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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
Support Engineering at GitLab believes that healthy teams deliver a healthy customer experience, and that command during a crisis shouldn't fall to whoever happens to be senior and available. GitLab's global Incident & Escalation Management (IM/EM) function coordinates critical incidents, complex multi-team engagements, and executive-level escalations for enterprise customers. As Escalation Manager, you'll own complex, executive, and commercial escalations where customer trust and the relationship are at stake, alongside or independently of a technical issue.
In this functional role, you'll advocate for customers inside GitLab, coordinate teams toward resolution, and lead relationship repair after the event.
What you'll do
- Own complex, executive, and commercial escalations end-to-end, as defined in GitLab's IM/EM engagement model.
- Advocate for customers internally and coordinate Engineering, Support, Product, Customer Success, and Sales toward resolution, tracking commitments and holding owning teams accountable to agreed dates and deliverables.
- Maintain a written, customer-facing resolution plan from engagement through confirmed resolution, updating it at each communication milestone.
- Coordinate with Incident Managers during concurrent technical incidents to maintain a single, coherent narrative for the customer.
- Own external escalation communications using GitLab's approved templates and cadence, and represent GitLab in high-stakes customer conversations where clarity and ownership influence retention.
- Engage Sales, Customer Success, and executive stakeholders as needed, including executive-to-executive communication for Severity 1 and 2 events. Brief GitLab leadership with concise summaries that distinguish what's known, what's unknown, and next steps.
- Lead post-escalation reviews and relationship repair plans, contribute corrective actions with named owners and due dates to postmortems, and hand the relationship back to the account's Customer Success Manager at resolution.
- Partner with the Head of IM/EM to develop playbooks, communication templates, and process improvements based on patterns from escalations.
What you'll bring
- Experience in enterprise technical support, customer success, or incident and escalation management at a business-to-business software-as-a-service or enterprise software company.
- A track record of owning complex, multi-stakeholder escalations end-to-end, including executive customer engagements and structured resolution or account plans.
- Executive-level written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate technical detail into plain-language updates for customers and GitLab leadership.
- The ability to coordinate Engineering, Support, Product, Customer Success, and Sales under pressure without formal authority over those teams.
- Calm, structured decision-making with incomplete information and the ability to provide a steadying presence in high-stress customer situations.
- Proficiency with support and coordination tools such as Zendesk, Salesforce, Slack, and PagerDuty, or equivalent platforms.
- Availability for on-call coverage supporting executive escalations as part of a globally distributed team.
- Nice to have: Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundation or equivalent certification; customer-facing experience with GitLab, development, security, and operations (DevSecOps), continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), or cloud-native products; experience with formal escalation or incident command frameworks; or AI-assisted support tools for triage, sentiment analysis, or resolution drafting.
About the team
The Incident & Escalation Management function sits within Support Engineering in GitLab's Enterprise Technology & AI (ETA) division. We operate a follow-the-sun model anchored in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific, providing year-round, 24-hour coverage for enterprise customers. Our Escalation Managers work globally rather than within a single region, partnering with Incident Managers, Communications Leads, and regional Support Engineering leadership. You'll help shape our playbooks, templates, and standards as we scale.
How GitLab Supports Full-Time Employees
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.
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GitLab is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. GitLab’s policies and practices relating to recruitment, employment, career development and advancement, promotion, and retirement are based solely on merit, regardless of race, color, religion, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, lactation, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression), national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, mental or physical disability, genetic information (including family medical history), discharge status from the military, protected veteran status (which includes disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, active duty wartime or campaign badge veterans, and Armed Forces service medal veterans), or any other basis protected by law. GitLab will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. See also GitLab’s EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know during the recruiting process.
