Staff Backend Engineer, AST: Composition Analysis

Remote from
USA flagAustralia flag
USA, Australia +5 more, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Israel, Japan
Salary, yearly, USD
131,600 - 282,000
Employment type
Full Time,
Job posted
Apply before
21 Jun 2026
Experience level
Senior
Views / Applies
13 / 2

About GitLab

Iterate faster, innovate together: Our DevOps platform is a single app for unparalleled development velocity.

Actively Hiring
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This job post has been manually reviewed for authenticity and compliance.

AI Summary

GitLab is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer for its Software Composition Analysis (SCA) team to enhance dependency and container scanning capabilities. The role involves hands-on implementation of security features, architectural decisions, and technical mentorship. Key focus areas include gathering data points for risk understanding, integrating collection techniques, and optimizing data correlation. The ideal candidate has strong SCA experience and can contribute to complex engineering challenges in a distributed team environment.

Job Complexity

Easy Hard
AI Insight This is a staff-level role requiring deep expertise in software composition analysis, security, and distributed systems, along with leadership and mentorship skills, making it highly challenging.

Salary Analysis

Median
USD206,800
US Market
USD130,000 – USD250,000
AI Insight The offered salary range of $131,600 to $282,000 is competitive for a staff-level backend engineer in the US, with the median of $206,800 aligning well with market rates for senior roles in DevSecOps.

Key Skills

Software Composition Analysis Dependency Scanning Container Scanning Security Ruby on Rails Go Distributed Systems DevSecOps Technical Leadership Mentorship

I am excited to apply for the Staff Backend Engineer position on the Software Composition Analysis team at GitLab. With extensive experience in building scalable security features and a strong background in dependency and container scanning, I am well-prepared to contribute to GitLab's mission of enabling secure software delivery.

In my previous role, I led the development of reachability analysis and supply chain poisoning detection, directly aligning with GitLab's goals of gathering and integrating risk data. I have a proven track record of solving novel technical challenges and establishing patterns that improve team efficiency across distributed environments.

I am particularly drawn to GitLab's culture of innovation and its embrace of AI as a productivity multiplier. I look forward to collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver high-impact features that enhance the DevSecOps lifecycle.

Thank you for considering my application. I am eager to bring my technical expertise and leadership to GitLab and help shape the future of software composition analysis.

Describe your experience with software composition analysis and how you have contributed to improving dependency scanning accuracy.
I have worked on SCA tools that parse package manifests and lock files to identify vulnerabilities. I improved accuracy by implementing CPE matching and reachability analysis, reducing false positives by 30%.
How do you approach designing scalable systems for data correlation at massive scale?
I use a combination of efficient data structures, indexing, and distributed processing. For example, I designed a system that uses sharded databases and batch processing to correlate millions of dependency records daily.
Can you give an example of a time you mentored junior engineers and how you helped them grow?
I established weekly code review sessions and pair programming for a team of three junior engineers. I guided them through complex features, which improved their code quality and reduced onboarding time by 40%.
How do you prioritize technical debt alongside feature development?
I categorize debt by impact on velocity and risk. I allocate 20% of each sprint to address high-impact debt, such as refactoring critical services, ensuring long-term maintainability without stalling feature delivery.
Describe a challenging technical problem you solved in security scanning and the approach you took.
We needed to detect supply chain poisoning in open-source dependencies. I implemented a hash-based verification system that cross-references package integrity with known-good sources, reducing the risk of malicious packages.

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. 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.

*Fortune 500® is a registered trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, used under license. Claim based on GitLab data. Fortune 100 refers to the top 20% ranked companies in the 2025 Fortune 500 list, published in June 2025. Fortune and Fortune Media IP Limited are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of GitLab.

An overview of this role

As a Staff Engineer on GitLab’s Software Composition Analysis team, you’ll drive hands-on implementation of security features that help customers understand and manage risks in their software supply chain. Your focus will be on enhancing GitLab’s SCA capabilities in dependency scanning and container scanning. You’ll work directly on architecture and technical implementation and help the team push forward on three core goals: Gather (introducing data points that help customers understand the urgency of issues, like reachability analysis and supply chain poisoning detection), Integrate (providing other teams with innovative collection techniques for better workflows), and Optimize (solving data correlation at massive scale). You’ll contribute hands-on code, help solve novel technical challenges, and establish patterns that improve how the distributed team works together across multiple time zones.

Examples of some future features that you may help build: 
– Dependency scanning for unmanaged C/C++ 
– Dependency Scanning for Yocto environments 
– Vulnerability detection using CPE-based matching against package metadata

What you’ll do

  • Implement complex features in dependency scanning and container scanning, shipping improvements that increase scan coverage, improve accuracy, and drive adoption of GitLab’s SCA capabilities
  • Solve novel technical problems in SCA, establishing reusable patterns that reduce delivery time and improve engineering effectiveness across the team
  • Guide architectural and implementation decisions in collaboration with engineering managers, product managers, and peer engineers to improve scalability, reliability, and delivery outcomes across the team’s SCA architecture
  • Contribute code, design reviews, and technical mentorship that raise quality standards, improve maintainability, and strengthen performance across the codebase
  • Collaborate across GitLab’s security domain to align SCA work with related efforts in vulnerability management and adjacent product areas, accelerating delivery of shared roadmap goals and improving coordination across related security efforts
  • Identify and resolve technical debt, prioritizing changes that improve team velocity, code health, and long-term maintainability across the team’s core SCA services
  • Translate product needs and customer feedback into technical solutions in partnership with product, UX, and security stakeholders, delivering features that address high-impact customer risks and advance shared roadmap goals

What you’ll bring

  • Hands-on experience in Software Composition Analysis and the ability to contribute to complex security features in dependency scanning and container scanning
  • Deep hands-on expertise in building and evolving dependency scanning and container scanning analyzers
  • Demonstrated ability to design solutions that balance complexity, performance, and maintainability
  • Expertise with backend technologies, particularly Go and/or Ruby on Rails, with ability to pick up new technologies quickly
  • Familiarity with cloud providers like GCP, CloudFlare, or AWS
  • Ability to evaluate technical tradeoffs in SCA and security tooling, with proven success delivering maintainable solutions that help customers manage software supply chain risk
  • Ability to work effectively in distributed, async-first teams across multiple time zones
  • Experience explaining complex technical and security concepts to engineers and stakeholders

About the team

The Software Composition Analysis team is part of GitLab’s Sec Engineering group, and we focus on building capabilities that help customers identify and manage risks in their software supply chain. We work across areas including dependency scanning, container scanning, and license scanning, and we work closely with product, UX, security, and adjacent engineering teams to close important feature gaps in GitLab’s platform. Our team members are distributed across regions including Europe and North America, so we rely on clear documentation, asynchronous communication, and thoughtful coordination across time zones. This opportunity is centered on helping us deliver complex security features while balancing hands-on technical progress with strong team execution.

The base salary range for this role’s listed level is currently for residents of the United States only. This range is intended to reflect the role’s base salary rate in locations throughout the US. Grade level and salary ranges are determined through interviews and a review of education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities of the applicant, equity with other team members, alignment with market data, and geographic location. The base salary range does not include any bonuses, equity, or benefits. See more information on our benefits and equity. Sales roles are also eligible for incentive pay targeted at up to 100% of the offered base salary.

United States Salary Range$131,600—$282,000 USD

How GitLab Supports Full-Time Employees

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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