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An overview of this role

As a Senior Backend Engineer on the Pipeline Security team, you'll take technical ownership of GitLab's native Secrets Manager, a production system built on OpenBao that helps secure sensitive credentials across GitLab CI/CD pipelines. You'll work at the intersection of backend engineering and infrastructure, shaping architecture in Ruby on Rails and Go, guiding decisions around role-based access control (RBAC), GraphQL APIs, and Kubernetes deployment configuration. In your first year, you'll help move Secrets Manager toward general availability, establish technical patterns the team can build on, and represent the team's point of view in cross-functional discussions. You'll have end-to-end ownership, from design through production operations, with room to identify what should be built next and improve how the team delivers secure, reliable features.

What you'll do

• Build and maintain secure, readable backend code primarily in Ruby on Rails, with some development in Go for targeted components.
• Design backend architecture for complex security features, including secrets access control, pipeline security enforcement, and OpenBao integration.
• Lead the development of role-based access control models, GraphQL APIs, and supporting application patterns for features owned by the team.
• Own features end to end, from technical design and implementation through deployment, validation, and production support.
• Collaborate with Product, security partners, and other engineering teams to document tradeoffs, align on direction, and deliver iteratively in a distributed environment.
• Improve code quality, maintainability, security, and performance through code review, design iteration, and internal standards for a high-scale web environment.
• Build and maintain Helm charts, including configuration, tuning, documentation, and automated testing for Kubernetes-based deployments.
• Validate features in Kubernetes environments, including GitLab Cloud Native and Cloud Native Hybrid deployments, using GitLab testing and performance testing frameworks.

What you'll bring

• Experience building and maintaining backend features with a focus on secure design, data handling, and production reliability.
• Ability to write production-quality code in Ruby on Rails, including use of framework security patterns and review for common application risks.
• Working knowledge of CI/CD concepts and the ways pipelines can be misconfigured, abused, or expose sensitive data.
• Familiarity with secrets management approaches and security practices for handling credentials in CI environments; experience with tools such as HashiCorp Vault or similar systems is helpful.
• Comfort collaborating across Product and engineering teams in an asynchronous, distributed environment and communicating technical tradeoffs clearly in writing.
• Ability to review merge requests with a security-first mindset and improve solutions through feedback and iteration.
• Experience debugging production issues, including investigation of security-related behavior and proposing practical fixes.
• Openness to learning adjacent domains and tools, including Go, container security, and software supply chain security; we welcome transferable experience from different technical backgrounds.

About the team

The Pipeline Security team builds features that make GitLab CI pipelines more secure and trustworthy for teams running sensitive workloads. We own key parts of pipeline security within GitLab's CI/CD experience, with our current focus on native secrets management for CI pipelines and Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts (SLSA) Level 3 capabilities to strengthen software supply chain security. We work asynchronously across regions and collaborate closely with Product and security partners, using clear design discussions, documented decisions, and iterative delivery across Ruby on Rails and Go.