An overview of this role

As a Public Sector Solutions Architect, you'll be a trusted advisor to U.S. government customers, helping them understand how GitLab's Enterprise Edition and DevSecOps platform can address real business and mission outcomes. You'll own the technical evaluation and validation stages of the sales cycle, guide customers through proofs of concept and value, and connect GitLab's modern software development, operations, and cloud capabilities to measurable value. In this role, you'll work closely with sales and cross-functional GitLab teams, provide technical guidance from first conversation through successful deployment, and act as a customer advocate back into Product, Sales, and Marketing. With your TS/SCI with poly clearance and deep familiarity with government environments, you'll shape and execute strategies that build mindshare, expand GitLab usage, and establish long-term, trusted relationships across public sector accounts.

What you'll do

• Engage with public sector customers, both onsite and remotely, to provide technical expertise and guidance throughout the pre-sales process, including tailored demos, technical presentations, and hands-on workshops.
• Collaborate with the sales team to shape and execute account strategies that drive GitLab adoption within government environments.
• Own the technical evaluation process, including proof of concept (POC) and proof of value (POV) design and delivery, tender and audit support, and technical input into proposals.
• Lead the creation of Customer Success Plans that capture technical success criteria and handoff details from the pre-sales process, ensuring a smooth path to deployment and adoption.
• Build and deepen relationships with technical and business stakeholders so they become advocates for GitLab within their organizations.
• Serve as the customer advocate internally by channeling feedback and insights to Product, Sales, Marketing, and other GitLab teams to influence roadmap and messaging.
• Maintain and expand your expertise in GitLab and related technologies, including modern software development, operations, and cloud practices, and create reusable examples and assets for customers and partners.
• Run Value Stream Assessments with support from senior Solutions Architects to identify opportunities for customers to improve their software delivery with GitLab.

What you'll bring

• Active TS/SCI clearance with polygraph and ability to meet all applicable government eligibility requirements as a United States Person.
• Residing in the Washington, D.C. area and ability to travel for onsite engagement with public sector customers, based on business and customer needs.
• Background in technical pre-sales, consulting, or information technology roles, ideally with U.S. public sector or federal customers, where you guided customers through evaluations and solution design
• Hands-on experience using GitLab and familiarity with modern software development and operations practices, such as CI/CD, DevSecOps, and automation
• Experience with cloud computing platforms and related technologies in regulated or security-conscious environments.
• Ability to connect technical solutions to measurable business or mission outcomes and to advise senior stakeholders on tradeoffs and options.
• Strong, confident communication and relationship-building skills, including leading customer meetings, demos, and value-focused conversations in close partnership with sales and cross-functional teams
• Openness to learning, seeking feedback, and building new skills, including familiarity with GitLab's Solutions Architect handbook and related resources.

About the team

The Public Sector Solutions Architect role is part of GitLab's Solutions Architect team, a group of trusted technical advisors who help government customers understand, evaluate, and adopt the GitLab DevSecOps platform. You'll work closely with account teams, Customer Success, and Product to support public sector organizations, with a particular focus on agencies that require TS/SCI with polygraph. The team is distributed and collaborates asynchronously across time zones using GitLab and our handbook-first practices to share knowledge, reusable examples, and best practices. You'll help the team address unique public sector challenges such as security, compliance, and mission-critical software delivery, and contribute customer insights that shape our product direction.

An overview of this role

As the Field CTO, Public Sector at GitLab, you will serve as a trusted technical advisor for public sector customers and prospects, helping them connect DevSecOps strategy, security, and compliance goals to real business and mission outcomes. You will work closely with executive stakeholders during the pre-sales process, offering strategic guidance on how GitLab can support secure software delivery, modernization efforts, and platform adoption across complex environments.

In this role, you will combine technical depth with executive level customer communication. You will build relationships with customer and prospect leaders such as Chief Information Security Officers, Chief Security Officers, Chief Technology Officers, and chief security architects, while also partnering across GitLab with sales, marketing, and product teams. Your perspective from the field will help shape customer conversations, influence go-to-market strategy, and inform how GitLab continues to serve public sector organizations.

Note: This is an individual contributor, customer-facing technical advisory role; it does not include direct people management responsibilities.

This role is well suited for someone who enjoys operating at the intersection of technology strategy, customer engagement, and market leadership. You will help customers understand the value of our AI Powered DevSecOps platform, contribute to industry conversations around standards and guidance (AI in particular), and represent GitLab in a way that reflects our values of transparency, collaboration, and results.

What you'll do

• Engage with customers in a technical consulting and advisory role during the pre-sales process, providing technical assistance and strategic guidance.
• Deliver executive-level thought leadership on DevSecOps, security, and compliance for strategic public sector opportunities, including new and growth accounts.
• Build and maintain relationships with customer leaders such as Chief Information Security Officers, Chief Security Officers, Chief Technology Officers, and chief security architects.
• Partner with the marketing team to develop content and support media engagement opportunities that increase awareness of GitLab in the public sector market.
• Educate customers on the value of the GitLab platform and related technologies, and support conversations across multiple levels of the organization to help enable successful deployment.
• Assist with requests for information and responses related to government publications and public-private partnership opportunities.
• Participate in and contribute to working groups connected to government publications, standards, and demonstrations.
• Curate and communicate public sector field feedback, collaborate on prioritization with marketing and product teams, and contribute to sales strategy, playbooks, enablement, and reusable technical content for the field (podcasts, etc).

What you'll bring

• Significant experience in DevSecOps, AI and AI policy in government, information technology security, or closely related areas.
• Experience selling to, supporting, or working within the public sector.
• Experience creating technical marketing content and materials independently.
• Experience delivering security, cybersecurity, compliance-related solutions, or assessments.
• Knowledge of software development tools, practices, methodologies, and the end-to-end software development lifecycle.
• Understanding of continuous integration and continuous deployment, along with modern software development or operations practices.
• Experience with cloud computing and related technologies and practices.
• Strong verbal, written, and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate technical strategy effectively to audiences ranging from executives to engineers.
• Ability to coordinate across time zones and adapt schedules to customer and internal stakeholder needs.
• Experience in technical pre-sales or a comparable customer-facing information technology role.

About the team

The Field CTO, Public Sector role works across customer-facing and internal teams to help GitLab meet the needs of public sector organizations with clarity, credibility, and deep technical insight. This role partners closely with sales, solutions, marketing, and product stakeholders to represent customer priorities, strengthen technical strategy in the field, and support GitLab's position in a highly regulated and mission-driven market.