Senior People Business Partner, Engineering

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.

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An overview of this role

As the Senior People Business Partner, Engineering, you'll be a strategic partner to senior Engineering leaders, including VPs and Senior Directors, helping them navigate change, mature their organizations, and build a healthy, high-performance culture. You'll focus on Engineering-specific challenges such as evolving job architecture and leveling, supporting executive leadership transitions, and driving consistency in how we develop, calibrate, and grow Engineering talent across distributed teams. In this role, you'll work globally, with a particular focus on supporting leaders across regions, and help make complex transformations clear and manageable for leaders and their teams.

You'll report into the PBP organization and work closely with peers across the team, including current and former Engineering PBPs, to shape how GitLab's Engineering function operates as we continue to grow. You'll be expected to build trust quickly with senior Engineering leaders, contribute to Engineering-wide processes such as calibrations and offsites, and help bring cohesion to a leadership team that includes both tenured GitLab team members and newer leaders. This role is a good fit if you enjoy a fast-paced tech environment, are comfortable with ambiguity and change, and want to make a visible impact on how Engineering teams are structured, supported, and set up to deliver results.

What You’ll Do

• Partner with senior Engineering leaders, including VPs and Senior Directors, to understand their organizations, priorities, and challenges, and translate these into clear people and business priorities.
• Drive and support job architecture changes in Engineering, including the introduction of new levels, to help leaders adopt and mature consistent role expectations and career paths.
• Lead and facilitate key Engineering people processes, such as calibrations, in close partnership with the PBP team and cross-functional partners such as Talent Management.
• Advise and coach Engineering leaders on topics such as organization design, change management, and navigating global teams, including regional considerations in EMEA.
• Work closely with other PBPs and Talent partners to share insights, align on approaches, and provide a consistent, high-quality experience for Engineering leaders and their teams.
• Use data and qualitative feedback to identify trends in the Engineering organization and recommend actions that improve effectiveness, engagement, and performance.
• Support the planning and execution of Engineering offsites and other key forums so leaders can align on priorities, make decisions, and move work forward efficiently.
• Drive key talent initiatives aligned with business outcomes.

What You’ll Bring 

• Experience as a People Business Partner or in a similar role supporting Engineering or technical organizations, ideally in a fast-paced tech environment of comparable size and complexity.
• A track record of partnering with senior leaders, including Senior Directors and VPs, building trusted relationships, influencing decisions, and providing clear, data-informed guidance.
• Experience supporting globally distributed teams, including working across multiple regions and time zones and navigating regional differences such as those in EMEA.
• Demonstrated ability to help organizations navigate through change or transformation, such as job architecture updates, leadership transitions, or shifts in team structure and culture, while balancing strategic work such as organizational design, leadership effectiveness, and culture initiatives with hands-on execution of core People processes.
• Strong coaching, communication and collaboration skills, including working asynchronously and partnering cross-functionally with Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, and other People teams.
• Openness to learning GitLab's ways of working and applying transferable experience from related domains, such as Product or IT, while developing a deeper understanding of Engineering needs.
• Strong business acumen.

About the team

The Engineering People Business Partner (PBP) team supports GitLab's Engineering teams globally to build a high-performing, scalable, and globally distributed organization. You'll partner closely with senior leaders whose teams are based across the US and EMEA. You'll also collaborate asynchronously with other PBPs, Talent Management, and cross-functional partners to support organization design, performance and calibration processes, and ongoing culture and leadership development. The team is focused on maturing Engineering's people practices, creating cohesion across leaders at different stages in their GitLab journey, and helping the organization navigate major transformations in structure, ways of working, and leadership.

You can expect quarterly travel for Engineering and PBP offsites and collaborative forums. This role also requires significant working-hours overlap with US Central or East Coast time zones to support the team's global operations. Candidates based in other locations who can accommodate these hours are welcome to apply.

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

$115,200—$194,400 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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