An overview of this role

As a Senior Security Engineer on GitLab’s Security Incident Response Team (SIRT), you will play a critical role in defending GitLab.com and the broader GitLab environment against evolving security threats.

You will lead high-impact incidents and investigations, drive continuous improvements in defense, detection and response capabilities, and help scale security operations through automation and intelligent workflows.

Operating within a 24/7 global environment (follow the sun model), you will own incidents end-to-end - from detection and triage through containment, eradication, and recovery - while partnering cross-functionally to strengthen GitLab’s overall security posture.

A key aspect of this role is leveraging automation and AI-driven approaches to improve detection fidelity, accelerate investigations, and reduce response times. You will help shape how modern tooling and data are applied to stay ahead of evolving adversary tactics.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in high-tempo environments, brings strong DFIR expertise, and is equally passionate about operational excellence and building scalable detection and response systems and workflows.

What you’ll do

• Lead and coordinate end-to-end incident response for high-severity security events within a 24/7 global on-call model, with this role operating during EMEA business hours
• Prepare clear executive communications that keep stakeholders informed during incidents
• Investigate complex security incidents across cloud environments, applying strong Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) methodologies
• Partnering with Signals Engineering to design and implement detection capabilities, including SIEM use cases, alerting strategies, and telemetry pipelines
• Build and enhance automation and AI-assisted workflows to improve triage, investigation speed, and response consistency
• Partner with Threat Intelligence to contextualize threats and improve detection coverage
• Conduct root cause analysis (RCA) and lead post-incident reviews to drive continuous improvement and risk reduction
• Develop and maintain runbooks, playbooks, and operational documentation
• Collaborate cross-functionally (Engineering, Infrastructure, Legal, Product, Communications, etc) during incidents and lead proactive initiatives (e.g. tabletops)
• Mentor other engineers and help elevate the team’s overall incident response maturity

What you’ll bring

• Strong experience in security incident response and investigations in cloud-first environments
• Experience using or administering Git/GitLab in a security or engineering context
• Hands-on experience with SIEM, EDR, and/or detection engineering
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS & GCP)
• Familiarity with threat intelligence and adversary tactics (e.g., MITRE ATT&CK)
• Experience building or working with automation (e.g., Python, scripting, SOAR platforms)
• Interest or experience in applying AI/ML or data-driven techniques to detection, triage, or response workflows
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; ability to operate effectively during high-severity incidents
• Excellent written communication skills with a passion for clear, actionable documentation
• Growth mindset with a proactive approach to identifying and mitigating security risks

About the team

The Security Incident Response Team (SIRT) is a globally distributed team of engineers split across 3 core regions; AMER, APAC and EMEA, and is at the forefront of security events that impact both GitLab.com and GitLab cloud and corporate environments. We are both reactive and proactive, leading security investigations, incident response support and response resolution, through to cyber threat analysis and detection and response engineering. Even though we’re a global team, we work together in a cross-regional manner and have automation and processes to facilitate collaboration when resolving incidents, handovers, and general collaboration for project work as well.