An overview of this role

As an Intermediate Software Engineer in GitLab's Security section, you'll contribute to the data layer behind our vulnerability and dependency management capabilities. You'll design and develop well-scoped features within the systems that ingest, store, index, and query security report data, including integrations with key third-party systems. With a strong focus on PostgreSQL and scalable backend design, your work will support security features delivered by teams across GitLab.

You'll work with clear context and strong support from the Senior Software Engineers and Staff Software Engineers around you. You'll stay hands-on across GitLab's Ruby on Rails application and newer services while building depth in PostgreSQL and a specialized security domain. Over time, you'll grow toward owning larger and more ambiguous pieces of work.

What you’ll do

• Design, develop, and ship well-scoped features within the systems that ingest, store, index, and query security report data, improving data-ingestion reliability and query performance as measured by defined reliability and query-performance metrics.
• Work on the PostgreSQL data layer that supports vulnerability and dependency management, developing your database skills alongside engineers with deep expertise.
• Build and improve systems using Ruby on Rails and PostgreSQL, and contribute to newer services using technologies such as Go or Rust as the team expands beyond the monolith.
• Contribute to integrations with key third-party security systems.
• Participate in technical design discussions and code reviews, asking questions early and raising constraints as you find them.
• Collaborate with product and engineering partners on the details of your deliverables.
• Deliver iteratively within GitLab's monthly release cycle and communicate progress clearly.
• Apply a security mindset when designing systems, including considering how GitLab identifies and handles malicious or vulnerable software packages.

What you’ll bring

• Professional backend engineering experience shipping features to production as part of a collaborative team.
• Working knowledge of PostgreSQL, including indexes, query plans, and schema design, and an interest in developing this into a specialization.
• Professional experience with Ruby on Rails, Go, or Python, plus comfort working in Ruby on Rails day to day and an interest in working across languages and services.
• Experience taking a feature from description through production and asking clear questions early when requirements are ambiguous.
• Clear written communication and comfort working remotely and asynchronously across time zones.
• An interest in the security domain. Experience with vulnerability management, dependency management, or security tooling is helpful, and we welcome transferable experience from outside the security domain.
• Fluency in using artificial intelligence tools to improve delivery and accelerate your learning while applying sound engineering judgment.

About the team

The Vulnerability Management team contributes to GitLab's move toward modular services and will help other Security teams adopt these patterns over time. Today, we include two Staff Software Engineers, two Senior Software Engineers, and one Intermediate Software Engineer across the United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands, and India. You'll work closely with us, product partners, and engineering leaders across GitLab. We work with clear goals and shared priorities: you'll receive clear context and outcomes, then have the space to own delivery, communicate decisions and progress, ask for help early, and work directly with the partners needed to get the job done.