GitLab’s Tenant Scale group and owns GitLab Geo, an enterprise feature that replicates self-managed GitLab deployments across geographic locations to improve performance, resilience, and availability for some of our largest customers. The team is small, backend-focused, and works primarily in Ruby on Rails and PostgreSQL, collaborating asynchronously across time zones and partnering closely with product, support, and other engineering teams. Together we design, build, and maintain the architecture and services that keep distributed GitLab instances coordinated and consistent, including intelligent proxying so users access the most recent data for everyday workflows and disaster recovery. The team is focused on challenges like proximity-based data access, fault-tolerant replication, and robust backup and restore for large, distributed systems.

How GitLab will support you

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.

Country Hiring Guidelines: GitLab hires new team members in countries around the world. All of our roles are remote, however some roles may carry specific location-based eligibility requirements. Our Talent Acquisition team can help answer any questions about location after starting the recruiting process.  

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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.

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