Senior Director of Global SME Solutions Architecture

GitLab; United States; Remote; USD 200,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Generous Paid Time Off

Job summary

GitLab is seeking a Senior Director, Global SME Solutions Architecture to build and lead the SME org across AMER, EMEA and APJ. You will manage regional SME Managers and develop leaders while partnering with Sales, Customer Success, Product, Engineering, and Marketing to ensure SMEs influence opportunities and product direction.

You will drive the strategy, operating model, and standards for the SME function, build regional coverage, and align with the go-to-market plan.

Qualifications

• 5+ years second-line leadership experience in Solutions Architecture or Sales Engineering.
• Experience building or scaling a global SME or overlay team.
• Proven ability to lead through ambiguity and change.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead GitLab’s SME organization across AMER, EMEA and APJ, covering Security & Compliance, Platform, Core DevSecOps, and AI & Competitive.
• Manage three regional SME Managers and develop them as leaders.
• Partner with Sales, Customer Success, Product, Engineering, and Marketing to ensure SMEs impact opportunities and product direction.

Skills

Leadership

Solutions Architecture

Sales collaboration

AI-enabled development

Kubernetes

Job description

• As the Senior Director, Global Subject Matter Expertise (SME) Solutions Architecture, you will build and lead GitLab’s Subject Matter Expert organization: three regional teams in AMER, EMEA and APJ, each covering Security & Compliance, Platform, Core DevSecOps, and AI & Competitive. This team is the depth layer of GitLab’s technical selling model. It wins the most complex opportunities, scales product expertise into the Account SA team, and turns field insight into product direction
• This is a leader of leaders role. You will manage three regional SME Managers, not individual contributors, and develop them as leaders in their own right
• The SME organization is new, so we are looking for a transformational leader who thrives in ambiguity, builds structure where none exists, and has a track record of standing up high-performing technical teams in fast-growing, evolving businesses
• You will work as a peer to GitLab’s regional Solutions Architecture Senior Directors and partner closely with Sales, Customer Success, Product, Engineering, Product Marketing and Sales Operations. Together you will make sure GitLab brings the right depth to the right opportunities, and that what the field learns shapes what GitLab builds next
• Set the strategy, operating model and global standards for the SME organization, aligned to the VP Global SA and GitLab’s go-to-market plan
• Build the resourcing model from product-level bookings and consumption targets. Size each product group by region based on where the plan needs specialist coverage
• Act as the field’s senior partner to Product Management and Engineering. Run a structured feedback loop that shapes roadmap, launch readiness and early-access programs
• Hire, mentor and develop regional SME Managers and, through them, the full global team
• Own the engagement model with the regional SA Senior Directors, Post-Sales SAs and Customer Success: triage rules, coverage thresholds, the closed-won handoff to Post-Sales SAs, and escalation paths
• Create and improve upon the processes, metrics and KPIs for SME-led technical evaluations, workshops, demos and Proofs of Value
• Partner with CRO staff, regional sales leaders and AVPs on product-category performance, forecast risk and competitive strategy
• Partner with Enablement to drive field readiness for new product launches with Product Marketing and Enablement, including Duo Agent Platform, security and platform offerings
• Build strong relationships with key customers at the technical sponsor and executive level
• Use AI to change how the team works, including deal research, demo creation, PoV automation and knowledge sharing
• Drive organizational transformation by finding gaps early, building structure where none exists, and leading change without waiting for top-down direction
• How you’ll be measured:
• Global product-category commit attainment and consumption growth
• Time from technical win to first workload in customer’s production environment on SME-engaged opportunities compared with non-engaged opportunities
• SME coverage and engagement speed on the top 10% of opportunities
• Account Team capability lift: fewer escalations and more deals handled without an SME over time
• Product impact: field sentiment on the product feedback process along with field-sourced requirements adopted into the roadmap
• Team health: hiring against plan, manager development, engagement and retention
• The Subject Matter Expertise (SME) organization is part of GitLab’s Solutions Architecture team, a trusted technical partner for the field. SMEs bring the deepest product expertise to GitLab’s most complex opportunities and carry customer feedback into conversations about product direction, enablement and value messaging
• The team is distributed and all-remote, and relies on clear communication, strong judgment and shared operating practices across regions

Benefits

• We offer benefits to manage your health, wealth, and well-being regardless of location
• Flexibility in schedule to be there for life’s important moments
• Equity compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan offered
• Generous Paid Time Off

• A self-starting, entrepreneurial approach
• You don’t wait for a playbook; you write itFluency across the software development lifecycle, application security (SAST, DAST, SCA), cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), Kubernetes and AI-assisted development, including LLM evaluation and production deployment patterns
• A record of tying technical-team design to bookings and consumption outcomes, with the data to show it
• Experience building or scaling a specialist, overlay or global SA team in enterprise SaaS, DevSecOps, security or developer tools
• Proven ability to partner across Sales, Partners, Product, Engineering, Marketing, Customer Success and Professional Services
• Strong relationships with Product and Engineering leaders, and a history of shaping roadmap from field insight5+ years second-line leadership experience (managing managers) in Solutions Architecture, Sales Engineering or a technical specialist organization
• The ability to lead through ambiguity and rapid organizational change, bringing clarity and direction while strategy is still forming
• Executive presence with technical practitioners, managers and C-level stakeholders

Please note that we welcome interest from candidates with varying levels of experience; many successful candidates do not meet every single requirement. Additionally, studies have shown that people from underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to a job unless they meet every single qualification.