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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Engineering Manager, Database Change Management - **Company:** GitLab - **Location:** United States - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Databases, PostgreSQL, Software Engineering, Backend, Gitlab, Database Migration - **Published:** August 22, 2026 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/gitlab/jobs/8725566002 ## About the Role * Experience leading a long-horizon platform or infrastructure program alongside operational responsibilities and keeping both on track. * Hiring and team-building experience, including experience standing up a new team or site cluster, or closely related work. * Strong written communication skills and experience using writing as a primary management tool. * Experience coaching and developing backend engineers across multiple levels. * Ability to set priorities and protect focus while maintaining production health and meeting operational commitments. * Experience collaborating cross-functionally with software engineering, quality, distribution, database, and infrastructure partners. ## Description As Engineering Manager, Database Change Management, you'll lead a remote backend engineering team in the Database Excellence stage. The team owns database health and the database upgrade experience across GitLab.com and self-managed deployments. You'll guide two missions at once: keeping one of the largest PostgreSQL installations in the world within its capacity limits, and delivering a multi-year replacement of GitLab's database migration system so customer upgrades become dramatically faster and safer. Reporting to the Database Excellence stage's engineering leader, you'll build and grow a new engineering cluster in India, keep the long-horizon platform program on track, and help the team maintain production health through fully asynchronous, handbook-first ways of working. Some examples of our projects: * Replacing GitLab's sequential database migration system with a dependency graph model and three-phase upgrades, helping self-managed customers stay current with fewer upgrade stops * Improving database health monitoring, cloud-managed database observability, and saturation and capacity forecasting for GitLab.com and self-managed deployments What you'll do * Lead a distributed team of backend engineers working fully asynchronously across time zones. * Hire, onboard, and develop an India-based engineering cluster, including intermediate engineers and a senior technical anchor. * Balance the team's database health responsibilities with the multi-quarter migration system replacement so both missions continue to make progress. * Protect the replatforming program's critical path by limiting production interruptions for engineers focused on it while meeting the team's operational commitments. * Coach engineers from intermediate through senior levels, supporting their growth, ownership, and impact. * Run the team async-first through written decision records, visible priorities, and management practices that work when team members share few or no working hours. * Partner with Distribution, Quality Assurance (QA), database framework teams, Database Architecture, Database Automation, and infrastructure leadership. * Represent the team's capacity, priorities, risks, and delivery status to senior engineering leadership., * Production PostgreSQL experience, including capacity planning and enough technical depth to contribute credibly to migration system and reliability design discussions without needing to own the designs., We work fully asynchronously and handbook-first with Database Architecture, Database Automation, Distribution, and QA. Our work helps address the fact that roughly a third of self-managed customers are two or more upgrade stops behind., What is your current country of residence?* Select... Are you subject to any employment agreements and/or post-employment restrictions with your current employer or a past employer?* Select... It is important to us to create an accessible and inclusive interview experience. Please let us know if there are any adjustments we can make to assist you during the hiring and interview process. What is your GitLab username? Will you now or in the future require sponsorship for a visa to remain in your current location?* Select... Have you previously worked at or consulted for GitLab?* Select... Voluntary Self-Identification For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file. As set forth in GitLab's Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law. Gender Select... Are you Hispanic/Latino? Select... Race & Ethnicity Definitions If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows: A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability. A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service. An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense. An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985. 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