Backend Engineer, Create: Repository Management New Remote, United Kingdom

GitLab Inc.; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

GitLab Inc. is seeking a Backend Engineer for Repository Management within the Source Code stage. You will build secure, scalable backend features using Ruby and GraphQL, ensuring reliability for GitLab.com, self-managed instances, and dedicated deployments.

You’ll work with Gitaly and data models, while collaborating across teams to meet evolving requirements. In this role, you’ll implement efficient APIs, contribute to performance tuning, observability, and on-call support.

Qualifications

• Proficient in Ruby and GraphQL for backend features.
• Understanding of relational databases, SQL, data modeling, caching, and backend performance.
• Experience with policy/permissions/features in web apps for reliability.
• Experience writing backend unit/integration tests and using Git in code reviews.
• Ability to review AI-generated code and provide guidance.

Responsibilities

• Develop secure, well-tested backend features using Ruby/GraphQL.
• Translate complex requirements into reliable solutions for repository management.
• Contribute to APIs, data models, and business logic for repository management.
• Collaborate across teams asynchronously and synchronously with domain experts.
• Review AI outputs and guide improvements to maintain quality and safety.
• Write clean, maintainable code following GitLab standards and participate in code reviews.
• Improve reliability by monitoring health, assisting on-call, and analyzing incidents.

Skills

Ruby

GraphQL

Backend development

Unit testing

API design

On-call

English communication

Git

Tools

Git

Gitaly

Job description

Backend Engineer, Create: Repository Management

Remote, United Kingdom

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 valuesand 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

We're looking for a Backend Engineer to join our Repository Management team within GitLab's Source Code stage. You'll help customers configure repositories with confidence so their GitLab projects support the way their teams work. As artificial intelligence agents increasingly write and manage code alongside people, you'll build guardrails that make development safe and trustworthy. You'll turn complex policy and repository management needs into reliable backend solutions that support people and the agents working on their behalf.

You'll work in one of GitLab's oldest and most complex product areas, using Ruby and GraphQL to improve a critical system that serves GitLab.com, self-managed instances, and GitLab Dedicated. Source Code provides the interface layer, through Gitaly, to the Git repositories that account for a large portion of GitLab traffic. With support from experienced team members, you'll help maintain high reliability through performance and structured query language tuning, caching, rate limiting, testing, observability, and resiliency. You'll collaborate with product management, product design, testing, security, user experience research, technical writing, Gitaly, Code Review, and Source Code Experience to deliver reliable and performant systems.

• Develop secure, well-tested, performant features and improvements using Ruby and GraphQL.
• Work through complex requirements and legacy constraints to deliver clear solutions while protecting the reliability of this critical system.
• Contribute to backend services, application programming interfaces, data models, and business logic for repository management.
• Collaborate across functions and teams, both asynchronously and synchronously, involving domain experts and seeking guidance when needed.
• Use artificial intelligence agents for well-scoped work when they can speed up delivery without sacrificing quality, and critically review their output.
• Write maintainable code that follows GitLab's standards and apply feedback from code review.
• Help strengthen reliability by monitoring production health metrics, participating in Tier 2 on-call, troubleshooting incidents, contributing to root cause analysis, and improving observability and resiliency.
• Share knowledge through code review, technical documentation, and everyday collaboration while learning from others.

What you’ll bring

• Professional experience building backend web applications, services, or application programming interfaces, with experience using Ruby and GraphQL or the ability to learn them.
• An understanding of relational databases, structured query language, data modeling, caching, background processing, and backend performance practices.
• Experience contributing to policy, permissions, or rules-based features in web applications and helping make that complexity reliable and maintainable.
• Experience writing backend unit and integration tests, with familiarity with Git and collaborative code review processes.
• Experience using artificial intelligence coding tools or agents, with the ability to review their output and recognize when additional guidance is needed.
• Clear written and spoken English communication skills, including sharing useful status updates and collaborating in a remote, asynchronous environment.
• The ability to manage assigned priorities, work through ambiguity, take ownership of your work, and seek guidance for decisions that are difficult to reverse.

About the team

The functional team works across Europe and North America, supporting both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration. It includes six engineers, and this role offers an opportunity to grow your backend skills, learn from experienced team members, and contribute to our technical direction. We work closely with Code Review and Gitaly, alongside sibling teams covering Repository Sync & Interop, Source Code Experience, and Repository Scale, Performance & Git Infrastructure. We're maturing GitLab's branch protection offering while maintaining availability, reliability, and stability through bug fixes and focused technical debt work. Our roadmap includes Branch Rules, Codeowners, merge strategy options, and artificial intelligence-powered repository management and configuration.

We welcome candidates with different levels and types of experience. Many successful candidates don't meet every requirement.

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.

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.

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 .

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in GitLab’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A \"disabled veteran\" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A \"recently separated veteran\" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An \"active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran\" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An \"Armed forces service medal veteran\" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.