Principal Database Engineer, Data Engineering at Gitlab

This role is designed for a heavyweight PostgreSQL expert who thrives at the intersection of database internals and distributed systems architecture. Ideally, y

Work type: remote

Location: Remote, EMEA; Remote, North America

Salary: $157,900 – $338,400/yr

Type: Full-time

Summary

This role is designed for a heavyweight PostgreSQL expert who thrives at the intersection of database internals and distributed systems architecture. Ideally, you are a seasoned engineer who has managed massive, high-traffic data environments and possesses deep knowledge of query planning, WAL, and vacuum processes. Since this is a "Principal" level position, they are looking for someone who can not only code and debug complex production issues but also set the long-term strategic vision for sharding and multi-database support. The compensation is highly competitive, topping out at $338k (plus equity), offering a rare opportunity for high-level impact in a 100% remote, asynchronous environment. You’ll be working at the heart of an open-core leader, influencing both the SaaS platform and thousands of enterprise deployments. This is an excellent spot if you want to move away from reactive incident response toward building proactive, self-healing database frameworks using modern AI-driven workflows. **You might be a good fit if you:** * Can explain PostgreSQL internals (like the query planner or storage engine) as easily as you can write code. * Have successfully led massive database migrations or sharding projects for global-scale applications. * Enjoy a "Remote-first/Async" culture where you have high autonomy over your schedule. * Prefer building automated, self-service tools for other developers rather than just manually fixing schemas.

Job Description

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](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuZIb5zszQI) 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 a Principal Database Engineer, you’ll design and lead the evolution of the PostgreSQL backbone that powers GitLab.com and thousands of self-managed enterprise deployments. You’ll solve critical challenges around uncontrolled data growth, complex upgrades and migrations, and always-on reliability at global scale, creating the database patterns and platforms that keep GitLab fast, resilient, and cost efficient as usage grows. You’ll architect scalable, distributed database solutions, build proactive health and reliability frameworks, and drive adoption of modern database technologies and data stores that improve both product capabilities and production stability. Working hands-on in the codebase and partnering closely with product and infrastructure teams, you’ll turn long-term database strategy into incremental, customer-visible improvements, shift incident response from reactive to proactive, and help define GitLab’s next-generation data architecture, including sharding and multi-database support.

#### What you’ll do

• Lead the architecture and strategy for GitLab.com's PostgreSQL infrastructure, designing scalable, resilient solutions for both SaaS and self-managed deployments.

• Build proactive database health and reliability frameworks using continuous monitoring, automated remediation, and predictive analytics to prevent customer-impacting incidents.

• Drive database best practices across engineering by guiding schema design, migrations, and query optimization, and by creating self-service tools and guardrails for product teams.

• Own end-to-end observability for database systems, designing symptom-based monitoring, leading incident response, and turning learnings into automated, repeatable workflows.

• Shape the evolution of GitLab’s database platform by evaluating and implementing modern database technologies and data stores that improve reliability, performance, and product capabilities.

• Design solutions and patterns that address uncontrolled data growth, cost efficiency, sharding, multi-database support, and other next-generation data architecture needs.

• Collaborate closely with product and infrastructure teams to align product decisions with platform constraints and priorities, breaking down long-term goals into incremental, customer-visible outcomes.

• Contribute directly to the codebase to prototype and ship working solutions, maintain technical credibility, and deep-dive into complex production issues when needed.

• Experience architecting, operating, and optimizing PostgreSQL in large-scale, distributed production environments with high availability and disaster recovery requirements.

• Deep knowledge of PostgreSQL internals, including the query planner, write-ahead logging, vacuum processes, and storage engine behavior.

• Background designing and maintaining highly distributed database platforms with automated failover, robust monitoring, and self-healing capabilities.

• Hands-on coding skills and comfort working across the stack, from low-level database and search systems to backend and frontend services.

• Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code, GitOps practices, security hardening, and site reliability engineering principles applied to database operations.

• Ability to debug complex, cross-system issues, translate findings into durable technical solutions, and turn incident learnings into repeatable automation.

• Experience influencing technical direction across multiple teams, providing practical guidance on migrations, query optimization, and database best practices.

• Openness to collaborating with people from diverse technical backgrounds, with a focus on clear communication, shared ownership, and learning transferable skills.

Data Engineering and Monetization is a function within the Engineering organization with a mission to build a comprehensive foundation of data platforms with responsible data architecture that scales. We focus on the databases and data systems that power GitLab.com and self-managed deployments, partnering closely with product and infrastructure teams across regions in an all-remote, asynchronous way. As part of this group, you’ll help shape how we handle data growth, reliability, and modernization of our database platform, creating patterns and tools that other engineering teams can adopt. For more on how we work, see the [Team Handbook Page](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/).

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
$157,900—$338,400 USD

#### How GitLab Supports Full-Time Employees

• [Benefits to support your health, finances, and well-being](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/total-rewards/benefits/general-and-entity-benefits/)

• [Flexible Paid Time Off](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/paid-time-off/)

• [Team Member Resource Groups](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/inclusion/erg-guide/#:~:text=Definition%20of%20the%20TMRG%20%2D%20Team%20Member%20Resource%20Groups,-TMRGs%20are%20voluntary&text=The%20purpose%20for%20this%20type,developing%20the%20sense%20of%20belonging.)

• [Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/total-rewards/stock-options/)

• [Growth and Development Fund](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/learning-and-development/growth-and-development/)

• [Parental leave](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/total-rewards/benefits/general-and-entity-benefits/#parental-leave)

• [Home office](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/finance/expenses/#equipment) support

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.

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