Senior Backend Engineer, Poland

GitLab; Polska; Hybrid; PLN 272,000 - 408,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Growth and Development Fund

Equity Compensation & Employee Stock P

Parental Leave

Flexible Paid Time Off

Job summary

GitLab is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to design, implement, and evolve backend capabilities for a global platform. You will work across product, frontend, infrastructure, data, and security boundaries, making architectural trade-offs to improve quality, reliability, and performance.

You will mentor engineers, drive technical direction, and apply agentic AI to production engineering; this remote-first role is eligible for EU residents, with a Poland base salary range of 272,000 PLN to

Qualifications

• Strong command of backend architecture, APIs, data systems, and performance tuning.
• Experience designing or evolving modular backend boundaries and migration-safe architectures.
• Proven ability to lead through influence and clear written communication.

Responsibilities

• Drive Technical Direction: design and ship backend features with minimal guidance.
• Raise the Bar: define backend standards for quality, security, availability, and performance.
• Mentor & Lead: mentor engineers and improve delivery practices.
• Operational Excellence: diagnose and prevent performance/reliability issues at scale; participate in incident response.
• AI Integration: apply AI in production engineering to improve outcomes and coach others.

Skills

Backend architecture

APIs

Distributed systems

Kubernetes

AI integration

Technical leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or related field

Tools

PostgreSQL

ClickHouse

Docker

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.

Please note that we welcome interest from candidates with varying levels of experience; many successful candidates do not meet every single requirement.

About the role

As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will design, implement, and evolve product capabilities while solving high-scope backend problems and influencing the technical and product direction of our teams. You will move beyond "assigned work" to actively improve the quality, reliability, and performance of our systems. You will work across product, frontend, infrastructure, data, and security boundaries, making sound architectural trade-offs, communicating complex ideas clearly in an asynchronous environment, and helping define the standards for a high-scale, global product.

Why you’ll love this role

• High Impact: You aren't just shipping features; you are shaping the architecture of a global platform used by millions.
• Technical Agency: You will influence team objectives, technical direction, and long-range goals, helping us solve problems of high scope and complexity.
• Innovative Culture: You will get to experiment with and integrate agentic AI into production engineering workflows, moving beyond simple prompt engineering to build resilient, AI-assisted systems.
• Autonomy: You will 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, ensuring every technical decision delivers genuine value to our users.

What you’ll do

• Drive Technical Direction: Design and ship moderate to complex backend features with minimal guidance, making pragmatic choices between modular-monolith code, shared components, or independently operated services.
• Raise the Bar: Advocate for product quality, security, availability, and performance. You will define backend standards for style, maintainability, testing, APIs, and operational readiness.
• Mentor & Lead: Mentor associate and intermediate engineers, remove technical blockers, and improve team delivery practices through code and design reviews.
• Operational Excellence: Diagnose and prevent performance/reliability issues at scale. Participate in incident response and act as a technical owner where appropriate.
• AI Integration: Use AI in production engineering work to improve outcomes, evaluate its effectiveness, and coach others on responsible, high-judgment use.

What you’ll bring

• Deep Backend Expertise: A strong command of backend architecture, APIs, data systems, and performance tuning in a complex product or service environment.
• Adaptability: Proficiency in modern backend languages and a deep understanding of systems programming. We value the ability to learn and adapt over mastery of a single language.
• Architectural Judgment: Experience designing or evolving modular backend boundaries, bounded contexts, and migration-safe architectures.
• Influence: Ability to lead through influence, technical judgment, and clear written communication, effectively bridging the gap between product needs and technical reality.
• Agentic AI Expertise: Proven experience building or operating agentic systems in production - moving beyond prompt engineering to architecting loops, tool-use, and error-handling strategies that ensure reliability at scale.

Helpful experience

• Experience with high-throughput distributed systems, concurrency, or profiling.
• Hands-on experience with containerized production operations (e.g., Kubernetes).
• Deep database performance knowledge (e.g., PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, schema evolution, partitioning).
• Background in large-scale modular monoliths or event-driven systems.
• Public technical communication, open-source maintenance, or experience in developer-focused SaaS.

Poland base salary range

Poland base salary range: 272,000 PLN - 408,000 PLN. The base salary range for this role’s listed level is currently for residents of the EU, applicable in the specified country or countries only. Sales roles are also eligible for incentive pay targeted at up to 100% of the offered base salary. Grade level and salary ranges are determined through interviews and a review of education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities of the applicant, equity with other team members, alignment with market data, and geographic location and having regard to any applicable collective agreements. The base salary range does not include bonuses, equity, or benefits.

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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Equal Opportunity Employment

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 .