Engineering Manager, Agent Foundations: Agent Execution

JobCubby; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 153,000 - 173,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Benefits to support your health, Fin. 

Flexible Paid Time Off

Equity Compensation & Employee Stock-P

Growth and Development Fund

Parental Leave

Team Member Resource Groups

Job summary

GitLab is seeking an Engineering Manager for the Agent Execution group to lead and scale multiple engineering teams focused on AI agents and sandboxing at the core of our platform. You will guide staff engineers, drive design discussions, and partner with product and UX to deliver measurable milestones.

You will manage a distributed team, hire and coach engineers, and shape the technical direction for running agents safely and effectively at scale in a fast-changing AI landscape.

Qualifications

• Experience leading large, distributed engineering teams.
• Ability to translate ambiguous problems into shipped milestones.
• Fluency with modern AI coding tools and agent harnesses.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Agent Tools, Agent Observability, and Runner Execution teams across frontend, backend, and AI engineering, with each team anchored by a staff engineer.
• Grow the group by hiring, onboarding, coaching, and developing engineers at every level.
• Partner with product and UX to turn ambiguous problems into shipped milestones and make prioritization tradeoffs explicit.
• Contribute substantively to technical design for running agents safely and effectively at scale.
• Establish practical standards for the group's use of AI tools, including tool selection and configuration.
• Coach engineers through ambiguity in a fast-changing technical space.
• Represent the group across GitLab's AI organization and with the teams that depend on the GitLab Duo Agent Platform.

Skills

Distributed eng teams

AI tooling fluency

Coaching engineers

Software engineering

Technical judgment

Leadership

Tools

Python

Ruby

Go

TypeScript

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.

An overview of this role

As Engineering Manager for the Agent Execution group, you'll lead more than 10 engineers who build foundations for AI agents to run safely and effectively across GitLab. You'll give the group clarity, remove obstacles, and help teams move quickly while protecting what matters. You'll contribute to design reviews on sandboxing and agent observability, work alongside staff engineers, and use modern AI coding tools and agent harnesses in your work.

What you’ll do

• Lead the Agent Tools, Agent Observability, and Runner Execution teams across frontend, backend, and AI engineering, with each team anchored by a staff engineer.
• Grow the group by hiring, onboarding, coaching, and developing engineers at every level.
• Partner with product and UX to turn ambiguous problems into shipped milestones and make prioritization tradeoffs explicit.
• Contribute substantively to technical design for running agents safely and effectively at scale.
• Establish practical standards for the group's use of AI tools, including tool selection and configuration.
• Coach engineers through ambiguity in a fast-changing technical space.
• Represent the group across GitLab's AI organization and with the teams that depend on the GitLab Duo Agent Platform.

What you’ll bring

• Experience managing distributed engineering teams and working through technical leads and staff-level engineers.
• Technical judgment developed through hands‑on engineering experience and fluency with modern AI coding tools and agent harnesses.
• Ability to guide teams in applying AI to software engineering workflows and technical decision‑making.
• Experience delivering results in fast‑paced environments with ambiguous requirements.
• A commitment to coaching and developing engineers in a positive, inclusive team environment.
• Experience building and deploying AI products; working with sandboxing, container isolation, infrastructure security, observability systems, or reliability engineering; or using Python, Ruby, Go, or TypeScript is helpful.

About the team

We’re building the product and infrastructure that make GitLab an effective environment for running agents across the software development lifecycle. Our three teams, Agent Tools, Agent Observability, and Runner Execution, work on areas ranging from GitLab's Model Context Protocol (MCP) server and configurable network access to agent sandboxing and transparent agent interactions across GitLab. We’re distributed across three continents and partner with teams throughout GitLab to help the GitLab Duo Agent Platform become the backbone of GitLab's AI features. A Senior Engineering Manager currently leads our group on an interim basis and will support your onboarding and remain a close partner afterward. This is an opportunity to lead a consequential group as AI changes how software is built.

The base salary range for this role’s listed level is currently for residents of the United 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

$152,800—$172,800 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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Please review our Recruitment Privacy Policy. Your privacy is important to us.

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.