Field Strategist, Forward Deployed Engineer

GitLab is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps. GitLab enables organizations to increase developer productivity, improve operational efficiency, reduce security and compliance risk, and accelerate digital transformation. More than 50 million registered users and more than 50% of the Fortune 100* trust GitLab to ship better, more secure software faster. 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. Field Strategist, Forward Deployed Engineering Office of the Chief Customer Officer · GitLab We’re building something new. If you’ve worked at the intersection of complex customer reality and product strategy, and you want to be in the room for the decisions that shape GitLab’s AI strategy, field priorities, and strategic direction, keep reading. What We’re Building We're building Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) in the Office of the Chief Customer Officer. This is a small, strategic team focused on the customer situations where GitLab's standard motions are not enough. The accounts where platform adoption, DAP readiness, and long-term customer value require deeper, more deliberate engagement. The model is straightforward: work deeply in a limited number of strategic accounts, learn in real customer environments, and turn what works into reusable assets and clearer operating motions for the rest of the organization. FDE is not a service delivery team, and it is not a source of one-off custom solutions. The team exists to validate approaches in the field, codify what proves durable, and hand proven patterns to Customer Success, Professional Services, and other field teams so they can scale. This role sits where product strategy, field signal, and executive judgment meet. You help shape where the team invests, what each engagement is intended to prove, and how what we learn in the field should influence Product, the broader CX organization, and FDE's own priorities. You also help translate product direction into guidance the field can use now, connect DAP learnings to CX Engineering's rollout and scale programs, and advise leadership on where GitLab should accelerate, adjust, or go deeper. You'll work with customer executives and GitLab senior leadership, and you'll operate across Product, Engineering, CX, and the FDE team itself. This role has visibility at the top of the organization, helping shape product direction, field focus, and the strategic choices behind where the team goes deep. What You'll Do Shape The Strategic FDE Portfolio Partner with the FDE lead to define and evolve the portfolio of strategic accounts and initiatives where FDE involvement can drive meaningful adoption, validated learning, and reusable outcomes Build and maintain the portfolio criteria that guide where the team should invest, including platform and DAP adoption potential, strategic churn risk, signal value, willingness to co-develop, and the likelihood that an engagement will produce patterns that scale Lead a regular portfolio review cadence that helps the team stay focused on the highest-leverage work, reassess where deeper investment is warranted, and protect FDE from reactive or ad hoc pulls into lower-value engagements Write the engagement brief for each initiative: customer context, strategic hypothesis, what the team is there to validate, success measures, expected reusable output, and the path to handoff or scale Design How Proven FDE Work Scales Partner with the FDE and GTM teams to ensure each engagement is sequenced against the adoption ladder, strengthening foundational platform adoption where needed and accelerating DAP adoption where the conditions are right Define the reusable outputs each engagement should produce, whether that is a reference architecture, adoption playbook, on-the-truck guide, content contribution, or another asset that can scale beyond a single account Turn field-proven approaches into repeatable motions by identifying what should be packaged for CS, PS, SA, or CX Engineering, and what should remain a deliberate strategic investment Shape the handoff path for what FDE proves in the field so mature patterns land cleanly with downstream teams and can scale without continued dependence on FDE Shape DAP Signal And Field Direction Turn FDE customer work into structured input for Product, with a near-term focus on DAP adoption, readiness, deployment patterns, and blockers that should influence roadmap and prioritization Help determine how DAP strategy should shape field activity by clarifying what the organization can scale now, what FDE should continue to validate in the field, and what should be elevated as a product or platform gap Set priorities for strategic field assets by identifying which DAP learnings should become adoption frameworks, on-the-truck guidance, reference architectures, or inputs to CX Engineering's rollout and scale programs Advise FDE leadership and executive stakeholders on what the team's DAP field signal implies for product direction, field priorities, and where