Staff Executive Business Partner

An overview of this role

As a Staff Executive Business Partner, you’ll be a trusted partner to GitLab’s Chief Technology Officer, ensuring their time, information, and priorities are aligned to what matters most for GitLab’s engineering, product, and customer outcomes in a fast-paced, public-company environment.

You’ll manage complex calendars, orchestrate end-to-end travel and events, and turn high-level ideas and meeting topics into clear agendas, materials, and follow-through so the CTO and their teams can stay focused on impact. You’ll use tools like Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, Navan, GitLab, and AI solutions every day to streamline workflows, anticipate needs, and keep work moving smoothly across Engineering, Product, Security, and their cross-functional partners.

You’ll collaborate closely with other executive support team members, Chiefs of Staff, People Operations, IT, and leaders across GitLab to maintain clear communication, track deliverables across organizational boundaries, and support hiring, onboarding, and engagement activities for a large, globally distributed technical organization. In your first year, you’ll be expected to build strong, trust-based relationships, bring structure and calm to ambiguity, proactively flag risks and opportunities, and contribute to the broader executive support community through shared practices and coverage.

This is not a traditional executive support role. The CTO’s operating tempo, breadth of stakeholders (engineering, go-to-market, customers, board, and co-founder), and strategic context require an EBP who can exercise independent judgment across administrative, programmatic, and people dimensions.

The bar is high: you are expected to operate autonomously on 80%+ of tasks without needing the CTO to “load context” or provide step-by-step direction. When this works well, you create significant leverage by making the calls the CTO would make, keeping their operating cadence on track, and serving as connective tissue across the org.

What You’ll Do

• Own day-to-day executive operations for GitLab’s CTO by anticipating needs, managing priorities, and ensuring the right information, people, and decisions come together at the right time.
• Manage complex calendars with proactive optimization: protect focus blocks, resolve conflicts across time zones, and pre-stage briefing materials so the CTO is always prepared for internal and external meetings.
• Manage inbound requests and triage on behalf of the CTO — know what to accept, defer, delegate, or decline without asking in most cases, based on a deep understanding of priorities and stakeholder expectations.
• Own and drive the CTO’s Rhythm of Business (ROB) end-to-end: Weekly Staff, CTO Reviews, Ops Reviews, QBRs, planning cycles, and other recurring forums — including agendas, pre-reads, action item tracking, and follow-through to closure.
• Independently identify when meetings or cycles are off-track on prep or follow-up and course-correct without being prompted, escalating only when necessary.
• Coordinate cross-functionally with other executive support team members and Chiefs of Staff across the executive team to keep the CTO’s cadence aligned with company-level rhythms and key moments (board, earnings, all-hands, OKR cycles, and major launches).
• Proactively align with account teams, Solution Architects, CSMs, and other GTM stakeholders to assemble full context packages before customer meetings — account status, open escalations, strategic context, and key talking points.
• After customer and partner meetings, capture commitments, clarify owners and timelines, and ensure follow-ups are routed and tracked to closure without needing CTO reminders.
• Own and drive an engagement and “people and culture” plan for the CTO’s org: synthesize engagement data and sentiment, identify themes, and build a year-long plan of forums (Learn & Share sessions, AMAs, org-wide updates) with clear outcomes.
• Ghost-write internal comms, including all-hands intros, async updates, and remarks, in the CTO’s voice that move the needle on culture, morale, and transparency, while handling sensitive people topics with discretion.
• Independently organize and execute org-wide events and offsites — leadership offsites, all-hands, in-person team gatherings, and cross-functional socials — owning logistics, budget, agenda design, and post-event follow-up.
• For leadership offsites, partner with the CTO and Chief of Staff on objectives and content, while fully owning execution and ensuring outcomes and actions are documented and followed through.
• Serve as a routing layer and connective tissue for the CTO’s org: know who owns what, who to loop in, and when something needs the CTO’s direct attention versus being handled downstream. Maintain a running awareness of key initiatives, escalations, and people dynamics so context doesn’t need to be rebuilt for every interaction.
• Use AI tools extensively to automate routine tasks (scheduling, notes, follow-ups), synthesize information from multiple sources, and improve the speed and quality of decision support for the CTO.
• Coordinate end-to-end travel logistics (transportation, accommodations, documentation, security) and process expenses and reimbursements in a timely, accurate manner, often across multiple time zones and countries.
• Partner with People Operations, IT, Finance, and cross-functional partners to resolve logistical needs, support full-cycle recruiting and onboarding, and plan and execute virtual and in-person events and team activities.
• Contribute to the broader executive support community by building strong cross-functional relationships, sharing best practices, providing coverage for other EBPs, and participating in team-wide initiatives and projects. Sr. and Staff Executive Business Partners are expected to be leaders of the admin team and the de facto leader for the executive support team for their division. 

What You’ll Bring

• Demonstrated experience supporting senior executives in complex, fast-paced environments, ideally including C-level technical or product leadership with broad stakeholder sets (engineering, GTM, customers, and board-level partners).
• Proven excellence in core executive support craft: flawless execution on calendaring, travel, expenses, logistics, and procurement approvals — this is table stakes.
• Strong program and operations management skills: ability to own multi-threaded operating cadences, track action items across workstreams, and drive accountability without positional authority.
• High emotional intelligence: you read org sentiment, navigate senior stakeholder dynamics, ghost-write in an executive’s voice, and handle sensitive people topics and confidential information with discretion.
• Judgment and autonomy as a differentiator: you can make the call the CTO would make ~80% of the time without asking, pattern-match on priorities, anticipate needs, and act — not wait.
• Background managing executive calendars, travel, and expenses across time zones, with the ability to anticipate needs and manage competing priorities with minimal direction.
• Proficiency with Google Workspace, Zoom, Slack, Navan (or similar expense platforms), and comfort using AI tools to automate tasks, synthesize information, and improve workflows.
• Experience coordinating cross-functional work and compiling information from multiple sources for executive decision-making, especially in engineering or product-led organizations.
• Skill in end-to-end event and meeting coordination, including agendas, materials, logistics, vendor communication, and tracking action items for both virtual and in-person events and offsites.
• Experience supporting recruiting activities and onboarding, including scheduling interviews, coordinating with hiring teams, and facilitating new hire setup and engagement.
• Clear, concise written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to interact autonomously with internal and external partners while maintaining strict confidentiality and representing the CTO and GitLab professionally.
• A proactive, organized, and collaborative approach, with the ability to work independently in a remote, dynamic environment and openness to varied backgrounds and transferable skills.

About the team

The Staff Executive Business Partner joins GitLab’s global executive support team, a distributed group that partners closely with members of the executive group and their direct reports to keep priorities, communication, and logistics running smoothly. The team supports executives across time zones through asynchronous collaboration, shared workflows, and consistent meeting norms, with a focus on calendar strategy, meeting preparation, departmental reporting, travel, and key cross-functional initiatives.

You’ll work most closely with the Chief Technology Officer, their Chief of Staff, and other executive support team members to ensure visibility into priorities, help connect information across Engineering, Product, Security, and other functions, and contribute to team-wide projects that improve how the executive support team support GitLab’s leadership and technical organizations.

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.