Backend Engineer, Knowledge Graph (Rust) at GitLab

Join the GitLab Orbit Team as a Backend Engineer focused on the Knowledge Graph

GitLab is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps. We empower organizations to increase developer productivity, improve operational efficiency, reduce security and compliance risk, and accelerate digital transformation. With over 50 million registered users, GitLab is trusted by more than 50% of the Fortune 100 to ship better, more secure software faster. Our high-performance culture embraces AI as a core productivity multiplier, expecting all team members to integrate AI into their daily workflows to drive innovation.

As an Intermediate Backend Engineer on the GitLab Orbit team, you will play a crucial role in building and maintaining a graph data service that powers GitLab Duo agents, analytics, and various architecture-level features across GitLab.com, Dedicated, and Self-Managed deployments. You will be part of a Rust-first team that deeply values clear ownership, thoughtful system design, and rigorous thinking around data and reliability.

The Role and Responsibilities

The Knowledge Graph service is a powerful Rust backend that constructs a property graph from GitLab’s extensive software development lifecycle (SDLC) and code data. It utilizes technologies such as ClickHouse, NATS JetStream, and the Data Insights Platform to expose secure graph queries and tools utilized by AI agents and product features.

• Implement and iterate on backend features within the Rust-based Knowledge Graph service, including enhancements to the query engine, SDLC and code indexing flows, and API endpoints (including MCP endpoints), under guidance from senior and staff engineers.
• Maintain critical integrations between the Knowledge Graph and the broader GitLab platform, working with areas involving GitLab Rails, the Data Insights Platform (Siphon, NATS, ClickHouse), and the GitLab Duo Agent Platform.
• Contribute actively to system design discussions by proposing viable options, raising critical questions, and thoroughly documenting all decisions, with a primary focus on reliability, scalability, and maintainability for complex analytical graph workloads.
• Elevate the operational maturity of the service by adding or improving metrics, logging, runbooks, alerts, and completing small readiness tasks, while participating in an on-call rotation based on your experience level.
• Collaborate asynchronously with product, data, infrastructure, security, and AI counterparts to clarify requirements, align on scope, and ensure features are shipped safely for customers and sustainably for the team.
• Responsibly use AI-assisted development workflows (for example, using Knowledge Graph-backed agents and internal Duo tooling), and actively share successful methods with the team while maintaining a steadfast focus on code quality and correctness.
• Participate in thorough code reviews, knowledge-sharing sessions, and pairing sessions to both learn from peers and help maintain consistent standards across the codebase.
• Contribute across the stack when necessary, which may include occasional Ruby work for Rails integration and authorization paths, or minor frontend changes for Knowledge Graph features like the Software Architecture Map UI plumbing.

What We Are Looking For

We seek candidates with the following qualifications:

• Proven professional experience building and maintaining backend systems in a production environment, demonstrating a strong understanding of reliability, maintainability, and long term service support (e.g., incident response and follow ups).
• Proficiency in at least one modern backend language and a keen interest in Rust, ideally with prior Rust experience or clear evidence of the ability to quickly ramp up in a Rust-first, performance-sensitive environment.
• Exposure to distributed data or analytics systems (such as OLAP databases, Kafka or NATS style messaging, or change data capture (CDC) pipelines), or a strong desire to develop these skills in this role.
• Genuine interest in graph data modeling and query patterns, including property graphs, multi-step (n-hop) traversals, and aggregations, and a willingness to learn the specific Knowledge Graph tools and concepts over time.
• Practical experience or a strong interest in using AI tools in daily development tasks, coupled with a thoughtful methodology for validating outputs and integrating AI into your workflow.
• A language agnostic mindset that demonstrates the capability to learn new languages and frameworks as required for adjacent systems (for example, Ruby, Go, or TypeScript/Vue).
• Solid fundamentals in system design at your experience level, including the capacity to reason about trade offs, ask insightful questions, and align implementation work with documented architectural decisions.
• Comfort operating within a low process, high ownership environment where you take full responsibility for your work, refine problem statements with teammates, and communicate progress clearly in writing across time zones in an all remote team setting.

About the Team

The GitLab Orbit team operates within the Data Engineering organization. We collaborate closely with teams across AI (Duo Agent Platform), analytics, infrastructure, and delivery, as our work spans numerous parts of the platform. We operate asynchronously rather than following a feature factory model. A current key challenge for us is scaling sustainably as usage increases and team members take time off, which includes hardening multi-tenant behavior. Concurrently, we are expanding Knowledge Graph to broader applications.

Compensation and Benefits

The base salary range provided is currently intended for residents of the United States only and reflects the base rate in US locations. Salary grade and ranges are determined through interviews and a review of the applicant's education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, equity with other team members, alignment with market data, and geographic location. The base salary range excludes bonuses, equity, or other benefits. Sales roles are also eligible for incentive pay up to 100% of the base salary.

• United States Salary Range: $115,200 - $162,000 USD
• GitLab Support for Full-Time Employees: Health Insurance, Flexible Paid Time Off, Team Member Resource Groups, Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan, Growth and Development Fund, Parental Leave.

GitLab welcomes interest from candidates with varying levels of experience. We encourage applications from all qualified individuals, as many successful candidates may not meet every single requirement.

Location and Hiring Guidelines

GitLab hires new team members globally. While all our roles are remote, some roles may carry specific location based eligibility requirements. Our Talent Acquisition team can provide clarification on location eligibility after the recruitment process begins. GitLab is an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We strictly adhere to policies ensuring no discrimination based on race, color, religion, ancestry, sex, national origin, age, citizenship, disability, or any other legally protected basis.

How to Apply

Please complete the application form provided with your First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Country, and Phone Number.