Staff Backend Engineer - Database Change Management

Staff Backend Engineer - Database Change Management

An overview of this role

As a Senior Backend Engineer, Database Upgrades, you'll help replace GitLab's sequential database migration system with a dependency graph model that makes upgrades faster and safer for GitLab.com and self-managed customers. You'll lead the design and delivery of a migration validation and test framework, including versioned fixture data across about 1,000 tables, a continuous integration (CI)-integrated test runner, and required correctness checks. You'll also serve as the senior technical anchor for our India-based engineering group, using clear written decisions to influence a team working across India, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the United States. The manager for this role is based on the US West Coast.

We're open to hiring this role at Staff level for a candidate whose experience matches that scope. At Staff level, you'll also own architecture decisions for the migration system and lead design work across teams.

What you’ll do

• Lead the design and delivery of the migration validation and test framework from initial approach through production use.
• Contribute to a dependency graph migration system that supports safe ordering, parallel execution, and three-phase, low-downtime upgrades.
• Mentor intermediate engineers through pairing, code review, and design feedback.
• Make and document technical decisions asynchronously so team members can build on them across time zones.
• Review schema migrations from engineers across GitLab for safety, backward compatibility, and reliability.
• Collaborate with Distribution, Quality Assurance, Database Architecture, Database Automation, and database framework teams to support GitLab.com and self-managed deployment methods.
• At Staff level, author and defend architecture proposals and represent the team in technical reviews across GitLab.

What you’ll bring

• Deep experience with Ruby on Rails in large production codebases, including Active Record migration internals, or comparable depth in another framework's migration system, such as Django or Ecto.
• Production PostgreSQL experience, including schema changes on large tables, locking behavior, and data definition language failure modes under load.
• A track record of leading delivery of a system from design through implementation and adoption.
• Experience mentoring engineers through pairing, code review, and technical feedback.
• Strong written communication and the ability to make progress independently in an asynchronous, distributed environment.
• Sound judgment when balancing reliability, safety, backward compatibility, and delivery needs.
• An interest in serving as a senior technical presence for an India-based engineering group while collaborating across regions.

About the team

We’re working on the largest change to GitLab's migration system in its history, with a focus on making upgrades safer and easier for customers, including the roughly one-third of self-managed customers who are two or more required upgrade stops behind.