Staff Forward Deployed Engineer - META

About GitLab and the Role

GitLab is a leading platform enabling DevSecOps by enhancing developer productivity, streamlining operations, minimizing security and compliance risks, and accelerating digital transformation. Trusted by over 50 million users and more than half of the Fortune 100 companies, GitLab fosters a culture that embraces AI for boosting productivity and innovation while supporting employee growth in a collaborative environment.

Role Summary

The Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team at GitLab operates as a field-based product engineering unit delivering strategic customer solutions, AI adoption, and direct product contributions. This role is distinct from typical field engineering or solutions architecture roles. As a Staff Forward Deployed Engineer, you will address complex, ambiguous challenges situated at the intersection of customer needs and GitLab’s product development, partnering with diverse internal teams and strategic customers.

Key Responsibilities

• Contribute production-grade code to GitLab’s core product and related systems, developing fixes, features, and improvements influenced by strategic customer requirements.
• Work within GitLab’s engineering methodologies, including issue tracking, merge requests, testing, documentation, and maintainability.
• Collaborate with Product and Engineering to ensure customer-driven solutions align with long-term product goals rather than producing one-off customizations.
• Identify and resolve blockers faced by customers and transform them into scalable product enhancements and reusable implementation frameworks.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership to prioritize adoption, retention, and trust-critical customer challenges, diagnosing complex issues across multiple system layers including Git internals, CI/CD, APIs, infrastructure, and observability.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams across Product, Engineering, SRE, Support, Architecture, Customer Success, and Professional Services to deliver effective resolutions.
• Advance AI adoption by driving governed and measurable deployment of GitLab Duo Agent Platform, overcoming governance, security, compliance, and workflow challenges.
• Develop best practices and safe adoption frameworks for AI-assisted development, agentic SDLC, and human-in-the-loop software delivery models.
• Create technical thought leadership materials—whitepapers, webinars, frameworks—and guide concepts from inception to broad adoption across organizational stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• Proven experience at the staff engineering level managing complex production software systems and contributing to large mature codebases emphasizing testing, security, and maintainability.
• Proficiency in Ruby on Rails or Go, with the capability to contribute directly to GitLab’s products.
• Knowledge of AI-assisted software development, governance, and AI adoption in enterprise contexts.
• Ability to diagnose and troubleshoot systems spanning application layers, data stores, infrastructure, networking, and customer workflows.
• Expertise in modern DevSecOps processes including Git workflows, CI/CD pipelines, security controls, and compliance.
• Experience engaging strategically with senior technical customer stakeholders in ambiguous scenarios.
• Strong communication skills and sound judgment to articulate technical narratives and distinguish reusable solutions from client-specific customizations.

Strongly Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with GitLab platforms such as GitLab.com, Dedicated, or Self-Managed.
• Familiarity with technologies including PostgreSQL, Redis, Sidekiq, Vue, TypeScript, Kubernetes, Docker, Linux, and observability tools.
• In-depth understanding of Git internals and large-scale repository performance optimization.
• Experience in creating whitepapers, technical talks, architecture frameworks, or internal technical strategy documentation.
• Background in performance, site reliability, platform, or infrastructure engineering, especially in distributed systems.
• Experience working in open source or asynchronously operating engineering teams.

Technologies and Domains Relevant to the Role:

• Ruby on Rails
• Go
• AI-assisted development and agentic SDLC
• PostgreSQL, Redis, Sidekiq
• Git internals
• GitLab CI/CD and Runner architecture
• Kubernetes and containerization
• Terraform
• Linux, networking, and observability
• Vue and TypeScript
• API automation
• DevSecOps governance, security, and compliance

Important Clarifications

This role is not a typical field engineering, a proof-of-concept specialist, a substitute for Solutions Architecture or Customer Success teams, nor a provider of customized client-specific solutions. It is focused on engineering execution linked directly to strategic outcomes and product enhancement.

Measures of Success

• Resolving strategic customer challenges to assure adoption and retention.
• Contributing bug fixes and new features to improve GitLab’s product.
• Removing AI adoption barriers for key accounts through governance and technical solutions.
• Producing reusable deployment patterns and transitioning ownership effectively.
• Creating and disseminating thought leadership and well-architected frameworks.
• Collaboratively resolving complex cross-team challenges without fostering ongoing dependency on the FDE team.
• Enhancing adoption and effective usage of GitLab’s AI products such as GitLab Duo.

About the Team

The Forward Deployed Engineering team bridges customer needs with GitLab’s product delivery by providing technical stewardship, solving adoption challenges, delivering product improvements, and generating scalable knowledge and technical guidance.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The successful candidate is a senior engineer capable of working autonomously in complex environments, handling tasks from code production to technical leadership and multi-team coordination. They must possess the ability to convert customer challenges into strategic product enhancements and share insights that benefit the broader company.

Benefits and Inclusion

• Comprehensive health, financial, and wellbeing support.
• Flexible paid time off and parental leave policies.
• Equity compensation and employee stock purchase opportunities.
• Access to growth and development funds.
• Engagement in team member resource groups promoting diversity and inclusion.

Additional Information

GitLab is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity and merit-based advancement. Candidates with various backgrounds and experience levels are encouraged to apply; the recruitment team will evaluate qualifications comprehensively. The position is fully remote, with some location-based eligibility considerations. Privacy and recruitment policies are strictly upheld throughout the hiring process.