Engineering Manager, Build

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Remote from: UK
Salary: Undisclosed
Department: DevOps & Infrastructure
Employment: Full Time
Experience: Senior
Published: 22 Oct 2026
Apply before: 21 Nov 2026
Listing views: 25
Application actions: 1

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AI Summary

The role, at a glance.

GitLab is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead its Build team within the Delivery organization. The role owns strategy, execution, reliability, and self-service capabilities for systems that build and distribute GitLab packages, container images, and marketplace images. It combines people leadership with deep technical oversight of distributed build platforms, dependency management, CI environments, observability, and software supply-chain security. The manager will coordinate complex cross-functional work, maintain 99.99% service reliability expectations, and enable a build-once, deploy-everywhere delivery model. Success also requires effective leadership of a globally distributed team and practical use of AI tools to improve engineering productivity.

Role DNA

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

Job Complexity

5/5

EasyHard

Pace & Pressure

5/5

RelaxedFast-paced

Autonomy Level

5/5

GuidedFull ownership

Communication Load

5/5

IndependentCollaborative

AI insightThis is a senior engineering leadership role with end-to-end accountability for a business-critical build platform, high availability targets, supply-chain controls, and organizational execution. It requires both strong systems architecture judgment and the ability to lead, develop, and hold a distributed team accountable.

Salary analysis

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

Estimated job median (per year)Market rate

$210,000

US market range (per year)$175k–$260k

0$286k

AI insightThe yearly pay period is inferred from the job context; it was not explicitly stated by the employer. No employer salary was disclosed. The annual USD estimate is an AI-generated market estimate for a senior Engineering Manager leading build-platform and infrastructure functions; the yearly cadence is inferred from the full-time senior role and US market convention.

Core skills

Skills and capabilities most closely associated with this opportunity.

Engineering leadership Build systems CI/CD DevOps Platform engineering Distributed systems Site reliability engineering Software supply chain security SBOM Dependency management Container images Observability Technical strategy Remote team management AI productivity tools

Sample interview questions

How would you evolve a build platform toward a build-once, deploy-everywhere model?

I would first map the current artifact types, build environments, dependency paths, and target-specific differences. Then I would define a standard artifact contract, reproducible build requirements, and shared CI templates, migrating incrementally while measuring build reliability, duration, reuse, and adoption.

Describe how you have maintained a service with a 99.99% SLO.

I translate the SLO into explicit error budgets, actionable SLIs, alerting, ownership, and incident procedures. I use post-incident reviews to prioritize reliability work, reduce toil through automation, test recovery paths regularly, and make trade-offs visible when feature delivery consumes error budget.

How would you improve the security of a software build and release pipeline?

I would establish trusted and isolated build environments, enforce vetted dependency policies, generate SBOMs and provenance attestations, and protect signing and release credentials. I would also add continuous vulnerability monitoring, clear exception processes, and audit-ready evidence throughout the pipeline.

How do you lead a distributed engineering team through a complex cross-functional initiative without a dedicated TPM?

I create a concise operating model with a shared outcome, milestones, accountable owners, decision logs, risks, and a regular written update cadence. I make dependencies visible early, resolve escalations quickly, and use asynchronous documentation so decisions remain accessible across time zones.

What is your approach to using AI tools within an engineering organization?

I encourage targeted use cases such as drafting documentation, accelerating investigation, test creation, and repetitive operational work, while preserving human review for architecture, security, and production decisions. I set clear data-handling expectations, measure outcomes, share lessons from failures, and scale practices that demonstrably improve quality or delivery speed.

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.

Summary:

Lead the Build team within GitLab Delivery, accountable for the strategy, execution, and operational excellence of the systems that turn GitLab source code into secure, verified, and distributable artifacts for Self-Managed and other delivery targets. The role owns the build platform foundations that make component delivery faster, more consistent, and more self-service for development teams, while ensuring artifacts are reliable for customers to install and operate.

Key Responsibilities:

Lead the Build team roadmap across UBT, TUBE, and the broader build platform.
Own delivery of GitLab distributable artifacts, including packages, container images, and cloud marketplace images.
Drive a build-once, deploy-everywhere model across Omnibus, CNG, and future delivery targets.
Lead centralized dependency management and coordinated dependency updates across components.
Ensure supply chain security through SBOMs, provenance, vetted dependencies, and compliant build isolation.
Create self-service onboarding paths with standard CI templates, documentation, and paved paths.
Improve build quality and consistency through unified build environments and validation.
Establish observability, dashboards, and metrics for build pipelines and platform impact.
Partner across Delivery and adjacent teams to unblock onboarding and reduce coordination overhead.

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

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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