Director, Social Media

Jackalope Digital LLC; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 139,000 - 235,000; Full time

Job summary

GitLab is seeking a Director of Social Media to lead its global social strategy across channels, owning budget, team development, and the employee advocacy program. You will guide executive social presence and collaborate with Marketing, Communications, Product, and Sales to align social with business and brand goals.

This is a player-coach, remote role with significant strategic impact. You will manage a team of Social Media Managers, set editorial direction, and drive measurable outcomes

Qualifications

• 10+ years in social media, including at least 5 years leading social strategy for a global brand at senior manager level or above.
• Experience owning a social function end to end (strategy, budget, headcount, tooling, results).
• Experience leading teams, agencies, and cross-functional programs with clear ownership of outcomes.
• Deep YouTube strategy experience including channel ownership and programming decisions.
• Hands-on growth experience on LinkedIn and X as primary channels.
• Experience with paid social programs and integrating paid with organic.
• Strong editorial judgment to turn complex topics into clear content.
• Fluency in short- and long-form video as core formats, with production partner experience.
• Experience defining a measurement framework for social with KPIs and dashboards.
• Experience building or scaling employee advocacy programs across functions.

Responsibilities

• Own the performance of GitLab's social function and its impact on marketing and business goals.
• Lead GitLab's global organic social strategy, channel plans, and editorial priorities.
• Own GitLab's YouTube strategy end to end including architecture, programming, packaging, and optimization.
• Partner with Growth Marketing on paid social and align organic/paid messaging.
• Develop audience-focused campaigns supporting company, product, brand, and talent goals.
• Guide content planning and publishing across social channels with a consistent GitLab voice.
• Own the social budget, tooling stack, and external agency/production relationships.
• Collaborate with Marketing, Communications, Product, Sales, Talent Acquisition and other functions on social programs.
• Build processes for effective collaboration in GitLab's all-remote environment.
• Use social listening and performance data to inform broader marketing decisions.
• Lead measurement framework for social with KPIs, dashboards, and reporting to leadership.
• Partner with DevRel on community engagement and industry conversations.
• Build and run creator, influencer, and advocacy programs including developers and contributors.
• Own employee advocacy program and adoption across functions; manage platform.
• Support executive/social presence with Communications for credible leadership content.
• Apply AI thoughtfully across social workflows to model an AI-native marketing team.
• Prepare for and guide responses to sensitive or fast-moving issues in partnership with teams.

Skills

Social strategy leadership

Budget ownership

Team leadership

YouTube strategy

LinkedIn & X

Paid social

Editorial judgment

Video production

Measurement framework

Employee advocacy

Enterprise social tools

Global programs

Tools

Sprout Social

Meltwater

EveryoneSocial

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 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 Director, Social Media, you'll lead GitLab's global social media strategy and help people understand how GitLab is co-creating the future of software development. The role shapes how GitLab shows up across social channels, connecting our company, product, and employer stories, to build meaningful engagement with customers, users, contributors, candidates, and industry audiences. Expect to set clear priorities, guide execution, and use insights to strengthen GitLab's voice and business impact. You'll own the outcomes of GitLab's social function — strategy, budget, team development, tooling, and results — and serve as GitLab's senior-most voice on social strategy with executive stakeholders.

This is a player-coach role. You'll set the strategy and stay close enough to the work to write, build, and ship alongside the team. Two Social Media Managers report to the head of corporate communication and work with you on a dotted-line basis. You'll set their strategic direction, raise the editorial and craft bar, and develop them as practitioners, including goal-setting, feedback, and career development in partnership with their manager. Influence matters in this role, which is why it calls for someone who has already led and grown social practitioners.

What you’ll do

• Own the performance of GitLab's social function and its contribution to marketing and business goals.
• Lead GitLab's global organic social media strategy, channel plans, and editorial priorities.
• Own GitLab's YouTube strategy end to end — channel architecture, programming and series development, long- and short-form video, packaging (titles, thumbnails, metadata), search and recommendation optimization, and subscriber and watch-time growth.
• Partner with Growth Marketing on paid social, including briefing creative, aligning organic and paid on shared audiences and messaging, informing boosting and amplification decisions, and connecting paid performance back to organic strategy.
• Develop clear, audience-focused campaigns that support company, product, brand, and talent goals.
• Guide content planning and publishing across social channels while maintaining a consistent GitLab voice.
• Own the social media budget, tooling stack, and agency, freelance, and production partner relationships.
• Partner with teams across Marketing, Communications, Product, Sales, Talent Acquisition, and other functions to plan and deliver social programs.
• Build processes that support effective collaboration in GitLab's all-remote, asynchronous environment.
• Use social listening, audience insights, and performance data to improve content and inform broader marketing decisions.
• Lead the measurement framework for social — KPIs, dashboards, and reporting cadence — and report performance and learnings to marketing and executive leadership.
• Partner with DevRel on community engagement to help GitLab participate in relevant industry conversations with a clear, useful point of view.
• Build and run creator, influencer, and advocacy programs, including developer creators, GitLab community contributors, and team member advocacy.
• Own GitLab's employee advocacy program — grow participation across Marketing, Sales, Engineering, and Talent, equip team members with content worth sharing, and measure reach, engagement, and contribution to brand and talent goals. Partner with Communications and Talent Acquisition on enablement, and manage the advocacy platform and its adoption.
• Support executive and expert social presence, partnering with Communications to help GitLab leaders and technical experts show up credibly on social, including constructive conversations with C-suite executives about proposed content.
• Apply AI tools thoughtfully across the social workflow to help GitLab model what an AI-native marketing team looks like.
• Prepare for and guide responses to sensitive or fast-moving issues in partnership with the appropriate teams.

What you’ll bring

• 10+ years in social media, including at least 5 years leading social strategy for a global brand at the senior manager level or above, and accountable for the function's results.
• Experience owning a social function end to end, including strategy, budget, headcount, tooling, and results as the accountable leader.
• Experience leading teams, agencies, and cross-functional programs, with clear ownership of and accountability for outcomes.
• Depth in YouTube strategy, including owning and growing a brand or business channel, and can speak to programming decisions, video formats, packaging, and the metrics that actually move a channel.
• Hands‑on experience growing LinkedIn and X as primary channels, with judgment about what content, format, and cadence work on each.
• Experience with paid social programs and how organic and paid social reinforce each other, including creative for paid, audience strategy, and interpreting paid performance data.
• Experience connecting social media programs to broader brand, communications, product, or business priorities.
• Strong editorial judgment and the ability to turn complex topics into clear, engaging content.
• Fluency with short‑form and long‑form video as core social formats, including working with production partners and creators.
• Experience defining a measurement framework for social, including KPIs, dashboards, and reporting cadence, and presenting performance, learnings, and recommendations to executive leadership on a standing basis.
• Experience building or scaling an employee advocacy program, including driving adoption across multiple functions, sustaining participation beyond launch, and reporting attributed reach and business contribution
• Fluency with an enterprise social stack for publishing, listening, and advocacy. Ours is Sprout Social, Meltwater, and EveryoneSocial.
• Experience running social programs across multiple regions and languages, and judgment about what to localize versus centralize.
• Skill in managing multiple priorities and making sound decisions in fast‑moving situations.
• A collaborative, inclusive approach and the ability to work effectively in a distributed, asynchronous environment.
• Passion about GitLab's mission and the future of software development, open source, artificial intelligence, and DevSecOps.

About the team

This role is part of GitLab's Marketing organization and works across teams to present a clear, consistent company voice on social media. The team collaborates asynchronously with partners across regions and functions, balancing planned campaigns with timely engagement. Together, you'll help audiences understand GitLab's platform, mission, values, and impact.

*The base salary range for this role’s listed level is currently for residents of theUnited States only. This range is intended to reflect the role's base salary rate in locations throughout the US. 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. The base salary range does not include any bonuses, equity, or benefits. See more information on our benefits and equity. Sales roles are also eligible for incentive pay targeted at up to 100% of the offered base salary.

United States Salary Range

$139,200 — $235,200 USD

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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