Engineering Manager, Security Platform: Authentication

GitLab Inc; Bengaluru; Remote; INR 4,000,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Job summary

GitLab is seeking an Engineering Manager for the Authentication team in Bengaluru. You will build and lead a backend-focused team responsible for sign-in flows, OAuth/OIDC, and SAML across the GitLab platform.

You’ll hire, grow engineers, and drive multi-quarter programs with fixed deadlines, collaborating with Staff Engineers and Product Managers to ship secure, scalable authentication features for a global, all-remote company.

Qualifications

• Experience as an engineering manager of backend/platform teams.
• Background in identity, authentication, or security systems with knowledge of OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML, and JWTs.
• Proven track record delivering multi-team programs against fixed dates.
• Experience running production services with on-call and incident response.
• Proficient in Ruby on Rails or Go and modern backend architectures.

Responsibilities

• Hire, onboard, and grow a team of engineers in Bengaluru.
• Own delivery for authentication roadmap milestones and risk management.
• Collaborate with Staff Engineer and Product Manager to translate architecture to shipped features.
• Protect team focus and manage cross-team intake with visible trade-offs.
• Coordinate with GATE Core/Infra, Authorization, and Cells teams across regions.
• Ensure production readiness, incident response, and on-call coverage.

Skills

OAuth 2.0

OIDC

SAML

Backend leadership

Ruby on Rails

Go

On-call

Team leadership

Tools

GitLab RoR stack

CI/CD

Job description

Engineering Manager, Security Platform: Authentication

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

As an Engineering Manager on GitLab's Authentication team, you'll build and lead a team of engineers in Bangalore who own how users, applications, tokens, and artificial intelligence (AI) agents sign in to GitLab.At GitLab, we see our team as our product. You'll need to be technically credible in authentication protocols such as OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), and Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML). Your main focus will be hiring well, growing your engineers, and helping the team deliver on commitments that other parts of GitLab depend on.You'll guide your team's work on OAuth across Cells, global identities, token consolidation, and moving authentication out of the Ruby on Rails monolith onto GATE, GitLab's new authentication and authorization platform. You'll manage these multi-quarter programs with fixed deadlines and many dependent teams.

What you'll do

• Hire, onboard, and grow a team of senior and intermediate engineers in Bangalore, working with talent acquisition during a high-volume hiring period.
• Own delivery for your team's part of the authentication roadmap: plan in milestones, track risks early, and communicate clearly when a date is at risk and what would change it.
• Work with your Staff Engineer and Product Manager to turn architecture decisions into shippable, feature-flagged increments.
• Protect your team's focus. Manage requests from other teams through one intake path, and make trade-offs visible to leadership.
• Coordinate with the GATE Core, GATE Infra, Authorization, and Tenant Scale (Cells and Organizations) teams across India, Europe, and the Americas.
• Make sure the team runs what it builds, including on-call coverage, incident response for authentication issues, rate limits, and production readiness for new services.
• Build a team culture where security comes first, decisions are written down, and code review is thorough and kind.
• Give clear, regular feedback, run career conversations, and handle performance issues early.
• Take part in on-call or operational support where your team’s ownership model requires it.

What you'll bring

• Significant experience as an engineering manager of backend or platform teams, including hiring and growing senior engineers.
• A background as an engineer in identity, authentication, or security systems, with enough depth in OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML, and JSON Web Tokens to review designs and ask probing questions.
• Experience delivering complex, multi-team programs against fixed dates, including migrations that must not disrupt existing customers.
• Experience running production services, including on-call coverage, incident response, and reliability work.
• Working knowledge of Ruby on Rails or Go.
• Experience building a new team or growing one quickly while keeping the hiring bar high.
• Clear, concise written English and comfort leading a team in an all-remote, asynchronous company across time zones.

About the team

We're part of the Security Platform stage, alongside Authorization, GATE Core, GATE Infra, Secrets Manager, and other security teams. You'll partner closely with our existing Authentication engineers in Europe and the Americas.

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.

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.

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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.