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Engineering Manager - Database Change Management
An overview of this role
As Engineering Manager, Database Change Management, you'll lead a remote backend engineering team in the Database Excellence stage. The team owns database health and the database upgrade experience across GitLab.com and self-managed deployments. You'll guide two missions at once: keeping one of the largest PostgreSQL installations in the world within its capacity limits, and delivering a multi-year replacement of GitLab's database migration system so customer upgrades become dramatically faster and safer. Reporting to the Database Excellence stage's engineering leader, you'll build and grow a new engineering cluster in India, keep the long-horizon platform program on track, and help the team maintain production health through fully asynchronous, handbook-first ways of working.
Some examples of our projects:
Replacing GitLab's sequential database migration system with a dependency graph model and three-phase upgrades, helping self-managed customers stay current with fewer upgrade stops
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Improving database health monitoring, cloud-managed database observability, and saturation and capacity forecasting for GitLab.com and self-managed deployments
What you’ll do
Lead a distributed team of backend engineers working fully asynchronously across time zones.
Hire, onboard, and develop an India-based engineering cluster, including intermediate engineers and a senior technical anchor.
Balance the team's database health responsibilities with the multi-quarter migration system replacement so both missions continue to make progress.
Protect the replatforming program's critical path by limiting production interruptions for engineers focused on it while meeting the team's operational commitments.
Coach engineers from intermediate through senior levels, supporting their growth, ownership, and impact.
Run the team async-first through written decision records, visible priorities, and management practices that work when team members share few or no working hours.
Partner with Distribution, Quality Assurance (QA), database framework teams, Database Architecture, Database Automation, and infrastructure leadership.
Represent the team's capacity, priorities, risks, and delivery status to senior engineering leadership.
What you’ll bring
Engineering management experience leading remote, distributed teams across many time zones, including team members with little or no overlap with your working day.
Production PostgreSQL experience, including capacity planning and enough technical depth to contribute credibly to migration system and reliability design discussions without needing to own the designs.
Experience leading a long-horizon platform or infrastructure program alongside operational responsibilities and keeping both on track.
Hiring and team-building experience, including experience standing up a new team or site cluster, or closely related work.
Strong written communication skills and experience using writing as a primary management tool.
Experience coaching and developing backend engineers across multiple levels.
Ability to set priorities and protect focus while maintaining production health and meeting operational commitments.
Experience collaborating cross-functionally with software engineering, quality, distribution, database, and infrastructure partners.
About the team
We work fully asynchronously and handbook-first with Database Architecture, Database Automation, Distribution, and QA. Our work helps address the fact that roughly a third of self-managed customers are two or more upgrade stops behind.
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.
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.
Privacy Policy: Please review our Recruitment Privacy Policy. Your privacy is important to us.
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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