Senior Partner Solutions Architect, Strategic Partnerships

Role details

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 Partner Solutions Architect, Strategic Partnerships, you'll own the technical strategy and validation of joint work with GitLab's strategic partners: hyperscalers, artificial intelligence (AI) labs, AI-native companies, and development, security, and operations (DevSecOps) vendors. You'll work with partners, Product, and Research and Development (R&D) to turn partner and customer needs into integrations, influence product design, and build the business case for each joint effort, from the first architecture review to a shipped integration. In this role you will also own the AI model evaluation process with our model partners, working closely with our R&D teams to assess new models ahead of release and ensure GitLab is built on the best-performing models for our customers. Unlike a customer-facing Solutions Architect role focused on adoption, you'll work with partners to make GitLab better. This role has no sales quota or variable pay. At GitLab, our mission is simple: to enable everyone to contribute to and co-create the software that powers our world. Our platform doesn't just bring people together-it unites teams and organizations, breaking down barriers and redefining what's possible in software development. What You’ll Do Own the end-to-end technical strategy for assigned strategic partners, connecting technical requirements with joint business objectives. Turn partner technology and roadmaps into integration, architecture, and product opportunities across the GitLab platform, from planning to monitoring and AI agents and model integrations. Resolve complex technical issues across GitLab and partner systems, including cloud architecture, tool integrations, and AI model and agent evaluation and integration. Build working prototypes to validate concepts with partners. Manage the end-to-end AI model evaluation process with our model partners, coordinating with R&D to secure early access, align on evaluation criteria and timelines, and translate results into partnership and product roadmap decisions. Design and facilitate partner workshops, architecture reviews, and cloud financial management (FinOps) sessions, bringing in the right participants and documenting outcomes and next steps. Build business cases for joint technical efforts, defining expected gains, costs, and resources, and securing agreement from partner managers, R&D, and leadership. Bring partner requirements and technical feedback into Product and R&D discussions to influence product design and the roadmap. Coordinate Engineering, Product, FinOps, Finance, Sales, and Marketing with partner technical teams to move joint work from evaluation to delivery. Track cloud, AI, and DevSecOps developments to advise partnership investment, and share reusable findings through documentation, the handbook, reference architectures, and technical content. What You’ll Bring Experience as a Senior Solutions Architect, Partner Solutions Architect, Partner Engineer, or in a similar senior technical role. Experience with technology partners or alliances is strongly preferred. An end-to-end understanding of the software development lifecycle, continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), and DevSecOps, with the ability to use GitLab in depth. Hands-on cloud architecture experience with at least one hyperscaler: Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), or Microsoft Azure. Cloud cost or FinOps experience is a plus. Working knowledge of AI model evaluation frameworks and agent technology, including large language model (LLM) application programming interfaces (APIs), agent frameworks, and Model Context Protocol (MCP), and how they fit into developer workflows. Experience designing and facilitating technical workshops with senior technical and business stakeholders, and building business cases that scope work, estimate gains and costs, and size resources. An autonomous, ownership-driven approach: you identify work and move it forward without waiting for a project backlog. Clear, concise written and spoken communication, adapting technical and commercial trade-offs for audiences from engineers to executives. Ability to travel about once a quarter and work hours that overlap with Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). If you're on the US West Coast, expect to start around 7 a.m. Pacific Time; when the day ends is flexible. About the team You'll join Strategic Partnerships and report to the VP, Corporate Development and Strategic Partnerships. The team manages GitLab's relationships with hyperscalers, AI companies, and select DevSecOps companies, acting as the business