Backend Engineer, Database Excellence (Ruby)

GitLab is an open-core software company that develops the most comprehensive AI-powered DevSecOps Platform, used by more than 100,000 organizations. Our mission is to enable everyone to contribute to and co-create the software that powers our world. When everyone can contribute, consumers become contributors, significantly accelerating human progress. Our platform unites teams and organizations, breaking down barriers and redefining what’s possible in software development. Thanks to products like Duo Enterprise and Duo Agent Platform, customers get AI benefits at every stage of the SDLC. 

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.

An overview of this role

As an Intermediate Backend Engineer in the Database Excellence group, you’ll develop and enhance the frameworks, patterns, and tooling that keep GitLab’s application datastores scalable, healthy, and safe across GitLab.com and thousands of self-managed instances. You’ll work closely with experienced engineers and cross-functional teams to build reliable backend features, learn best practices in data architecture and lifecycle management, and contribute to identifying and addressing performance improvements in our infrastructure. As part of the Data Engineering organization, you’ll gain hands-on experience with PostgreSQL and Ruby on Rails in an all-remote, highly collaborative environment where you’ll receive mentorship and grow your skills in data scalability and system design.

Some examples of our projects:

• SQL Traffic Replay Tooling
• Background Operations Framework

What you’ll do

• Develop and iterate backend features and data frameworks that make it safe and efficient to work with data at scale across GitLab.com and self-managed deployments.
• Collaborate with product management, UX, frontend, infrastructure, software delivery, and analytics teams to design and ship high-performing, reliable solutions.
• Review and improve database-related changes from other engineers and external contributors to ensure data integrity, safety, and performance across diverse environments.
• Design, build, and maintain tooling such as SQL traffic replay and background operations frameworks to proactively detect and address scalability and performance issues.
• Research, design, and implement improvements to database performance, scalability, and data health, including areas like soft delete strategies and database migration testing.
• Document database best practices, anti-patterns, and data architecture guidance so developers can make informed, consistent decisions.
• Create proactive tooling and guardrails that help developers detect and remediate potential performance and data issues early in the development lifecycle.

What you’ll bring

• Professional software engineering experience working with PostgreSQL in large, complex production environments, including performance tuning and troubleshooting.
• Proficiency with Ruby on Rails or another Ruby framework, with experience designing, implementing, and reviewing backend features and services.
• Ability to reason about software design, algorithms, and performance trade-offs at a system level, especially in data-intensive applications.
• Strong written communication skills and comfort working asynchronously in an all-remote, distributed team.
• Self-directed work style with effective organizational skills and the ability to manage priorities as a “manager of one.”
• Alignment with GitLab’s values, including transparency, collaboration, inclusion, and contribution to open source practices.
• Openness to learning and applying new tools and approaches, including transferable experience from related data, infrastructure, or developer tooling domains.

About the team

The Database Excellence Group is a remote, agile backend team within the Data Engineering organization that builds and maintains the frameworks, patterns, and tooling that enable GitLab teams to work confidently with data at scale across all application datastores. We focus on data scalability, health, and developer enablement for both GitLab.com and thousands of self-managed deployments, partnering closely with infrastructure, software delivery, and analytics stages to ensure data changes are safe, performant, and compatible across diverse environments. We are independent, self-organized contributors who collaborate asynchronously across regions, and we are currently expanding our mission from proactively identifying and addressing saturation points in GitLab.com infrastructure to also delivering new scalability features and data health initiatives for self-managed customers.

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$98,000—$210,000 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.