Engineering Manager, AI Engineering: Chat

Job description

About this role

An overview of this role The Engineering Manager on the Duo Chat team helps shape the core AI capabilities behind GitLab Duo Chat , so customers can work faster and more securely across the GitLab DevSecOps platform. In this role, you will manage a team of engineers building AI-powered product experiences that span the software development lifecycle, while staying close to the technical work that informs strong engineering judgment. You will play a key role in how the team delivers scalable, reliable, and high-quality AI features, from roadmap execution to stronger testing, performance, and developer clarity. Some examples of our projects: • Extend capabilities of the Duo Agent Platform agentic chat regarding agentic capabilities, UI and context management • Integrate new agentic generative AI models and providers into GitLab Duo Chat to expand capabilities and improve answer quality • Improve debugging, observability, and test coverage for AI-powered chat workflows to maintain reliability at scale

Responsibilities

• Manage a team of experienced frontend, backend, and AI engineers to deliver GitLab Duo Chat roadmap commitments across the DevSecOps lifecycle.
• Partner with product and UX teams to define requirements and deliver AI features that address customer needs and improve answer quality.
• Participate in technical architecture and development work for systems that run AI agents at scale, with a focus on reliability, performance, and maintainability.
• Guide day-to-day execution by setting clear direction, tracking progress against milestones, and removing blockers to keep delivery on schedule.
• Coach engineers through feedback, guidance, and development conversations that foster each engineer's growth and overall team performance.
• Promote a team culture grounded in curiosity, inclusion, accountability, and steady delivery against team goals.
• Improve quality, testing, and performance practices that increase coverage, strengthen observability, and keep AI-powered chat workflows reliable in production.

Qualifications and requirements

• Experience managing engineering teams in a distributed environment and enabling strong team execution.
• Strong software engineering foundation with the ability to contribute to technical discussions and evaluate engineering tradeoffs.
• Hands-on familiarity with agentic AI or generative AI applied to software development workflows.
• Ability to work effectively through ambiguity, changing requirements, and fast-moving product development.
• Clear communication and collaboration skills across engineering, product, design, and other stakeholders.
• Dedication to coaching engineers and creating an inclusive, constructive team environment.
• Comfort balancing people management with technical involvement in day-to-day development.
• Openness to transferable experience from different technical backgrounds if it aligns with managing AI-powered product teams.