Sr. Manager, Solutions Architect SME

GitLab

3d•$166,200 - $249,300•Remote

About The Position

The Senior Manager, SME Solutions Architecture builds and leads a regional team of product Subject Matter Experts who support GitLab’s most complex opportunities across Security & Compliance, Platform, Core DevSecOps, and AI & Competitive. This is a player-coach role: the manager stays close to the technology and may personally serve as an executive technical sponsor in critical deals. The role partners with regional sales leadership to guide SME deployment, deal strategy, forecasts, and product-category plans. It runs the regional engagement model with Account SA and Post-Sales leaders, coaches SMEs toward technical wins, and ensures engagements strengthen the Account team. The manager also works with peer regional managers and the Senior Director on shared assets, enablement, and a consistent global playbook, while bringing regional customer and competitive signals to Product and Engineering through the Senior Director. The regional SME team is part of GitLab’s Solutions Architecture organization and works closely with regional Account SA and Post-Sales SA teams to provide a consistent technical story from discovery through production adoption. The team is distributed and all-remote. Variable compensation is tied to regional product-category commit and consumption, aligned to geographic sales leadership.

Requirements

At least 5 years of experience leading technical pre-sales, solutions architecture, or consulting, including experience leading teams of technical individual contributors.
Hands-on depth in at least one of the four product groups and enough breadth to coach across all four, including working fluency with AI-assisted development.
A record of hiring and developing high-performing technical specialists or solutions architects.
Experience partnering with sales leaders on enterprise forecasts, deal strategy, and territory planning.
Comfort using data to demonstrate team impact on win rates, cycle times, and consumption.
Strong executive presence with customers and internal leaders.
Experience leading through change with clear and steady communication.

Nice To Haves

Experience running an overlay or specialist team, or launching a new team or product category.

Responsibilities

Hire, develop, and retain a regional team of SMEs across four product groups, with a clear growth path for each person.
Run the regional engagement model with Account SA and Post-Sales leaders, keeping triage fast, coverage focused on top opportunities, and ownership boundaries clear.
Partner with regional sales leaders and AVPs on deal strategy, forecast calls, and product-category plans.
Review SME coverage weekly against the regional pipeline and shift capacity when product-category commit or consumption is at risk.
Serve as an executive technical sponsor in strategic deals when needed.
Coach SMEs on proof-of-value design, executive storytelling, and competitive positioning, while maintaining a high bar for technical quality.
Keep engagement and outcome data accurate in Salesforce so the team’s impact is visible and measurable.
Work with peer regional managers and the Senior Director on shared assets, enablement programs, and a consistent global playbook.
Bring regional customer and competitive signals to Product and Engineering through the Senior Director.
Build a team culture of trust, ownership, and learning; celebrate wins and treat misses as data.