Director, Support (Bengaluru)

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 Director, Support Engineering for our Bengaluru Center of Support, you'll build and manage GitLab's India-based regional support hub as a strategic peer to our Americas and Europe, Middle East, and Africa hubs. Reporting to the Vice President of Support Engineering, you'll own the hub's organizational design, headcount growth, management infrastructure, and operating standards while building a healthy team that delivers enterprise-grade technical support across Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East, and Africa time zones. This remote-friendly role is based in Bengaluru, India. What you’ll do • Design and build the Bengaluru hub's organizational structure, including specialist and management roles, customer and product segmentation, and shift coverage models. • Establish the management infrastructure, operating rhythms, escalation frameworks, and quality standards needed to support sustainable headcount growth. • Manage hiring and retention in partnership with Talent Acquisition, including role profiles, interview panels, offer selections, career paths, internal mobility, recognition, and team culture. • Develop managers and support engineers, set clear performance expectations, provide transparent feedback, and create pathways into global Support Engineering management roles. • Own performance against service-level targets, customer satisfaction, ticket quality, resolution metrics, and transparent reporting against global key performance indicators. • Implement local escalation workflows, Request for Help integration, and shift handoff protocols across the Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, and Americas support hubs. • Guide the hub's use of GitLab's artificial intelligence toolchain and partner with Support Operations and Strategy on tooling, analytics, and process automation. • Work with regional Support Engineering managers, Product, Engineering, and the Vice President of Support Engineering on global strategy, customer insights, operating plans, headcount models, and the Support Engineering roadmap. What you’ll bring • Experience managing technical support engineering or a closely related customer-facing technical function, including through a manager-of-managers structure. • A record of building or significantly scaling a support organization, including organizational design, hiring infrastructure, onboarding, and team culture. • Experience establishing a global delivery hub or Center of Support and coordinating service delivery across regions and time zones. • Deep knowledge of supporting enterprise software as a service, including managing service-level obligations, tiered support models, escalation frameworks, and operational metrics. • Experience working in a distributed environment that combines asynchronous and synchronous collaboration, with clear written and verbal communication. • Familiarity with AI-assisted support tooling and experience introducing new tools or automation at scale. • Demonstrated ability to retain and develop technical team members in a dynamic hiring market. • Knowledge of DevSecOps platforms, continuous integration and continuous delivery tooling, Kubernetes, or cloud-native infrastructure, along with experience using support platforms such as Zendesk, Salesforce, Decagon, or equivalent tools. Experience with GitLab as a user, administrator, or customer is helpful. About the team The GitLab Support Engineering team is distributed across the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Support engineers and managers work on tickets and help GitLab's customers. We also examine code and logs to find root causes. We solve complex problems collectively, participate in pairing sessions and one-on-ones, and stay in communication across time zones through deliberate asynchronous work habits. Support is where customers meet GitLab, and we take that seriously. Fortune 500® is a registered trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, used under license. The Fortune 100 claim is based on GitLab data and refers to the top 20% of companies ranked in the 2025 Fortune 500 list, published in June 2025. Fortune and Fortune Media IP Limited aren't affiliated with and don't endorse GitLab products or services. How GitLab Supports Full-Time Employees • 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 Please note that we welcome interest from candidates with varying levels of experience; many successf