Senior Engineering Manager, Non-Linear Productivity - GitLab

About the Role

GitLab is seeking a Senior Engineering Manager to drive non-linear productivity by building and leading a specialized, hand-picked team. This is a 0-to-1 mandate focused on identifying and eliminating high-leverage friction points within GitLab's own SDLC. You will operate with significant autonomy, reporting to a VP-level leader, and will be measured by system-level metrics rather than traditional activity tracking.

What You'll Do

Vision & Strategy

• Define the operating model for the non-linear productivity pilot, including how friction is diagnosed and prioritized.
• Identify step-change opportunities across the SDLC, such as flaky tests, review latency, and tooling gaps.
• Translate ambiguous mandates into concrete, time-boxed roadmaps with clear milestones.

Team Building & Leadership

• Personally recruit and select 4 exceptional engineers for the pilot squad.
• Set technical direction and working norms for a fast-moving, high-autonomy team.
• Mentor engineers in root-cause diagnosis and shift-left thinking.

Technical Exploration & Experimentation

• Instrument and baseline key metrics: MRPM, pipeline success rate, and pipeline latency.
• Design and implement compounding fixes, including tooling investments and improved interfaces for human and agentic contributors.
• Remain hands-on to review architecture and unblock the team on complex technical challenges.

Internal Adoption & Operations

• Work with engineering teams to ensure fixes are adopted and durable.
• Report impact based on metric movement rather than activity.
• Codify reusable patterns and playbooks for org-wide adoption.
• Define the criteria for the pilot's graduation into a permanent function.

What You'll Bring

• Proven track record leading small, high-autonomy engineering teams in developer productivity, CI/CD, or platform reliability.
• Deep expertise in CI/CD and build systems; understanding of what drives pipeline performance.
• Strong root-cause instinct and a commitment to high-bar talent acquisition.
• Experience operating under metrics-driven accountability.
• Excellent executive-level communication skills.

Nice to Have

• Experience with agentic or AI-assisted development workflows.
• Prior experience running 0-to-1 initiatives or defined-window pilots.
• Familiarity with GitLab's CI/CD internals.