Senior Engineering Manager, Design

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 the first Engineering Manager embedded the Upstream Studios organization at GitLab, you'll lead a focused team of Engineers responsible for two foundational surfaces: the Pajamas Design System, which powers the coherence of the entire GitLab product, and docs.gitlab.com, the documentation platform serving millions of GitLab users and contributors worldwide. 

This is a rare opportunity to define what engineering leadership looks like inside a design organization. You’ll report to the Chief Design Officer and partner closely with Product Design, Technical Writing, Localization, Marketing, Product Management, and Engineering leaders across GitLab. Critically, the design system is a contribution-based, company-wide platform that engineers across the entire organization depend on and actively participate in. Building those partnerships and making it easier for engineers everywhere to contribute to Pajamas will be central to your success. 

You’ll be a hands-on technical leader and people manager in equal measure: guiding architecture decisions, shaping contribution workflows, and helping a small, high-impact team do some of the most leveraged work at GitLab.

What you'll do

• Lead, mentor,and grow a high-performing team of engineers, working across the Pajamas Design System and the GitLab documentation site.
• Define and build the engineering practice within Upstream Studios–this is a new function and you’ll have real influence over how it takes shape.
• Guide architecture and technical decisions for the design system (components, tokens, patterns) and the docs site (performance, reliability, infrastructure, localization).
• Help others across the organization understand the strategic value of a well-maintained design system and documentation platform.
• Advocates for engineering quality: technical debt, accessibility standards, customer issues, security, and platform reliability.
• Collaborate with Product Design and Technical Writing to translate design and content needs into scalable technical solutions

What you'll bring

• Experience leading infrastructure, platform, or development teams, with a track record of building high-performing, values-aligned teams.
• Deep expertise in design systems–including design tokens, component architecture, accessibility standards, and contribution models.
• Excellent technical background, including professional experience with Git, docs-as-code, Hugo, accessibility and building and maintaining a design system.
• Experience of building and supporting multi-lingual sites and localization workflows at scale.
• Professional experience with JavaScript (Vue.js) and familiarity with Elasticsearch, Ruby/Go, AI tools, and continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) practices.
• Strong expertise in running and scaling large, consumer-grade platforms, with a focus on reliability, security, performance, and scalability.
• Proficiency in the English language, both written and verbal, sufficient for success in a remote and largely asynchronous work environment.
• Demonstrated capacity to clearly and concisely communicate about complex technical, architectural, and/or organizational problems and propose thorough iterative solutions.
• Experience with performance and optimization problems and a demonstrated ability to both diagnose and prevent these problems
• Comfort working in a highly agile, intensely iterative software development process.
• Passion for open source and developer tools, with a commitment to GitLab's values, inclusive culture, and high-performance expectations.

About the team

Upstream Studios is the full-stack experience organization for GitLab. We imagine it, we design it, we document it, we ship it—partnering across product, engineering, and marketing to deliver a continuous deployment of quality.

We integrate research, design, frontend engineering, documentation, and brand into a unified delivery pipeline, shaping how customers experience GitLab from first impression to final deployment. For more information on how we work, see the Upstream Studios section of the GitLab Handbook.

Remote-Gloal

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$195,000—$240,000 USD

How GitLab will support you

• 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 
• Home office support

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. If you're excited about this role, please apply and allow our recruiters to assess your application.

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.