GitLab
Senior Software Engineer (Ruby), Security Platform: Authorization
Remote work allowed only within certain countries or regions.
Employer listed it 9 days ago · Added 5 days ago
First listed 9 days ago and still open.
Salary
$139,200 to $235,200
Location
Work style
Async
Contract
Full-time
Experience
Senior
Category
Software
Stated by the employer in the job description
Remote flexibility
Region Restricted
Remote work is allowed, but only for candidates based in Canada, Israel, United Kingdom, United States.
What the employer says
- Source listing states candidate location: "Remote, Canada; Remote, Israel; Remote, United Kingdom; Remote, United States, Canada, Israel, United Kingdom, United States of America"
- Job description states: "residents of the United States only. This range"
What Nomaders makes of it
- Timezone overlap with the listed area is often expected
The quotes above are the employer's own words; the reading is ours. Always check the original listing and employment terms before working from another country.
About the role
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.
An overview of this role
As a Senior Software Engineer on GitLab's Authorization team, you will own significant parts of the system that decides what every user, token, and automated agent can access on GitLab.com, Self-Managed, and Dedicated.
Today that work is Ruby on Rails. Roughly 400 policy classes and a YAML catalog of about 1,900 permissions sit behind every API request. You will work on the permission model itself (fine-grained token permissions, custom roles, and the GraphQL and REST surfaces that enforce them). You will also help move that model onto GitLab's next-generation authorization stack, which pairs the Rails monolith with a Rust policy engine using Zanzibar-style relationship tuples and Cedar policies. The monolith already loads that engine in-process and can reach it over gRPC.
Some examples of our projects:
Refactoring GitLab's policy layer so the same permission definitions can be evaluated by the monolith and by our new authorization service
Extending fine-grained token permissions to more resources and more kinds of principal, including the service identities behind AI agents
What you'll do
Design and ship authorization changes in GitLab's Ruby on Rails monolith, where a single request can trigger hundreds of permission checks.
Own a workstream end to end. Problem definition through feature-flagged rollout, dual-run verification, and cleanup.
Build and extend fine-grained permissions for tokens and roles, and keep the permission catalog coherent as it grows.
Extend and harden authorization enforcement across GraphQL and the REST API.
Refactor long-lived policy code so both the monolith and our new authorization engine can evaluate it, without changing behavior for existing customers.
Improve the reliability, performance, and security posture of existing authorization systems, including paying down permission-model debt.
Partner with the authentication, platform, AI, and modular-service teams on interface contracts as authorization moves toward a shared service.
Drive technical decisions in writing. Design docs, architecture decision records, and code review, in a fully asynchronous organization.
What you'll bring
Significant experience building and operating production Ruby on Rails applications.
Experience designing or implementing authorization systems, including role-based access control and fine-grained permissions.
A security mindset. You treat a permission bug as a security bug, and you reason about blast radius before elegance.
Comfort making careful changes to large, long-lived codebases. Incremental refactors, feature-flagged rollouts, and migrations that must not change behavior for existing users.
Working knowledge of GraphQL and API authorization patterns.
Requirements
- ·Significant experience building and operating production Ruby on Rails applications.
- ·Experience designing or implementing authorization systems, including role-based access control and fine-grained permissions.
- ·A security mindset. You treat a permission bug as a security bug, and you reason about blast radius before elegance.
- ·Comfort making careful changes to large, long-lived codebases. Incremental refactors, feature-flagged rollouts, and migrations that must not change behavior for existing users.
- ·Working knowledge of GraphQL and API authorization patterns.
Benefits
- ·Flexible Paid Time Off
- ·Team Member Resource Groups
- ·Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- ·Growth and Development Fund
How to apply
- 1Check the flexibility label above, region restricted, matches where you plan to live and work.
- 2Tailor your CV to the role at GitLab, mentioning your remote working experience and working hours (Async).
- 3Apply directly on the employer's careers page using the button below. Nomaders never handles your application.
Found 5d ago. Last checked 23 Sept. Always confirm the details on the original posting, salary and location can change after publication.
Listing sourced from Company boards.
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