Escalation Manager at GitLab - Career Growth Role

GitLab

United States

Remote

USD 95,000 - 135,000

Full time

4 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Flexible PTO

Equity Compensation & ESPP

Growth and Development Fund

Parental Leave

Job summary

GitLab Inc. is seeking an Escalation Manager to lead complex executive and commercial escalations within the global Incident & Escalation Management team.

You will advocate for customers, coordinate Engineering, Support, Product, and Sales, and maintain a written resolution plan from engagement to resolution. You will drive post-escalation reviews, contribute to playbooks, and manage escalating scenarios with a calm, structured approach while operating in a fully remote, globally distributed

Qualifications

Experience in enterprise SaaS or B2B tech support, customer success, or incident management.
Track record of managing complex escalations including executive engagements.
Excellent written and verbal communication at executive level.

Responsibilities

Own complex executive and commercial escalations end-to-end.
Coordinate Engineering, Support, Product, CS, and Sales toward resolution.
Maintain a customer-facing resolution plan through milestones.

Skills

Executive stakeholder management

Cross-functional influence

ITIL frameworks

AI-assisted support tools

On-call leadership

Tools

Zendesk

Salesforce

Slack

PagerDuty

Job description

Escalation Manager at GitLab - Career Growth Role — Remote

Career Positioning: Escalation Manager roles at top-tier SaaS companies like GitLab sit at a rare intersection of technical fluency, executive communication, and crisis leadership — a combination that is highly transferable and increasingly valued as enterprise SaaS scales. This is a strong step toward Director-level Customer Success, VP of Support Engineering, or even Chief Customer Officer tracks.

Skills You'll Develop:

Executive stakeholder management under pressure — a rare, hard-to-teach skill
Cross-functional influence without authority (Engineering, Product, Sales, CS)
Formal incident command and ITIL frameworks at enterprise scale
AI-assisted support tooling — a growing niche in the support/CS industry

Compensation: No salary is disclosed. For a mid-to-senior Escalation Manager at a public SaaS company in the UK market, typical ranges are £60,000–£90,000 base, with equity on top. GitLab's equity (RSUs/ESPP) is a meaningful component given the company's scale and public status.

Green Flags: GitLab's transparent, handbook-driven culture is well-documented. The IM/EM function is clearly structured with defined engagement models — a sign of organizational maturity. The role has process-building scope, which means genuine impact beyond ticket-closing.

Yellow Flags: On-call requirements can create work-life balance friction. The role demands calm under fire consistently — burnout risk is real in escalation management. Candidates should probe for team size, escalation volume, and rotation frequency during interviews.

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

Support Engineering at GitLab believes that healthy teams deliver a healthy customer experience, and that command during a crisis shouldn't fall to whoever happens to be senior and available. GitLab's global Incident & Escalation Management (IM/EM) function coordinates critical incidents, complex multi-team engagements, and executive-level escalations for enterprise customers. As Escalation Manager, you'll own complex, executive, and commercial escalations where customer trust and the relationship are at stake, alongside or independently of a technical issue.

In this functional role, you'll advocate for customers inside GitLab, coordinate teams toward resolution, and lead relationship repair after the event.

What you'll do

Own complex, executive, and commercial escalations end-to-end, as defined in GitLab's IM/EM engagement model.
Advocate for customers internally and coordinate Engineering, Support, Product, Customer Success, and Sales toward resolution, tracking commitments and holding owning teams accountable to agreed dates and deliverables.
Maintain a written, customer-facing resolution plan from engagement through confirmed resolution, updating it at each communication milestone.
Coordinate with Incident Managers during concurrent technical incidents to maintain a single, coherent narrative for the customer.
Own external escalation communications using GitLab's approved templates and cadence, and represent GitLab in high-stakes customer conversations where clarity and ownership influence retention.
Engage Sales, Customer Success, and executive stakeholders as needed, including executive-to-executive communication for Severity 1 and 2 events. Brief GitLab leadership with concise summaries that distinguish what's known, what's unknown, and next steps.
Lead post-escalation reviews and relationship repair plans, contribute corrective actions with named owners and due dates to postmortems, and hand the relationship back to the account's Customer Success Manager at resolution.
Partner with the Head of IM/EM to develop playbooks, communication templates, and process improvements based on patterns from escalations.

What you'll bring

Experience in enterprise technical support, customer success, or incident and escalation management at a business-to-business SaaS or enterprise software company.
A track record of owning complex, multi-stakeholder escalations end-to-end, including executive customer engagements and structured resolution or account plans.
Executive-level written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate technical detail into plain-language updates for customers and GitLab leadership.
The ability to coordinate Engineering, Support, Product, Customer Success, and Sales under pressure without formal authority over those teams.
Calm, structured decision-making with incomplete information and the ability to provide a steadying presence in high-stress customer situations.
Proficiency with support and coordination tools such as Zendesk, Salesforce, Slack, and PagerDuty, or equivalent platforms.
Availability for on-call coverage supporting executive escalations as part of a globally distributed team.
Nice to have: ITIL Foundation or equivalent certification; customer-facing experience with GitLab, DevSecOps, CI/CD, or cloud-native products; experience with formal escalation or incident command frameworks; or AI-assisted support tools for triage, sentiment analysis, or resolution drafting.

About the team

The Incident & Escalation Management function sits within Support Engineering in GitLab's Enterprise Technology & AI (ETA) division. We operate a follow-the-sun model anchored in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific, providing year-round, 24-hour coverage for enterprise customers. Our Escalation Managers work globally rather than within a single region, partnering with Incident Managers, Communications Leads, and regional Support Engineering leadership. You'll help shape our playbooks, templates, and standards as we scale.

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.

Privacy Policy: 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 .

Is this Escalation Manager role fully remote? Yes, all GitLab roles are remote. The team operates a follow-the-sun model across Americas, EMEA, and APAC, so Escalation Managers work globally rather than from a single office. Some location-based eligibility requirements may apply depending on your country. Does this role require on-call availability? Yes. The role requires on-call coverage to support executive escalations as part of a globally distributed team. This includes real-time coordination during Severity 1 and 2 incidents, so candidates should be comfortable with availability outside standard hours. What experience is required for this role? GitLab is looking for experience in enterprise technical support, customer success, or incident and escalation management at a B2B SaaS or enterprise software company, with a track record of managing complex multi-stakeholder escalations end-to-end including executive customer engagements. Is an ITIL certification required? No, ITIL Foundation certification is listed as a “nice to have” rather than a requirement. GitLab welcomes candidates with equivalent experience in formal escalation or incident command frameworks. What benefits does GitLab offer for this role? Full-time GitLab employees receive flexible paid time off, equity compensation and an employee stock purchase plan, a growth and development fund, parental leave, and benefits supporting health, finances, and well-being.

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