Engineering Manager, Geo for Self-Managed Customers

Remote from: UK
Annual salary: Undisclosed
Salary information is not provided for this position. Check our Salary Directory to estimate the average compensation for similar roles.
Department: Software Engineering
Employment type: Full Time,
Job posted: 5 Jul 2026
Apply before: 5 Aug 2026
Experience level: Midweight
Views / Applies: 37 / 3

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AI Summary

GitLab seeks an Engineering Manager for the Geo for Self-Managed Customers team, responsible for leading the development and operation of tenant-to-tenant replication for disaster recovery. The role requires deep technical expertise in distributed systems, operational excellence, and AI tooling integration. The manager will own the roadmap, hire and develop a high-performing team, and ensure reliability and performance for Geo replication. This position involves collaboration with product managers, support, and reliability engineers, as well as participation in on-call rotation. GitLab offers a high-performance culture with flexible paid time off and other benefits.

Role DNA

Job Complexity

Easy Hard

Pace & Pressure

Relaxed Fast-paced

Autonomy Level

Guided Full Ownership

Communication Load

Independent Highly Collaborative

AI Insight The role manages large-scale distributed systems with high reliability requirements (99.99% SLOs) and involves complex technical and team leadership challenges, making it very difficult.

Salary Analysis

AI Insight The salary for this role is not specified in the listing. Based on market data for Engineering Managers at GitLab and similar companies, the expected total compensation range is $130k to $250k, with a median around $200k. This reflects the seniority and impact of the position.

Core Skills Required

Cover Letter Sample

Dear Hiring Manager,

I am excited to apply for the Engineering Manager, Geo for Self-Managed Customers position at GitLab. With a proven track record of building and managing high-performing distributed systems teams, I am confident in my ability to lead the Geo product end-to-end. My experience driving operational excellence and leveraging AI to enhance productivity aligns with GitLab's values. I look forward to contributing to GitLab's mission of transforming DevSecOps.

Sincerely, [Your Name]

Sample Interview Questions

How do you approach building and maintaining a high-performance team culture?

I focus on clear expectations, regular feedback, and fostering psychological safety. I also prioritize hiring for both technical skills and cultural fit, and invest in team development through mentoring and growth opportunities.

Describe your experience with operating large-scale distributed systems at high SLOs.

I have owned services with 99.99% availability, implementing robust monitoring, incident response, and post-mortem processes. I emphasize blameless culture and continuous improvement.

How do you integrate AI tooling to boost team productivity?

I encourage using AI for code review, documentation, and automating repetitive tasks. I also set up guidelines to ensure effective use and share learnings from both successes and failures.

Tell me about a time you had to manage a team member out. How did you handle it?

I believe in providing clear performance expectations and support. When it didn't work out, I had honest conversations, documented performance gaps, and followed company processes. I ensured the transition was handled with respect and minimized team disruption.

How do you handle on-call rotations and incident management?

I ensure proper runbooks and training are in place. I participate in the rotation to lead by example. I use incident data to drive improvements and reduce toil.

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.

We’re looking for a technical engineering manager to lead a team building and operating large-scale distributed systems. The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise with strong operational instincts and a passion for building high-performing teams.

You will lead the Geo for Self-Managed Customers team, which owns the Geo product end to end. Geo is tenant-to-tenant replication that sits between raw infrastructure replication and single-object transfer, and it is the foundation customers rely on for their disaster recovery strategies.

What you’ll bring:

Proven track record building and owning large-scale distributed services, with the technical depth to dive into architecture and guide the team on technical strategy
Experience in driving operational excellence and you’ve owned services running at four-nines (99.99%) SLOs and know what it takes to keep them there
Experience leveraging AI tooling to boost team productivity, with real lessons learned from both wins and missteps
A history of building and managing high-performing, accountable team cultures, including managing out when necessary
Comfort driving complex projects to completion without relying on a dedicated TPM
Experience leading distributed and remote teams effectively

Key Responsibilities:

Lead the roadmap and execution for the Geo product serving Self-Managed customers, setting clear direction in close partnership with the team’s Product Manager.
Hire and develop a high-performing engineering team where members can thrive and deliver with quality and speed; the team is India-anchored, with EMEA backend/fullstack hiring to improve timezone overlap.
Own the reliability, correctness, and performance of Geo replication as the core layer underpinning disaster recovery for Self-Managed deployments.
Deliver bug fixes, API extensions, and new capabilities to the shared Geo codebase, maintaining relationships with the Geo SMEs embedded in the Dedicated Migrations and Resilience teams so day-to-day commits resolve quickly.
Build and maintain runbooks, guardrails, and reviews so the team operates with rigor; ensure high-quality, timely responses to Geo-related escalations from Support and internal partners.
Define, track, and report on delivery and operational metrics, using them to drive continuous improvement.
Participate in the Incident Management on-call rotation to help ensure availability goals for Geo are met, working with reliability engineers and development team members.

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.

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