Staff Systems Engineer, IT

ABOUT THE ROLE GitLab is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps, trusted by more than 50 million users and half of the Fortune 100 to ship secure software faster. As a Staff Systems Engineer, IT you will own the infrastructure that powers the employee lifecycle, from onboarding to off‑boarding, and the AI‑enhanced IT Service Management (ITSM) platform that supports our global workforce. Your work will directly influence how quickly new hires are provisioned, how effectively we deflect support tickets with virtual agents, and how reliably our cloud‑native services run. You will collaborate with End User Services, Security, People, Finance, and engineering teams to build scalable, observable, and automated solutions that reduce manual toil and increase operational resilience. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Design, build, and own end‑to‑end automation for employee lifecycle events, ensuring accurate provisioning and deprovisioning with minimal human intervention. - Serve as the technical owner of GitLab’s ITSM platform, shaping service catalog, workflow, and integration strategy while driving platform upgrades. - Increase AI deflection rates by deploying and tuning virtual agents, AI search, and agentic resolution, measuring outcomes and iterating on performance. - Identify repetitive manual workflows across IT and partner teams, replacing them with durable automation using ITSM and Serval. - Build and maintain integrations with core systems such as Okta, Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, JAMF, Fleet, Workday, and GitLab itself. - Manage IT‑owned infrastructure as code across cloud environments, enforcing version control, code review, and automated, auditable deployment pipelines. - Apply SRE principles to all services, establishing meaningful monitoring, alerting, reliability targets, capacity planning, and blameless post‑incident reviews. - Develop knowledge management and self‑service experiences that feed AI deflection, ensuring content remains accurate as systems evolve. - Instrument automation and AI performance with clear metrics and dashboards, publicly iterating on results. - Set engineering standards for the IT automation stack, mentor support engineers, and partner with Security and Compliance to meet SOX and SOC 2 requirements. - Document architecture, runbooks, and design decisions in the handbook for transparency and maintainability. WHAT YOU'LL NEED - Extensive experience as a generalist systems engineer, owning a wide range of platforms end‑to‑end and quickly mastering new technologies. - Proficiency in infrastructure‑as‑code tools such as Terraform, with a disciplined approach to version control, code review, and automated deployment. - Strong grasp of SRE principles—observability, monitoring, alerting, reliability targets, and blameless post‑incident analysis—and a proven track record of applying them. - Hands‑on experience running workloads in major public clouds (AWS, GCP, Azure) and integrating with identity, collaboration, and DevOps tools. - Demonstrated ability to design and implement AI‑driven ITSM solutions, including virtual agents, AI search, and conversational flows. - Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts to non‑technical stakeholders and mentor junior engineers. - A collaborative mindset, comfortable working across functional teams to align on automation, security, and compliance objectives. WHY REMOTE GitLab’s distributed culture is built on asynchronous collaboration, flexible schedules, and a deep respect for work‑life balance. Remote teams thrive on clear documentation, transparent processes, and a shared commitment to continuous improvement. As a Staff Systems Engineer, you will have the autonomy to design and ship solutions from anywhere, while engaging with peers across time zones through real‑time chat, video, and shared knowledge bases. The remote environment empowers you to focus on high‑impact work, experiment with new technologies, and contribute to a global community that values innovation and inclusion. BENEFITS - Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents. - Generous paid time off, including sick leave and personal days, plus a flexible holiday policy. - Annual remote working stipend to support home‑office setup and connectivity. - Dedicated learning budget and access to industry conferences, courses, and certifications. - Competitive salary, equity package, and performance‑based bonuses. - Inclusive culture with employee resource groups, mentorship programs, and regular virtual town halls.