Senior Engineering Manager, Design

GitLab is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps. GitLab enables organizations to increase developer productivity, improve operational efficiency, reduce security and compliance risk, and accelerate digital transformation. More than 50 million registered users and more than 50% of the Fortune 100* trust GitLab to ship better, more secure software faster. 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. *Fortune 500® is a registered trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, used under license. Claim based on GitLab data. Fortune 100 refers to the top 20% ranked companies in the 2025 Fortune 500 list, published in June 2025. Fortune and Fortune Media IP Limited are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of GitLab. An overview of this role As the first Engineering Manager embedded the Upstream Studios organization at GitLab, you'll lead a focused team of Engineers responsible for two foundational surfaces: the Pajamas Design System, which powers the coherence of the entire GitLab product, and docs.gitlab.com, the documentation platform serving millions of GitLab users and contributors worldwide. This is a rare opportunity to define what engineering leadership looks like inside a design organization. You’ll report to the Chief Design Officer and partner closely with Product Design, Technical Writing, Localization, Marketing, Product Management, and Engineering leaders across GitLab. Critically, the design system is a contribution-based, company-wide platform that engineers across the entire organization depend on and actively participate in. Building those partnerships and making it easier for engineers everywhere to contribute to Pajamas will be central to your success. You’ll be a hands-on technical leader and people manager in equal measure: guiding architecture decisions, shaping contribution workflows, and helping a small, high-impact team do some of the most leveraged work at GitLab. What you'll do Lead, mentor,and grow a high-performing team of engineers, working across the Pajamas Design System and the GitLab documentation site. Define and build the engineering practice within Upstream Studios–this is a new function and you’ll have real influence over how it takes shape. Guide architecture and technical decisions for the design system (components, tokens, patterns) and the docs site (performance, reliability, infrastructure, localization). Help others across the organization understand the strategic value of a well-maintained design system and documentation platform. Advocates for engineering quality: technical debt, accessibility standards, customer issues, security, and platform reliability. Collaborate with Product Design and Technical Writing to translate design and content needs into scalable technical solutions What you'll bring Experience leading infrastructure, platform, or development teams, with a track record of building high-performing, values-aligned teams. Deep expertise in design systems–including design tokens, component architecture, accessibility standards, and contribution models. Excellent technical background, including professional experience with Git, docs-as-code, Hugo, accessibility and building and maintaining a design system. Experience of building and supporting multi-lingual sites and localization workflows at scale. Professional experience with JavaScript (Vue.js) and familiarity with Elasticsearch, Ruby/Go, AI tools, and continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) practices. Strong expertise in running and scaling large, consumer-grade platforms, with a focus on reliability, security, performance, and scalability. Proficiency in the English language, both written and verbal, sufficient for success in a remote and largely asynchronous work environment. Demonstrated capacity to clearly and concisely communicate about complex technical, architectural, and/or organizational problems and propose thorough iterative solutions. Experience with performance and optimization problems and a demonstrated ability to both diagnose and prevent these problems Comfort working in a highly agile, intensely iterative software development process. Passion for open source and developer tools, with a commitment to GitLab's values, inclusive culture, and high-performance expectations. About the team Upstream Studios is the full-stack experience organization for ...