Engineering Manager, Cell Infrastructure

GitLab; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,200,000 - 6,400,000; Full time

Job summary

GitLab is seeking an Engineering Manager, Cell Infrastructure in Bengaluru to shape the core platform that runs GitLab across multiple clouds. You will lead a 0-to-1 effort to build the controller that provisions and operates cells, partnering with VP Engineering and other leaders to set technical direction and cost visibility.

You will oversee architecture, reliability, and developer tooling, while scaling the team and aligning with GitLab’s multi-cloud strategy and AI‑driven workflows.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience designing, building and operating distributed systems.
• Strong leadership and people-management experience in a large-scale environment.
• Experience partnering with finance and product teams on cost visibility and optimization.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and delivery of multi-cloud cell placement and orchestration.
• Grow a high-performing cell infrastructure team.
• Drive reliability, on-call and incident management practices.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align architecture with business goals.

Skills

Distributed systems

Leadership

Cross-functional

Cloud platforms

Budgeting/Cost

Tools

Kubernetes

CI/CD tools

Job description

Engineering Manager, Cell Infrastructure

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.

GitLab’s marketing note about Fortune 500 is a registered trademark. 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.

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.

An overview of this role

As Manager / Senior Manager, Cell Infrastructure, you’ll help shape the foundation that lets GitLab run reliably across multiple cloud providers in the agentic era. As more enterprise customers adopt AI‑driven development workflows, GitLab needs a cell‑based infrastructure that can scale horizontally, support strong reliability, and operate with clear cost efficiency. In this role, you’ll report to the VP Engineering, Platform Scale & Architecture and lead a 0 to 1 effort to build the control layer that determines how GitLab cells are provisioned, placed, and operated across clouds.

This is a high‑impact leadership role where you’ll define architecture as much as you’ll deliver it. In your first year, you’ll help establish the technical direction for multi‑cloud cell infrastructure, build and grow the team based on level, and create the operational model for reliability, developer enablement, and cost visibility. You’ll work across platform, infrastructure, CI/CD, and AI‑related areas, including support for the Duo Agent Platform, to make sure the cellular substrate can meet GitLab’s next stage of scale.

What you’ll do

• Lead the design and delivery of multi‑cloud cell placement and orchestration systems that support GitLab’s cell‑based architecture.
• Build and grow the engineering team responsible for cell infrastructure, spanning architecture, delivery, and production operations.
• Drive infrastructure cost visibility and optimization by partnering with finance and platform teams to make unit economics part of the system design.
• Own the reliability model for cell infrastructure, including on‑call practices, incident response, and postmortem follow‑through.
• Partner with adjacent teams such as Git infrastructure, Artifact Registry, Duo Agent Platform, and CI/CD to support their scaling and deployment needs.
• Define and evolve architectural decisions for cross‑cloud routing, data residency, and infrastructure portability.
• Develop platform capabilities and developer tooling that let teams deploy on top of cell infrastructure without needing to understand its internal complexity.
• Represent the team in cross‑functional planning with senior engineering stakeholders on GitLab’s broader cells and multi‑cloud strategy.

What you’ll bring

• Hands‑on experience designing, building, and operating distributed systems in production using cell‑based architecture.
• Operational ownership of highly reliable systems, including experience with on‑call, incident management, and site reliability engineering practices.
• Strong knowledge of distributed systems fundamentals such as consistency models, partitioning and sharding, failure modes, and multi‑region or multi‑cloud tradeoffs.
• Experience leading engineering teams in a distributed environment, with scope aligned to either a single team or a broader multi‑team organization.
• Ability to hire, support, and develop engineers, including senior individual contributors and, at the senior manager level, engineering managers.
• Experience building platform capabilities or developer tools that other engineering teams use to build and deploy software.
• Comfort working in ambiguity and helping define direction in an early‑stage build rather than stepping into a maintenance‑focused role; transferable experience from comparable large‑scale infrastructure, multi‑cloud platforms, FinOps, AI‑supporting systems, or major architecture transitions is welcome.
• Clear cross‑functional communication skills and the ability to work effectively with VP‑level and CTO‑level stakeholders.

About the team

The Platform Scale & Architecture team focuses on evolving the core infrastructure patterns that let GitLab scale securely, reliably, and efficiently as customer and product demands grow. Within that group, the Cell Infrastructure area focuses on the platform layer behind cell provisioning, placement, routing, and operations across cloud environments. Depending on level, you’ll oversee either a focused team working on one part of the problem or a broader set of teams across the cell infrastructure space. We work asynchronously across regions and partner closely with Git infrastructure, Artifact Registry, Duo Agent Platform, and CI/CD teams to support GitLab’s broader multi‑cloud strategy. A key focus for us is balancing portability, data residency, reliability, and cost as GitLab moves further into a cell‑based architecture.

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, we encourage you to 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.

EEO Statement

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.