Staff Solutions Architect, AI Subject Matter Expert

GitLab

8h • $166,200 - $279,900 • Remote

About The Position

GitLab is hiring a Staff Solutions Architect to serve as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for one product group within its Solutions Architecture organization. The SME is the deepest technical voice for that product group on prioritized opportunities, generally the largest or most complex 10% of opportunities. Account Solutions Architects own the opportunities, while the SME owns the product group’s success within them. The role works directly with Product and Engineering to share customer needs and field insights, and helps the wider Solutions Architecture team build expertise through reusable assets, enablement, and coaching.

The position specializes in one of four product groups: Security & Compliance; Platform; Core DevSecOps; or AI & Competitive. Responsibilities span technical discovery and architecture, workshops and executive briefings, proof-of-value support, escalations, product feedback, customer adoption, and enablement. Success is measured by technical win rate and bookings on SME-engaged opportunities, product-category commit attainment and consumption growth, PoV conversion and cycle times, production adoption, reuse of SME assets, Account SA confidence, and the quality and impact of feedback to Product.

The SME organization is being built within GitLab’s Solutions Architecture team, which is distributed and all-remote. GitLab states that all roles are remote, though some may have location-based eligibility requirements. The role’s listed US base salary range is $166,200–$279,900, excluding bonuses, equity, and benefits. Sales roles are also eligible for incentive pay targeted at up to 100% of offered base salary.

Requirements

• Substantial experience in technical pre-sales, solutions architecture, consulting, or software engineering.
• Deep, hands-on expertise in one relevant domain: application security testing, supply chain security and compliance; scalable cloud and hybrid platforms; large CI/CD environments and source code migrations; or production AI-assisted development, working prototypes, and competitive evaluations.
• Practical expertise in agentic and AI-assisted development workflows across planning, coding, testing, security, and delivery, applied in a customer-facing pre-sales context.
• Experience winning technical decisions on large, complex enterprise opportunities through structured PoC or PoV evaluations with defined success criteria and executive sign-off.
• Hands-on experience with Git, CI/CD, containers, Kubernetes, and at least one major cloud provider.
• Ability to lead a whiteboard session with engineers and present the business case to executives in the same meeting.
• Strong written communication, including the ability to turn complex topics into clear playbooks others can use.
• Comfort working asynchronously across time zones with Sales, Product, and Engineering.

Nice To Haves

• Public speaking experience.
• Published technical content.
• Open source contributions.
• Relevant certifications in Kubernetes, cloud architecture, or security.
• Transferable experience in an adjacent domain is welcomed.

Responsibilities

• Act as the technical authority for one 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 and explain how GitLab differs from competing solutions.
• Design and improve standardized PoV templates with clear, repeatable success criteria, contributing product-specific content while keeping evaluations connected to the broader GitLab platform.
• Equip account teams for product launches in partnership with Product Management and Product Marketing; build demos and talk tracks, and develop early customer wins into reference stories.
• Serve as an escalation point for Account SAs and Post-Sales Solutions Architects on complex product questions, integrations, and objections.
• Hand off PoV success criteria and architecture decisions to the Post-Sales SA and account team when an opportunity closes; remain involved until the customer's first production workload uses the product and support complex adoption and consumption efforts when engaged.
• Bring structured field feedback, competitive insights, and customer requirements to Product Management and Engineering with the wider SME team.
• Help manage early-access and design-partner programs, and represent GitLab at customer events, conferences, industry working groups, and through published content.
• Build reference architectures, demo environments, competitive battlecards, PoV playbooks, and enablement content so account teams can handle more opportunities independently.
• Mentor Account SAs and contribute to GitLab’s global SME community of practice.

Benefits

• Benefits supporting health, finances, and well-being.
• Flexible Paid Time Off.
• Team Member Resource Groups.
• Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
• Growth and Development Fund.
• Parental leave.
• Home office support.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed