Senior Backend Engineer, Core DevOps: Container Registry

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Remote from: UK
Salary: Undisclosed
Department: Software Engineering
Employment: Full Time
Experience: Senior
Published: 30 Oct 2026
Apply before: 29 Nov 2026
Listing views: 28
Application actions: 0

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AI Summary

The role, at a glance.

GitLab is seeking a senior backend engineer to evolve Container Registry capabilities within its Core DevOps organization. The role owns complex backend design decisions, APIs, reliability, performance, security, and operational readiness for a global product. The engineer will mentor others, contribute to incident response, and influence technical standards and longer-term architecture. Success requires strong asynchronous written communication, independent judgment, and experience using agentic AI systems responsibly in production engineering workflows.

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

5/5

GuidedFull ownership

Communication Load

5/5

IndependentCollaborative

AI insightThis is a high-scope senior engineering position requiring architecture ownership, production operations expertise, and influence across multiple technical and product disciplines. The production agentic-AI requirement and responsibility for reliability at scale further raise the technical complexity.

Salary analysis

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

Estimated job median (per year)Market rate

$170,000

US market range (per year)$145k–$205k

0$225.50k

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 figures are AI estimates for a senior backend engineering role at a global DevOps platform and are shown as yearly compensation estimates.

Core skills

Skills and capabilities most closely associated with this opportunity.

Backend architecture API design Distributed systems Container registries Performance tuning Reliability engineering Incident response Security engineering Systems programming Technical leadership Code review Mentoring Asynchronous communication Agentic AI systems

Sample interview questions

How would you approach evolving a modular-monolith component into an independently operated service?

I would first identify clear domain boundaries, dependency patterns, data ownership, and operational requirements. I would establish stable interfaces, introduce observability and contract tests, then migrate incrementally behind feature flags or compatibility layers to minimize risk.

Describe how you would investigate intermittent performance degradation in a container registry service.

I would begin with metrics, traces, logs, and recent deployment history to narrow the affected paths and establish whether the issue is related to storage, database access, network behavior, or application code. I would mitigate user impact first through rollback, throttling, caching, or capacity changes as appropriate, then document root cause and implement preventive monitoring and tests.

What makes an API migration safe for a large global product?

A safe migration preserves backward compatibility where possible, clearly versions or deprecates behavior, and uses contract testing to protect clients. I would publish migration guidance, measure adoption and error rates, use staged rollout controls, and remove legacy paths only after evidence shows consumers have transitioned.

How have you used agentic AI in production engineering while maintaining reliability and security?

I would constrain agents through explicit tool permissions, validation steps, audit logs, and human approval for consequential actions. I would evaluate them with representative failure cases, monitor outcomes in production, and ensure fallback paths exist so automation cannot silently create unsafe or incorrect changes.

How do you lead technical decisions when product, infrastructure, and security stakeholders have competing priorities?

I make trade-offs explicit by framing the user impact, operational risk, security implications, delivery cost, and reversibility of each option. I communicate a written recommendation with supporting evidence, seek early stakeholder input, and align on measurable success criteria and follow-up checkpoints.

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.

About the role

As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will design, implement, and evolve product capabilities while solving high-scope backend problems and influencing the technical and product direction of our teams. You will move beyond “assigned work” to actively improve the quality, reliability, and performance of our systems. You will work across product, frontend, infrastructure, data, and security boundaries, making sound architectural trade-offs, communicating complex ideas clearly in an asynchronous environment, and helping define the standards for a high-scale, global product.

Why you’ll love this role

High Impact: You aren’t just shipping features; you are shaping the architecture of a global platform used by millions.
Technical Agency: You will influence team objectives, technical direction, and long-range goals, helping us solve problems of high scope and complexity.
Innovative Culture: You will get to experiment with and integrate agentic AI into production engineering workflows, moving beyond simple prompt engineering to build resilient, AI-assisted systems.
Autonomy: You will thrive in our remote-first, asynchronous organization, where clear written communication and self-direction are the pillars of success.
User-Centric Collaboration: You’ll partner closely with PMs and designers to shape requirements, ensuring every technical decision delivers genuine value to our users.

What you’ll do

Drive Technical Direction: Design and ship moderate to complex backend features with minimal guidance, making pragmatic choices between modular-monolith code, shared components, or independently operated services.
Raise the Bar: Advocate for product quality, security, availability, and performance. You will define backend standards for style, maintainability, testing, APIs, and operational readiness.
Mentor & Lead: Mentor associate and intermediate engineers, remove technical blockers, and improve team delivery practices through code and design reviews.
Operational Excellence: Diagnose and prevent performance/reliability issues at scale. Participate in incident response and act as a technical owner where appropriate.
AI Integration: Use AI in production engineering work to improve outcomes, evaluate its effectiveness, and coach others on responsible, high-judgment use.

What you’ll bring

Deep Backend Expertise: A strong command of backend architecture, APIs, data systems, and performance tuning in a complex product or service environment.
Adaptability: Proficiency in modern backend languages and a deep understanding of systems programming. We value the ability to learn and adapt over mastery of a single language.
Architectural Judgment: Experience designing or evolving modular backend boundaries, bounded contexts, and migration-safe architectures.
Influence: Ability to lead through influence, technical judgment, and clear written communication, effectively bridging the gap between product needs and technical reality.
Agentic AI Expertise: Proven experience building or operating agentic systems in production—moving beyond prompt engineering to architecting loops, tool-use, and error-handling strategies that ensure reliability at scale.

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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