Staff Product Security Architect

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

We are hiring a Staff Product Security Architect to join our Security Platforms and Architecture organization at GitLab.

Rather than operating as a purely consultative body, Security Architecture at GitLab functions as a hands-on technical driver. Our mission is to embed proactive guidance directly into modern developer workflows and automated coding environments, embedding security standards into the software development process from the outset. We strive to enable teams to deliver secure, resilient software seamlessly while minimizing reliance on manual security gates.

In this role, you will collaborate closely with product engineering organizations, spearhead architectural strategy for critical capabilities, and serve as the primary Security Owner driving risk reduction for key entries within our risk management framework. Your daily work will span architectural design reviews, technical prototyping, and establishing scalable patterns that enable engineering teams to execute autonomously.

What you’ll do

• Partner with engineering and product leadership across GitLab, developing enough context in their domains to anticipate security problems rather than react to them
• Lead security architecture and design work for strategic initiatives, and provide direction to the cross-functional teams delivering them
• Identify, assess, and prioritise systemic security risks, and act as Security Owner for high-priority items in the Product Security Risk Register, co-executing remediation with the teams who own the code
• Codify recurring security decisions into reusable artifacts — guardrails, standards, design patterns,skills, and reference threat models — delivered into developer and AI coding tool workflows
• Build proofs of concept and prototypes to unblock engineering teams and shorten the distance between a security requirement and a working implementation
• Conduct security architecture reviews for large or strategic projects, and coordinate with Application Security so that review coverage is comprehensive and correctly prioritised
• Threat model new and existing systems, and establish the patterns that let teams threat model their own work
• Work with Security Research on proactive exploration of unknown risks in GitLab's architecture
• Anticipate emerging security challenges and propose architectural responses before they reach implementation
• Mentor security engineers across the division, and represent security architecture to engineering audiences

What you’ll bring 

• Depth in application security architecture, including authentication and authorization models, privilege escalation, multi-tenant isolation, and trust boundary analysis
• Experience securing distributed systems, including service-to-service authentication, secrets handling, and the failure modes of security decisions made across process boundaries
• Working knowledge of software supply chain security: build and release integrity, artifact provenance, and dependency risk
• A track record of proactive architecture work — identifying risk before it becomes an incident, and designing something that prevents a class of problem rather than an instance of one
• Demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships with engineering leadership and influence technical direction through expertise rather than gatekeeping
• Experience defining security standards or patterns that teams adopted without being compelled to
• The ability to operate strategically while remaining hands-on, including reading unfamiliar code, building prototypes, and contributing changes
• Clear written communication, and the ability to make a security argument to an engineering audience that does not already agree with it
• A view on how security guidance should be authored and delivered for AI coding tools, not only for humans

About the team

Security Architects are a part of our Security Platforms and Architecture team, who address complex security challenges facing GitLab and its customers to enable GitLab to be the most secure software factory platform on the market. Composed of Security Architecture , Security Research , and Application Security, we focus on systemic product security risks and work cross-functionally to mitigate them while maintaining Engineering’s development velocity.

In FY27, we're implementing a new organizational model where each architect is dedicated to a specific functional area of GitLab's product, enabling deeper context, stronger relationships, and more proactive security guidance. As the Core DevOps architect, you'll be part of a team that includes architects focused on AI and the Sec Section, creating opportunities for collaboration on cross-cutting security challenges while maintaining specialized expertise in your domain.

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

$168,000—$238,000 USD

How GitLab Supports Full-Time Employees

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.

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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 .