Principal Product Manager (AI Custom Models)

An overview of this role

As a Principal Product Manager , you will shape a critical part of GitLab's AI product direction by helping customers run advanced AI capabilities in environments that match their infrastructure, security, and deployment needs. This role is focused on custom models and self-hosted AI experiences , where product decisions need to balance model choice, agent-based workflows, platform usability, and operational realities like configuration, infrastructure, and hardware. You will report into product leadership and play a key role in defining strategy, partnering across engineering and design, and helping the team deliver a strong transition and roadmap during an important period of growth for GitLab AI. In your first year, you'll be expected to bring clarity to the product area, guide execution on high-impact work, and help GitLab build a more flexible and effective AI offering for customers who need self-managed options.

What you’ll do

• Lead product strategy and roadmap definition for custom models and self-hosted AI capabilities within GitLab.
• Drive discovery, prioritization, and delivery for features that support model flexibility, self-managed deployments, and AI agent orchestration use cases.
• Collaborate closely with engineering, design, and other product leaders to turn complex customer and technical needs into clear product direction.
• Define product requirements that account for infrastructure, configuration, deployment, and hardware considerations in self-hosted environments.
• Partner with internal stakeholders across GitLab AI initiatives to ensure this product area fits into the broader platform strategy.
• Guide tradeoff decisions with a strong focus on customer value, technical feasibility, and long‑term platform quality.
• Support knowledge transfer and continuity as the team grows and evolves, helping new work move forward with context and clarity.
• Communicate plans, decisions, and priorities in a transparent way that helps distributed teams execute asynchronously.

What you’ll bring

• Experience owning product strategy for technical platform, infrastructure, or AI-driven products.
• Knowledge of AI model ecosystems, including custom model options, open models, or open weight models, and the product decisions involved in supporting them.
• Familiarity with self-hosted or self-managed software and the operational needs of customers running software in their own environments.
• Ability to work effectively with engineers on topics such as configuration, infrastructure, deployment patterns, and hardware-related constraints.
• Experience leading complex product work with multiple stakeholders and making clear decisions in areas with technical ambiguity.
• Skill in written and verbal communication, with the ability to explain product direction clearly in a distributed, asynchronous environment.
• Judgment to operate at principal scope, with ownership across strategy, execution, and cross‑functional alignment.
• Openness to bringing transferable experience from adjacent areas such as DevSecOps, developer platforms, infrastructure software, or applied AI products.

About the team

This team is part of GitLab's AI product effort and is focused on building product experiences that help customers use AI in ways that fit their security, infrastructure, and deployment requirements. The team works on high-impact areas connected to AI agent orchestration, model choice, and self-managed delivery, with close partnership across product, engineering, and design in multiple regions. As a small and evolving team, it operates with a high degree of ownership and asynchronous collaboration, and is currently focused on scaling knowledge, maintaining continuity, and delivering flexible AI capabilities that fit GitLab's broader DevSecOps platform direction.

Remote‑Global

Salary and Benefits

The base salary range for this role’s listed level is currently for residents of the United States only. This range is intended to reflect the role's base salary rate in locations throughout the US. Grade level and salary ranges are determined through interviews and a review of education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities of the applicant, equity with other team members, alignment with market data, and geographic location. The base salary range does not include any bonuses, equity, or benefits. Sales roles are also eligible for incentive pay targeted at up to 100% of the offered base salary. United States Salary Range: $203,200 — $345,600 USD.

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

GitLab is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. GitLab’s policies and practices relating to recruitment, employment, career development and advancement, promotion, and retirement are based solely on merit, regardless of race, color, religion, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, lactation, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression), national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, mental or physical disability, genetic information (including family medical history), discharge status from the military, protected veteran status (which includes disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, active duty wartime or campaign badge veterans, and Armed Forces service medal veterans), or any other basis protected by law. GitLab will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. See also