Senior Backend Engineer (Ruby), Plan: Spec-Driven Development

GitLab is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps, trusted by more than 50 million registered users and over 50% of the Fortune 100 to ship better, more secure software faster. The Plan: Spec-Driven Development team is a small, distributed group of engineers working on early-stage backend work focused on intent-to-code workflows, leveraging technologies such as Ruby on Rails, Python, and AI APIs.

• Strong production experience with Ruby on Rails and production experience with Python.
• Experience leading substantial projects involving several engineers over multiple months, with clear user or business outcomes.
• Product mindset with end-to-end feature ownership including scope, trade-offs, user engagement, and post-launch learning.
• Full stack background focused on backend engineering and ability to understand modern frontend code and design effective APIs.
• Strong API design and structured query language (SQL) fundamentals.
• Experience exploring AI-assisted development.
• Ability to work independently, collaborate across functions and regions, and provide technical leadership and mentoring.
• Helpful but not required: experience with GraphQL, scaling PostgreSQL performance, or building and evaluating large language model or agent systems.

• Lead backend features from early product discussions through design, implementation, rollout, and post-launch learning.
• Build flows, APIs, and data models for agent-generated work items, implementation plans, durable specs, and mergeable code.
• Develop evaluation and benchmarking systems measuring workflow quality, token cost, and success rate.
• Use Ruby on Rails and Python to build reliable production systems with PostgreSQL, GraphQL, REST, GitLab Duo Agent Platform, LLM APIs, and an AI gateway.
• Collaborate with product, design, engineers, design partners, and users to shape scope and make trade-offs.
• Coordinate multi-person projects across the team and communicate decisions clearly remotely.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to technical direction across the Plan group and AI initiatives.
• Work in short iterations, sharing progress via demos and using feedback to guide development.

GitLab hires new team members globally and is an equal opportunity employer with policies against discrimination based on protected characteristics. Some roles may have location-based eligibility requirements. Candidates with different backgrounds and transferable experience are encouraged to apply. Privacy policy and accommodation information are provided during recruitment.