Backend Engineer (Ruby), Create: Change Record

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Remote from: UK, Poland
Salary: PLN 248k–372k / yr
Department: Software Engineering
Employment: Full Time
Experience: Open level
Published: 19 Oct 2026
Apply before: 18 Nov 2026
Listing views: 17
Application actions: 2

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AI Summary

The role, at a glance.

GitLab is hiring a backend-focused Ruby engineer for its Change Record team in the Source Code stage. The role develops secure, tested, high-performance Rails and GraphQL capabilities supporting GitLab's source-code workflows, APIs, and repository-facing systems. The engineer will work in a complex, high-traffic environment, improving reliability through performance tuning, caching, rate limiting, observability, incident response, and Tier 2 on-call participation. This fully remote position is limited to candidates in Poland or the United Kingdom and requires strong asynchronous collaboration, technical ownership, and careful use of AI coding agents. The stated Polish base-pay range applies to the listed level and excludes bonuses, equity, and benefits.

Role DNA

A quick view of the complexity, pace, ownership and collaboration implied by the job description.

Job Complexity

5/5

EasyHard

Pace & Pressure

4/5

RelaxedFast-paced

Autonomy Level

4/5

GuidedFull ownership

Communication Load

4/5

IndependentCollaborative

AI insightThe role involves a mature, business-critical source-code platform with legacy constraints, production reliability responsibilities, and Tier 2 on-call work. Success requires strong Ruby/Rails backend expertise alongside sound judgment in distributed systems, performance, and cross-team delivery.

Salary analysis

Estimated compensation compared with the broader PLN market for similar roles.

Estimated job median (per year)Market rate

PLN310,000

PLN market range (per year)PLN250k–PLN380k

0PLN418.00k

AI insightThe yearly pay period is inferred from the job context; it was not explicitly stated by the employer. The employer discloses a Poland base salary range of 248,000–372,000 PLN. Although the posting does not explicitly state the cadence, this range is inferred to be annual based on its magnitude, the professional full-time engineering context, and Polish market conventions. The midpoint is 310,000 PLN per year; the estimated Polish market range for a comparable experienced backend engineer is approximately 250,000–380,000 PLN annually.

Core skills

Skills and capabilities most closely associated with this opportunity.

Ruby Ruby on Rails GraphQL Backend Development REST APIs Relational Databases SQL Data Modeling Caching Background Processing Performance Optimization Observability Incident Response Automated Testing Git

Sample interview questions

How would you investigate and improve a slow Ruby on Rails endpoint used heavily by source-code workflows?

I would first establish the baseline with application traces, database metrics, logs, and endpoint-level latency and error-rate data. I would identify whether the bottleneck is database queries, serialization, external calls, Git access, or application CPU, then make a focused change such as query optimization, indexing, eager loading, caching, or pagination. I would validate the improvement through tests, benchmarks, dashboards, and a safe rollout plan.

How do you design a GraphQL API change while preserving backward compatibility?

I would begin by understanding existing consumers and the schema's current contract. I would add fields or types in a non-breaking way, use deprecation metadata for replacements, enforce authorization at the resolver level, and avoid exposing unnecessary data. I would add unit and integration coverage, document the behavior, and monitor adoption before removing deprecated functionality.

Describe your approach to production incidents when you are on call.

I prioritize restoring service safely while communicating a concise status update to affected stakeholders. I use metrics, traces, logs, recent deployments, and dependency health to narrow the issue, apply a reversible mitigation where possible, and document actions and timestamps. After recovery, I contribute to root-cause analysis and follow-up work such as tests, alerts, runbooks, or resilience improvements.

How would you use an AI coding agent responsibly on a backend feature?

I would give the agent a bounded task with clear acceptance criteria and avoid sharing sensitive data. I would independently review its code for correctness, security, performance, consistency with project conventions, and edge cases, then run and extend automated tests. The agent can accelerate implementation, but I remain accountable for the design and production readiness of the result.

How do you handle ambiguity and collaboration in an asynchronous engineering team?

I turn ambiguous work into written assumptions, a proposed technical approach, open questions, and incremental milestones. I seek input early from relevant domain experts, product partners, and maintainers, while making progress on validated parts of the task. I provide clear status updates, record decisions in durable documentation, and raise risks promptly when priorities or requirements change.

Opportunity details

About this role.

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

We are looking for a Backend Engineer to join our Change Record team within GitLab’s Source Code stage. As AI agents increasingly write code alongside people, every change needs a clear, trustworthy record of what changed, why, and who or what made it. You’ll build that record into GitLab’s source code experience, for humans and agents alike. This is a backend-focused role for an engineer with full-stack experience who enjoys balancing work on existing systems with new product development.

That work happens in one of GitLab’s oldest and most complex product areas, where you’ll use Ruby on Rails to improve a critical system serving GitLab.com, self-managed instances, and GitLab Dedicated. Source Code provides the interface layer, through Gitaly, to the Git repositories behind a large share of GitLab traffic, so you’ll help keep it reliable through performance tuning, caching, rate limiting, observability, and resiliency, collaborating with product, design, security, Gitaly, Code Review, and Source Code Experience teams. Supporting production systems and improving established experiences are central to the role, especially while you’re onboarding, and over time you’ll also help build experiences for developers working with agents.

You’ll work remotely from the United Kingdom or Poland.

What you’ll do

Develop secure, well-tested, performant features and improvements using Ruby on Rails and GraphQL, among other technologies.
Work through complex requirements and legacy constraints to deliver clear solutions while protecting the reliability of this critical system.
Design and maintain backend services, APIs, data models, and business logic that support intuitive source code workflows.
Collaborate across functions and teams, both asynchronously and synchronously, and involve domain experts when their input will improve the outcome.
Use AI agents for well-scoped work when they can speed up delivery without sacrificing quality, and critically review their output.
Write maintainable code that follows GitLab’s standards and contribute to constructive code reviews.
Help strengthen reliability by monitoring production health metrics, participating in Tier 2 on-call, troubleshooting incidents, contributing to root cause analysis, and improving observability and resiliency.
Share knowledge through code review, technical documentation, and everyday collaboration while learning from others.

What you’ll bring

Professional experience building backend web applications, services, or application programming interfaces, with experience using Ruby and GraphQL.
An understanding of relational databases, structured query language, data modeling, caching, background processing, and backend performance practices.
Experience with full-stack development to build and maintain user-facing workflows and their underlying systems.
Experience writing backend unit and integration tests, with familiarity with the testing pyramid, Git, and collaborative code review processes.
Clear written and spoken English communication skills, including sharing useful status updates in a remote, asynchronous environment.
The ability to manage assigned priorities, work through ambiguity, take ownership of your work, and seek guidance when needed.
Experience using AI coding agents to speed up software development while critically reviewing their output.
Bonus: you’ve built agents or agent-based workflows that run in production, not just prototypes.

About the team

The functional team works across Europe and North America, supporting both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration. It includes four engineers, comprising both backend and frontend engineers. We work closely with other Source Code teams, Agentic Preview, Repository Services, and Hardening, as well as other teams in the company such as the Gitaly team, and the AI Governance team.

The base salary range for this role’s listed level is currently for residents of the EU, applicable in the specified country or countries only. Sales roles are also eligible for incentive pay targeted at up to 100% of the offered base salary. 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 and having regard to any applicable collective agreements. The base salary range does not include bonuses, equity, or benefits.

Poland base salary range: 248,000zł – 372,000zł

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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