Senior Manager, SME Solutions Architecture

An overview of this role

You'll build and lead the regional team of product Subject Matter Experts who win GitLab's most complex opportunities. Your team covers four product groups: Security & Compliance, Platform, Core DevSecOps, and AI & Competitive. You'll partner with regional sales leadership to decide where SMEs go, coach your team to technical wins, and make sure every engagement leaves the Account team stronger. This is a player-coach role. You'll stay close to the technology and step into critical deals yourself.

What you'll do

• Hire, develop and retain a regional team of SMEs across four product groups, with a clear growth path for each person.
• Run the regional engagement model with Account SA and Post-Sales leaders. Keep triage fast, coverage focused on the top opportunities, and the line between Account SA and SME ownership clear.
• Partner with regional sales leaders and AVPs on deal strategy, forecast calls and product-category plans.
• Review SME coverage weekly against the regional pipeline. Move capacity to where product-category commit and consumption are at risk.
• Step into strategic deals as an executive technical sponsor when the opportunity calls for it.
• Coach SMEs on PoV design, executive storytelling and competitive positioning. Hold a high bar for technical quality.
• Keep engagement and outcome data accurate in Salesforce so the team's impact is visible and measurable.
• Work with your peer regional managers and the Senior Director on shared assets, enablement programs and a consistent global playbook.
• Bring regional customer and competitive signals to Product and Engineering through the Senior Director.
• Build a team culture of trust, ownership and learning. Celebrate wins openly and treat misses as data.

What you'll bring

• 5+ Years experience leading technical pre-sales, solutions architecture or consulting, including time leading teams of technical individual contributors.
• Hands-on depth in at least one of the four product groups, and enough breadth to coach across all four, including working fluency with AI-assisted development.
• A record of hiring and developing high-performing technical specialists or SAs.
• Experience partnering with sales leaders on enterprise forecasts, deal strategy and territory planning.
• Comfort with data. You can show how your team moves win rates, cycle times and consumption.
• Strong executive presence with customers and internal leaders.
• Experience leading through change, with clear and steady communication.
• Experience running an overlay or specialist team, or launching a new team or product category.

How you'll be measured

• Regional product-category commit attainment and consumption growth.
• Technical win rate, PoV conversion and time to production use on SME-engaged opportunities.
• SME coverage of the top 10% of regional opportunities, and lead time from request to engagement.
• Account SA satisfaction with SME support.
• Team hiring, ramp time, engagement and retention.
• EAP Participation Rates for your given geography

Compensation model

Variable compensation is tied to regional product-category commit and consumption, aligned to geo sales leadership.

About the team

The regional SME team is part of GitLab's Solutions Architecture organization and works closely with the regional Account SA and Post-Sales SA teams. Together they give the field a consistent technical story from first discovery through production adoption. The team is distributed and all-remote.

How GitLab will support you

• Benefits to support your health, finances, and well-being
• Flexible Paid Time Off
• Team Member Resource Groups
• Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Growth and Development Fund
• Parental leave
• Home office support

Please note that we welcome interest from candidates with varying levels of experience; many successful candidates do not meet every single requirement. Additionally, studies have shown that people from underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to a job unless they meet every single qualification. If you're excited about this role, please apply and allow our recruiters to assess your application.