Senior Backend Engineer - Database Change Management

Gitlab; Bengaluru; Remote; INR 2,400,000 - 4,200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible Paid Time Off

Equity compensation

Parental leave

Growth and development fund

Job summary

GitLab is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer, Database Upgrades, to lead the replacement of our migration system with a dependency-graph approach, delivering a robust validation framework for thousands of tables. You will anchor the India-based engineering group, guiding design and decisions across regions while mentoring engineers and ensuring safe upgrades.

The role offers a Staff-level path with architecture ownership and cross-team collaboration, reporting to leadership on the US West Coast.

Qualifications

• Deep experience with Ruby on Rails in large production codebases or equivalent migration systems.
• Production PostgreSQL experience, including schema changes on large tables and load handling.
• Proven track record delivering systems from design to adoption and leading teams.
• Experience mentoring engineers through pairing, code reviews, and feedback.
• Strong written communication and ability to progress independently in a distributed environment.
• Sound judgment balancing reliability, safety, and delivery needs.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of the migration validation and test framework.
• Contribute to a dependency graph migration system for safe upgrades.
• Mentor intermediate engineers through pairing and code reviews.
• Document technical decisions for asynchronous, multi-region teams.
• Review migrations for safety and backward compatibility across engineers.
• Collaborate with multiple teams to support deployment methods.
• At Staff level, defend architecture proposals in cross-team reviews.

Skills

Ruby on Rails

PostgreSQL

Leadership

Mentoring

Written communication

Asynchronous work

Reliability

Job description

the company is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps. the company 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 the company 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. the company 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 the company 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 the company.*

Senior Backend Engineer - Database Change Management

An overview of this role

As a Senior Backend Engineer, Database Upgrades, you'll help replace the company's sequential database migration system with a dependency graph model that makes upgrades faster and safer for the company.com and self-managed customers. You'll lead the design and delivery of a migration validation and test framework, including versioned fixture data across about 1,000 tables, a continuous integration (CI)-integrated test runner, and required correctness checks. You'll also serve as the senior technical anchor for our India-based engineering group, using clear written decisions to influence a team working across India, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the United States. The manager for this role is based on the US West Coast.

We're open to hiring this role at Staff level for a candidate whose experience matches that scope. At Staff level, you'll also own architecture decisions for the migration system and lead design work across teams.

What you’ll do

• Lead the design and delivery of the migration validation and test framework from initial approach through production use.

• Contribute to a dependency graph migration system that supports safe ordering, parallel execution, and three-phase, low-downtime upgrades.

• Mentor intermediate engineers through pairing, code review, and design feedback.

• Make and document technical decisions asynchronously so team members can build on them across time zones.

• Review schema migrations from engineers across the company for safety, backward compatibility, and reliability.

• Collaborate with Distribution, Quality Assurance, Database Architecture, Database Automation, and database framework teams to support the company.com and self-managed deployment methods.

• At Staff level, author and defend architecture proposals and represent the team in technical reviews across the company.

What you’ll bring

• Deep experience with Ruby on Rails in large production codebases, including Active Record migration internals, or comparable depth in another framework's migration system, such as Django or Ecto.

• Production PostgreSQL experience, including schema changes on large tables, locking behavior, and data definition language failure modes under load.

• A track record of leading delivery of a system from design through implementation and adoption.

• Experience mentoring engineers through pairing, code review, and technical feedback.

• Strong written communication and the ability to make progress independently in an asynchronous, distributed environment.

• Sound judgment when balancing reliability, safety, backward compatibility, and delivery needs.

• An interest in serving as a senior technical presence for an India-based engineering group while collaborating across regions.

About the team

We’re working on the largest change to the company's migration system in its history, with a focus on making upgrades safer and easier for customers, including the roughly one-third of self-managed customers who are two or more required upgrade stops behind.

How the company 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

the company 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.

Privacy Policy

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

the company is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. the company’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. the company will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. See also