Strategic Overview
Senior Backend Engineer, Platform Enablement at GitLab is a dev opportunity centered on the specialist responsibilities and outcomes described in the employer's listing.
The published role emphasizes work such as Build and evolve reusable backend platforms and tooling for performance testing and analysis. Create self-service workflows, documentation, templates, diagnostics, and artificial intelligence skills that reduce the need for bespoke support.
The role is listed for United States with remote working arrangement, giving candidates the practical context needed to assess fit before applying.
Key information at a glance
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…
* 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.
Key Responsibilities & Objectives
- Build and evolve reusable backend platforms and tooling for performance testing and analysis.
- Create self-service workflows, documentation, templates, diagnostics, and artificial intelligence skills that reduce the need for bespoke support.
- Use development practices that apply artificial intelligence to accelerate implementation, testing, debugging, and technical documentation.
- Influence engineering teams to make performance testing part of normal development and release preparation.
Required Qualifications & Candidate Blueprint
- Experience building backend or platform software.
- Experience building internal platforms or developer-facing tooling.
- Experience partnering with development teams to improve their day-to-day workflows.
Salary & Benefits
Published compensation: $156,800 – $235,200 USD
- Benefits to support your health, finances, and well-being
- Flexible Paid Time Off
- Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Parental Leave
Salary Benchmark
This role’s published compensation is compared with current employer-disclosed salary ranges for the same role at the Senior level in the same currency.
Benchmark uses active employer job postings in our database and excludes this listing. It is not a third-party salary estimate, and currencies are not converted.
Full Job Description
The following is the complete job description supplied by the source. We sanitize unsafe markup and remove external links, but do not shorten or rewrite the employer's source content.
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
As a Senior Backend Engineer, Performance Enablement, you'll make performance testing and analysis easier for engineering teams to adopt and own. You'll build platforms, tooling, guidance, and artificial intelligence-assisted workflows that help teams identify performance risks during development and before they roll changes out to production.
We're moving from a hands-on consulting model to a self-service model. Service teams own their performance tests, analysis, thresholds, and evidence. We provide the paved road, documentation, skills, and expert support for challenging problems and new capabilities.
This is a backend and platform engineering role with room to grow in scope and influence. You'll help shape how Performance Enablement supports engineering teams, using artificial intelligence thoughtfully to accelerate design, implementation, testing, debugging, documentation, and automation.
You'll support work such as:
- Enabling modular feature teams, including Orbit and Artifact Registry, to run performance testing through their own development and continuous integration workflows
- Building reusable performance tooling, including component-level testing, load testing, performance analysis, and artificial intelligence-assisted engineering skills
- Improving performance results, reporting, and trend visibility so teams can make informed decisions from their own evidence
- Establishing the documentation, templates, and guidance needed to expand self-service adoption across research and development
What you’ll do
- Build and evolve reusable backend platforms and tooling for performance testing and analysis.
- Create self-service workflows, documentation, templates, diagnostics, and artificial intelligence skills that reduce the need for bespoke support.
- Use development practices that apply artificial intelligence to accelerate implementation, testing, debugging, and technical documentation.
- Influence engineering teams to make performance testing part of normal development and release preparation.
- Turn early hands-on engagements into generalized capabilities that many teams can adopt independently.
- Provide technical expertise for difficult performance questions, tooling enhancements, and new platform capabilities.
What you’ll bring
- Experience building backend or platform software.
- Experience building internal platforms or developer-facing tooling.
- Experience partnering with development teams to improve their day-to-day workflows.
- Experience using development practices that apply artificial intelligence across the software lifecycle.
- Experience with software performance, such as performance analysis, optimization, benchmarking, or leading performance-related improvements.
- Practical experience with Kubernetes, k6, and Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, or similar cloud infrastructure.
- Experience building durable solutions that support broad adoption using systems thinking.
- Communicate clearly in writing and influence teams without direct authority.
About the team
Performance Enablement is part of Platform Enablement within Developer Experience and Infrastructure Platforms. We help GitLab teams make performance part of the software lifecycle.
Our goal is to make performance a shared responsibility of service-owning teams while providing a strong platform and center of expertise when teams need help. We work asynchronously, collaborate broadly across research and development, and focus on building capabilities that scale beyond individual team engagements.
The base salary range for this role’s listed level is currently for residents of the United States only. This range is intended to reflect the role's base salary rate in locations throughout the US. 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. The base salary range does not include any bonuses, equity, or benefits. See more information on our benefits and equity. Sales roles are also eligible for incentive pay targeted at up to 100% of the offered base salary.
How GitLab Supports Full-Time Employees
- Benefits to support your health, finances, and well-being
- Flexible Paid Time Off
- Team Member Resource Groups
- Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Growth and Development Fund
- Parental Leave
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.
Country Hiring Guidelines: GitLab hires new team members in countries around the world. All of our roles are remote, however some roles may carry specific location-based eligibility requirements. Our Talent Acquisition team can help answer any questions about location after starting the recruiting process.
Privacy Policy: Please review our Recruitment Privacy Policy. Your privacy is important to us.
GitLab is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. GitLab’s policies and practices relating to recruitment, employment, career development and advancement, promotion, and retirement are based solely on merit, regardless of race, color, religion, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, lactation, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression), national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, mental or physical disability, genetic information (including family medical history), discharge status from the military, protected veteran status (which includes disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, active duty wartime or campaign badge veterans, and Armed Forces service medal veterans), or any other basis protected by law. GitLab will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. See also GitLab’s EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know during the recruiting process.
Editor’s Market Perspective (Our Custom Analysis)
Why This Position Matters
This dev opening is a useful opportunity for candidates whose experience matches the role-specific capabilities named in the listing. Its strongest career signal is the scope of the work itself — particularly Build and evolve reusable backend platforms and tooling for performance testing and analysis. — rather than a generic title alone.
Resume & Application Strategy
For the application, mirror the employer's language where it truthfully matches your background: foreground the role-specific capabilities named in the listing, quantify outcomes from comparable work, and place the most relevant experience near the top of the resume. If the listing specifies tools, platforms, leadership scope, or domain experience, use those exact terms in context instead of presenting an unrelated keyword list.
We organize source-provided information into this independent job-seeker overview. Compensation is shown only when the source provides it; the official listing remains the authority for current requirements and application instructions.