Staff Technical Program Manager

The Technical Program Management team at GitLab focuses on delivering complex projects across research and development by ensuring focus, coordination, and disciplined execution for programs spanning multiple teams. We collaborate closely with engineering and product leaders to support initiatives that are too broad or interdependent for a single function to manage. This work is highly visible and impactful, playing a crucial role in scaling GitLab's planning, prioritization, and delivery processes. You will join a small, all-remote, async-first team that values direct communication, trust, and shared ownership. We foster a collaborative, outcomes-focused environment that allows for autonomy in how work is done. You'll collaborate with other technical program managers and build strong relationships with leaders across engineering and product, connecting efforts in business-critical areas. We support each other by sharing context early, quickly flagging risks, and focusing on practical progress over perfect processes.

Introduction

As a Staff Technical Program Manager at GitLab, you will lead critical cross-functional programs and portfolios within the engineering organization. This role requires navigating complex, multi-functional projects, providing clarity, ensuring coordination, and driving meaningful outcomes over extended periods. You will work closely with engineering and product teams to advance high-priority initiatives, particularly those with broad scope, numerous stakeholders, and undefined paths.

This position is ideal for someone adept at managing ambiguity while instilling structure, momentum, and accountability in large programs. You will exercise strong judgment and autonomy, guide stakeholders in decision-making, preemptively identify risks, and ensure project execution aligns with business objectives. This role is strategically vital at GitLab, offering a direct influence on priorities and decisions across organizational boundaries, and advancing programs that enhance how teams build and scale the platform.

Examples of projects include driving portfolio-level planning for high-priority engineering programs across R&D and coordinating multi-quarter initiatives requiring alignment across engineering, product, and partner teams like Monetization, Fulfillment, Utilization, and Legal.

Responsibilities

• Lead the planning, execution, and delivery of high-priority, cross-functional programs within GitLab's engineering organization.
• Operate at the portfolio level to identify dependencies, track progress, manage risk, and ensure teams meet defined objectives, milestones, and measurable outcomes over multiple quarters.
• Partner with Engineering Directors, Vice Presidents, Product leadership, and technical leaders to align on priorities, program goals, trade-offs, and execution plans.
• Structure ambiguous areas by developing program frameworks, decision points, operating cadences, and communication plans to facilitate team progress.
• Translate technical architecture discussions, infrastructure considerations, and system dependencies into actionable program plans.
• Coordinate stakeholders across organizational boundaries, collaborating with teams such as Monetization, Fulfillment, Utilization, Legal, and senior individual contributors across engineering stages.
• Clearly communicate program status, risks, and decisions to senior stakeholders and executive audiences, providing concise updates and actionable next steps.
• Improve planning practices, support outcome-oriented execution, and enhance team effectiveness at scale.

Requirements

• Proven technical program management experience at the Staff or Senior Staff level.
• Demonstrated success in leading large, complex, cross-functional programs in a fast-paced, distributed engineering environment.
• Strong technical fluency, capable of engaging credibly with engineers and architects on topics such as Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), cloud infrastructure, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and distributed systems.
• Exceptional stakeholder management skills and strong written and verbal communication, particularly with senior engineering and product leaders.
• Proficiency in using program and project management tools like GitLab, Jira, or similar platforms for execution and visibility.
• Ability to interpret technical discussions, identify dependencies and risks, and transform complex information into practical plans, milestones, and decisions.
• Proven ability to take ownership of complex programs, ask insightful questions, make sound decisions, collaborate constructively, and drive progress in ambiguous environments.

About Company

The Technical Program Management team at GitLab focuses on delivering complex projects across research and development by ensuring focus, coordination, and disciplined execution for programs spanning multiple teams. We collaborate closely with engineering and product leaders to support initiatives that are too broad or interdependent for a single function to manage. This work is highly visible and impactful, playing a crucial role in scaling GitLab's planning, prioritization, and delivery processes.

You will join a small, all-remote, async-first team that values direct communication, trust, and shared ownership. We foster a collaborative, outcomes-focused environment that allows for autonomy in how work is done. You'll collaborate with other technical program managers and build strong relationships with leaders across engineering and product, connecting efforts in business-critical areas. We support each other by sharing context early, quickly flagging risks, and focusing on practical progress over perfect processes.