Intermediate Backend Engineer, EMEA

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

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible Paid Time Off

Equity Compensation & Employee Stock-P

Employee Development Fund

Parental Leave

Team Member Resource Groups

Job summary

GitLab is seeking an Intermediate Backend Engineer to take backend features from concept to production. You will collaborate with Product Management, Frontend, Infrastructure, and Security to deliver secure, scalable backend services in a remote, asynchronous environment.

You’ll ship robust APIs, data models, and jobs, while growing your engineering judgment and embracing AI as a productive tool. This role values independence and strong written communication.

Qualifications

• Professional experience building and shipping production backend applications with strong API, database, testing, debugging, and performance fundamentals.
• Experience with Ruby/Rails, Go, or any other modern backend language; ability to learn new tech quickly.
• Ability to take a feature from clarification through delivery and follow-up with independence and timely input when needed.
• Strong written communication and collaboration in a remote, asynchronous environment.
• Practical experience with AI coding tools and ability to review and correct AI-generated code.

Responsibilities

• Own and ship backend features from design to production with minimal guidance using Ruby/Rails, Go, or other modern languages.
• Build for production: APIs, background jobs, data models, migrations, and observable, secure code.
• Improve automated coverage (unit, integration, contract, end-to-end) and review others’ work for quality and security.
• Operate what you build: diagnose failures, manage debt, and participate in on-call duties as needed.
• Use AI productively, validate outputs, and understand its limitations in daily engineering work.

Skills

Backend fundamentals

Adaptability

Feature ownership

Practical judgment

Clear communication

AI fluency

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Helm

Job description

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 an Intermediate Backend Engineer, you will take backend features and improvements from clarifying the problem through shipping them and following up in production. You will work within a product area, partnering with Product Management, Frontend, Infrastructure, and Security to deliver predictably and contribute to the quality, security, performance, and maintainability of shared backend code and services. You will be trusted to work with minimal guidance, to know when to seek help, and to communicate clearly in a remote, asynchronous environment — with other tenured engineers alongside you to review your work, think through hard problems with you, and help you grow.

Why you’ll love this role

• Ownership: You'll take features from requirements through delivery and follow-up; your code will run on a platform used by millions of users.
• Learning and Growth : You’ll work alongside your engineering team, who treat code review and design review as a learning loop rather than a gate — one of the fastest ways to grow your engineering judgment.
• Innovative Culture: You’ll use AI as a genuine part of daily engineering work, developing the judgment to know when to trust it and when not to.
• Autonomy: You’ll 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, so you understand why you’re building something, not just what.

What You’ll Do

• Own and Ship Features: Design, implement, test, and ship backend features and improvements with minimal guidance, working in Ruby/Rails, Go, or any other modern languages.
• Build for Production: Write maintainable, secure, observable, and performant code. Design and maintain APIs, background jobs, integrations, and bounded service functionality, and work with data models, migrations, indexes, and query behavior.
• Test and Review: Add and improve automated coverage — unit, integration, contract, and end-to-end where appropriate — and review others’ code for correctness, maintainability, security, performance, and operational risk.
• Operate What You Build: Investigate build, test, deployment, and runtime failures at the feature boundary, identify technical debt and propose practical improvements, and take part in on‑call or operational support where your team’s ownership model requires it.
• Leverage AI: Use AI productively in daily work, validate what it produces, and understand where its limitations matter.

What You’ll Bring

• Backend Fundamentals: Professional experience building and shipping production backend applications, with strong programming, API, database, testing, debugging, and performance fundamentals.
• Adaptability: Experience with Ruby/Rails, Go, or any other modern backend language. We value the ability to learn and adapt over mastery of a single language.
• Feature Ownership: The ability to take a feature from clarification through delivery and follow-up, working independently while seeking input at the right time.
• Practical Judgment: Sound instincts about security, reliability, performance, maintainability, and operational risk, plus an understanding of modular backend boundaries and the consequences of coupling.
• Clear Communication: Strong written communication and effective collaboration in a remote, asynchronous environment.
• AI Fluency: Practical experience with AI coding tools, including the ability to review and correct what they generate.

Helpful Experience

• Production Go services, APIs, concurrency, profiling, or gRPC.
• Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, CI/CD, or cloud deployment.
• Rust, particularly for systems, security, performance, or platform work.
• PostgreSQL, schema evolution, caching, queues, messaging, or event-driven workflows.
• Observability using metrics, logs, traces, dashboards, and alerts.
• Contributing to a modular monolith, bounded context, shared component, or independently operated service.

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

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.

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Please review our Recruitment Privacy Policy. Your privacy is important to us.

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