About the job
GitLab is a pioneering open-core software company that offers an extensive AI-driven DevSecOps Platform, embraced by over 100,000 organizations globally. Our mission is to empower every individual to contribute to and collaboratively shape the software that drives our world forward. By fostering an environment where everyone can contribute, we transform consumers into contributors, significantly propelling human advancement. Our platform seamlessly integrates teams and organizations, dismantling obstacles and redefining possibilities within software development. With innovative products such as Duo Enterprise and Duo Agent Platform, our customers leverage AI benefits throughout every stage of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
The principles embedded in our products are mirrored in our team dynamics: we embrace AI as a fundamental productivity enhancer, encouraging all team members to integrate AI into their daily workflows to enhance efficiency, innovation, and impact. At GitLab, we cultivate an environment where careers flourish, innovation thrives, and every voice is acknowledged. Our high-performance culture is guided by our values and a commitment to continuous knowledge sharing, enabling team members to unlock their full potential while collaborating with industry leaders to tackle complex challenges. Join us in co-creating the future as we revolutionize how the world develops software.
Position Overview
As a Lead Principal Database Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in designing and steering the evolution of the PostgreSQL infrastructure that underpins GitLab.com and thousands of self-managed enterprise deployments. You will tackle critical challenges related to uncontrolled data growth, complex upgrades and migrations, while ensuring unwavering reliability at a global scale. Your focus will be on creating database patterns and platforms that maintain GitLab's speed, resilience, and cost-effectiveness as usage expands. You will architect scalable, distributed database solutions, develop proactive health and reliability frameworks, and advocate for the adoption of modern database technologies and data stores that enhance both product capabilities and production stability. Engaging hands-on within the codebase and collaborating closely with product and infrastructure teams, you will translate long-term database strategies into incremental, customer-visible enhancements, transition incident response from reactive to proactive, and help define GitLab's forward-looking data architecture, encompassing sharding and multi-database support.

