Intermediate Backend Engineer (Ruby), Plan: Project Management

GitLab is seeking an Intermediate Backend Engineer for the Plan:Project Management team. This role involves tackling diverse challenges from feature development to scalability and performance optimization. The engineer will collaborate with cross-functional teams globally to shape GitLab's Agile Planning offering, enabling thousands of users to effectively manage projects. Responsibilities include close collaboration with Product and Design, planning and executing work, creating Proof of Concepts, writing extensive tests, and iterating on features with minimal guidance.

Must Have

• Collaborate closely with Product and Design counterparts to finalize requirements and break down projects into smaller iterations.
• Collaborate with other engineers to plan and execute the work.
• Collaborate with engineers across Plan Stage on larger projects.
• Create Proof of Concepts for more complex work.
• Ensure quality by writing extensive tests, and roll out changes.
• Iterate and ship small features and improvements with minimal guidance and support from other team members.
• Craft code that meets our standards for style, maintainability, and best practices for a high-scale web environment.
• Support other engineers and advocate for quality during code-reviews.
• Recognize impediments to our efficiency as a team and propose and implement solutions.
• Nurture our open-source community by selecting and preparing issues for contributors, helping to organize hackathons, and reviewing contributions.
• Suggest and execute process improvements in monthly retrospectives.
• Professional experience with Ruby on Rails.
• Experience in PostgreSQL database design and optimization.
• Experience in REST API and GraphQL development.
• Experience working with a platform or complex application (Large scale is a bonus).
• Familiarity with distributed, scalable and reliable systems.
• Proficiency in the English language, both written and verbal, sufficient for success in a remote and largely asynchronous work environment.
• Strong communication skills for explaining complex technical concepts to diverse stakeholders.
• Experience working in a highly agile, iterative software development process.
• Self-motivated and self-managing, with excellent organizational skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work closely with other parts of the organization.
• Share our values, and work in accordance with those values.

Good to Have

• Knowledge of Elasticsearch and NoSQL database technologies
• Experience with GitLab CI/CD workflows
• Computer science education or equivalent experience
• Open source contributions

Perks & Benefits

• Benefits to support your health, finances, and well-being
• Flexible Paid Time Off
• Team Member Resource Groups
• Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Growth and Development Fund
• Parental leave
• Home office support

GitLab is an open-core software company that develops the most comprehensive AI-powered DevSecOps Platform, used by more than 100,000 organizations. Our mission is to enable everyone to contribute to and co-create the software that powers our world. When everyone can contribute, consumers become contributors, significantly accelerating human progress. Our platform unites teams and organizations, breaking down barriers and redefining what's possible in software development. Thanks to products like Duo Enterprise and Duo Agent Platform, customers get AI benefits at every stage of the SDLC.

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 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 as we build technology that transforms how the world develops software.

About the Role

We are looking for an Intermediate Backend Engineer to join our Plan:Project Management team, part of the broader Plan Stage. In this role, you'll work on diverse challenges—from feature development to scalability and performance optimization. You'll collaborate closely with frontend and backend engineers, UX designers, and product managers distributed across multiple time zones around the globe. You'll help shape the future of the GitLab Agile Planning offering and how thousands of users manage projects to enable their teams to plan and execute work effectively.

What You'll Do

• Collaborate closely with Product and Design counterparts to finalize the requirements and break down projects into smaller iterations.
• Collaborate with other engineers to plan and execute the work.
• Collaborate with engineers across Plan Stage on larger projects.
• Create Proof of Concepts for more complex work. Ensure quality by writing extensive tests, and roll out changes.
• Iterate and ship small features and improvements with minimal guidance and support from other team members.
• Craft code that meets our standards for style, maintainability, and best practices for a high-scale web environment.
• Support other engineers and advocate for quality during code-reviews.
• Recognize impediments to our efficiency as a team (“technical debt”), propose and implement solutions as part of our Engineering Backlog Rotation
• Nurture our open-source community by selecting and preparing issues for contributors, helping to organize hackathons, and reviewing contributions.
• Suggest and execute process improvements in monthly retrospectives.

What You'll Bring

• Professional experience with Ruby on Rails
• Experience in PostgreSQL database design and optimization
• Experience in REST API and GraphQL development
• Experience working with a platform or complex application (Large scale is a bonus).
• Familiarity with distributed, scalable and reliable systems.
• Proficiency in the English language, both written and verbal, sufficient for success in a remote and largely asynchronous work environment.
• Strong communication skills for explaining complex technical concepts to diverse stakeholders
• Experience working in a highly agile, iterative software development process.
• Self-motivated and self-managing, with excellent organizational skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work closely with other parts of the organization.
• Share our values, and work in accordance with those values.

Nice-to-haves (but not required)

• Knowledge of Elasticsearch and NoSQL database technologies
• Experience with GitLab CI/CD workflows
• Computer science education or equivalent experience
• Open source contributions

About the team

You’ll be joining a team of 8 engineers composed of Intermediate, Senior, Staff and Principal engineers as well as cross functional counterparts. Plan:Project Management team owns features and frameworks like Work Items, Service Desk, Labels, Milestones, Iterations, Todos, Notifications, Integrations and much more. Our focus is to enable teams to plan and execute work effectively. We work closely with other 2 groups - Plan:Product Planning and Plan:Knowledge - that compose the GitLab Plan Stage. We also often collaborate with stages across the Core DevOps Organization.

As the Backend Engineer, you will work on many highly requested features as well as maintaining the existing features. You’ll get to know our codebase, roadmap, and working methods. You will be empowered to take ownership and drive the implementation of the prioritized features or defects. You’ll help the team and community via code review, issue refinement, engaging with users and open-source contributors on public issues and merge requests, and advocating for process improvements.

How GitLab will support you

• Benefits to support your health, finances, and well-being
• Flexible Paid Time Off
• Team Member Resource Groups
• Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Growth and Development Fund
• Parental leave
• Home office support

Please note that we welcome interest from candidates with varying levels of experience; many successful candidates do not meet every single requirement. Additionally, studies have shown that people from underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to a job unless they meet every single qualification. If you're excited about this role, please apply and allow our recruiters to assess your application.