Senior Build & Distribution Engineer — Linux Packages

GitLab; Ottawa; Remote; CAD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Generous Paid Time Off

Job summary

GitLab in Ottawa, Canada seeks a Senior Distribution Engineer to manage build pipelines and packaging for multiple Linux distros. You will maintain components, ensure licenses are up-to-date, and work with development teams on new features and packaging efforts.

The role involves building container images and providing self-service infrastructure for teams. You will collaborate with security and cloud teams, maintain docs, and help with partner validation and certification.

Qualifications

• Have used CI/CD systems including GitLab CI/CD, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or Travis CI.
• Have built .deb and .rpm packages for Debian- and RHEL-based systems.
• Communicate effectively in a remote, largely asynchronous environment.
• Write and maintain complex shell scripts in production.
• Build container images and use container build tooling in production.
• Use Linux build toolchains like autotools, make, CMake, and Nix.
• Experience with cloud providers is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Manage build pipelines and evaluate support needs for new services, platforms, and architectures.
• Maintain existing components, ensuring up-to-date and license-compliant offerings.
• Build and maintain packages for supported Linux distributions and architectures.
• Develop and maintain official GitLab container images and tooling.
• Provide guides and infrastructure to enable self-service integration of components.
• Collaborate with security teams to identify vulnerabilities and maintain secure dependencies.
• Manage cloud marketplace listings and cloud provider integrations.
• Maintain installation, update, and upgrade documentation and processes.
• Ensure license compliance across bundled dependencies.
• Submit components to partners for validation and certification.

Skills

English communication

Shell scripting

Remote work collaboration

Tools

GitLab CI/CD

Debian packaging

RPM packaging

Container build tooling

autotools

Make

CMake

Nix

Prometheus Grafana

Job description

GitLab in Ottawa, Canada seeks a Senior Distribution Engineer to manage build pipelines and packaging for multiple Linux distros. You will maintain components, ensure licenses are up-to-date, and work with development teams on new features and packaging efforts.

The role involves building container images and providing self-service infrastructure for teams. You will collaborate with security and cloud teams, maintain docs, and help with partner validation and certification.