[Hiring] Staff Solutions Architect, AI Subject Matter Expert @GitLab

Role Description

As a Subject Matter Expert (SME), you'll be the deepest technical voice in the field for one product group, helping customers make technical decisions on GitLab's most important opportunities, roughly the top 10% by size or complexity.

• Account Solutions Architects (Account SAs) will bring you into prioritized opportunities.
• You own your product group's success within the opportunity.
• Work directly with Product and Engineering, bringing customer needs and field insights into roadmap discussions.
• Help the wider Solutions Architecture team build expertise through reusable assets, enablement, and coaching.
• Specialize in one product group, not all four:
• Security & Compliance: GitLab Ultimate, application security, Dependency Firewall, software supply chain security, compliance, and AI governance.
• Platform: GitLab Dedicated, self-managed deployments, bring your own model, and cloud and hybrid architecture.
• Core DevSecOps: GitLab Premium, CI/CD, source code management, Orbit, Artifact Central, and migrations.
• AI & Competitive: GitLab Duo Agent Platform, agentic workflows, AI-native development, competitive displacement including GitHub, and migrations.
• Your success will be measured by:
• Technical win rate and bookings on SME-engaged opportunities.
• Product-category commit attainment and consumption growth in your region.
• Proof of Value (PoV) conversion rate, evaluation cycle time, and time from technical win to production use.
• How often Account SAs reuse your assets and their confidence in handling your product group without escalation.
• The quality and impact of your feedback to Product.

What you’ll do

• Act as the technical authority for your product group on prioritized opportunities, from discovery and architecture through trials and PoV evaluations.
• Lead technical deep dives, workshops, and executive briefings that connect product capabilities to business outcomes.
• Design and improve standardized PoV templates with clear, repeatable success criteria.
• Equip account teams for product launches with Product Management and Product Marketing.
• Serve as the escalation point for Account SAs and Post-Sales Solutions Architects (Post-Sales SAs) on complex product questions.
• Hand off PoV success criteria and architecture decisions to the Post-Sales SA with the account team when an opportunity closes.
• Bring structured field feedback, competitive insights, and customer requirements to Product Management and Engineering.
• Build reference architectures, demo environments, competitive battlecards, PoV playbooks, and enablement content.
• Mentor Account SAs and contribute to GitLab's global SME community of practice.

Qualifications

• Substantial experience in technical pre-sales, solutions architecture, consulting, or software engineering.
• Deep, hands-on expertise in one domain:
• Application security testing, supply chain security, and compliance.
• Scalable cloud and hybrid platforms.
• Large CI/CD environments and source code migrations.
• Production AI-assisted development, working prototypes, and competitive evaluations.
• Practical expertise in agentic and AI-assisted development workflows.
• Experience winning technical decisions on large, complex enterprise opportunities.
• Hands-on experience with Git, CI/CD, containers, Kubernetes, and at least one major cloud provider.
• The ability to lead a whiteboard session with engineers and present the business case to executives.
• Strong written communication skills.
• Comfort working asynchronously across time zones with Sales, Product, and Engineering.
• Optional: public speaking, published technical content, open source contributions, or relevant certifications.

Benefits

• Flexible Paid Time Off
• Team Member Resource Groups
• Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Growth and Development Fund
• Parental leave
• Home office support