Senior Candidate Experience Specialist, AMER - GitLab

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.

Overview of the Role

As the Candidate Experience Team Lead for the AMER region, you'll own how candidates experience GitLab across your region by raising the capability of the specialists around you. You'll set the quality bar, balance workloads, onboard and develop specialists, and serve as the first escalation point when a process breaks down or a candidate situation needs judgment.

You'll stay hands-on with interview coordination, background checks, and offers, while spending most of your time making the regional function run well. You'll use candidate experience data to surface patterns and risks to the Director, Talent Acquisition and Enablement, and partner with leads in other regions to maintain one global process.

What You'll Do

• Lead Candidate Experience Specialists in AMER, setting and modeling standards for interview coordination, candidate communication, contract and offer accuracy, and data hygiene in the applicant tracking system.
• Balance coordination work across the regional team, monitor capacity against hiring volume, and flag resourcing gaps to Talent Acquisition leadership before they affect candidates.
• Resolve escalated scheduling conflicts, candidate issues, and process gaps, bringing clear recommendations to leadership when further support is needed.
• Own onboarding, ramp, and ongoing development for new specialists through documentation, shadowing, and direct feedback on work quality.
• Coordinate interviews, prepare offers and employment contracts, manage background and reference checks, and partner with People Operations on the handoff to onboarding.
• Build and maintain reporting on candidate satisfaction, specialist response times, scheduling turnaround, and data accuracy to identify patterns, bottlenecks, and risks.
• Partner with leads in other regions to maintain one global coordination process, contribute regional evidence to process and tooling improvements, implement agreed changes, and keep documentation accurate.
• Collaborate with recruiters, hiring managers, Talent Acquisition leadership, Information Technology, and People Operations across time zones using GitLab's all-remote and asynchronous approach.

What You'll Bring

• Substantial experience in candidate experience or recruiting coordination, covering interview scheduling, offer and contract preparation, background checks, and onboarding handoffs, including serving as a senior or go-to team member.
• Ability to lead and develop team members without formal authority through mentoring, onboarding, direct feedback, and influence.
• High attention to detail in scheduling, contracts, and candidate data, with a record of professionalism, responsiveness, sound judgment under pressure, and maintaining confidentiality.
• Experience anticipating risks, resolving scheduling and process problems early, prioritizing competing demands, and setting clear expectations about timelines and trade-offs.
• Experience building and maintaining candidate experience or scheduling reports, using data to identify bottlenecks and make a case for change.
• Experience working across regions or functions to standardize processes, with the judgment to distinguish genuine regional requirements from inconsistent practices.
• Clear written and verbal communication with candidates and stakeholders at all levels, including executives.
• Proficiency with an ATS (Greenhouse and ModernLoop experience beneficial) and scheduling tools like Google Workspace.

About the Team

Our Candidate Experience team supports candidates through interview coordination, offers and contracts, background and reference checks, and the transition to onboarding. As regional leads and specialists, we partner with recruiters, hiring managers, Talent Acquisition leadership, IT, and People Operations to deliver a consistent global candidate experience. We work across time zones, using transparent documentation in the applicant tracking system and GitLab repositories to collaborate asynchronously.