Incident & Escalation Lead- Enterprise Customers

Job description

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 Support Engineering at GitLab believes that healthy teams deliver a healthy customer experience, and that command during a crisis shouldn't fall to whoever happens to be senior and available. GitLab's global Incident & Escalation Management (IM/EM) function coordinates critical incidents, complex multi-team engagements, and executive-level escalations for enterprise customers. As Escalation Manager, you'll own complex, executive, and commercial escalations where customer trust and the relationship are at stake, alongside or independently of a technical issue. In this functional role, you'll advocate for customers inside GitLab, coordinate teams toward resolution, and lead relationship repair after the event. What you'll do • Own complex, executive, and commercial escalations end-to-end, as defined in GitLab's IM/EM engagement model. • Advocate for customers internally and coordinate Engineering, Support, Product, Customer Success, and Sales toward resolution, tracking commitments and holding owning teams accountable to agreed dates and deliverables. • Maintain a written, customer-facing resolution plan from engagement through confirmed resolution, updating it at each communication milestone. • Coordinate with Incident Managers during concurrent technical incidents to maintain a single, coherent narrative for the customer. • Own external escalation communications using GitLab's approved templates and cadence, and represent GitLab in high-stakes customer conversations where clarity and ownership influence retention. • Engage Sales, Customer Success, and executive stakeholders as needed, including executive-to-executive communication for Severity 1 and 2 events. Brief GitLab leadership with concise summaries that distinguish what's known, what's unknown, and next steps. • Lead post-escalation reviews and relationship repair plans, contribute corrective actions with named owners and due dates to postmortems, and hand the relationship back to the account's Customer Success Manager at resolution. • Partner with the Head of IM/EM to develop playbooks, communication templates, and process improvements based on patterns from escalations. What you'll bring • Experience in enterprise technical support, customer success, or incident and escalation management at a business-to-business software-as-a-service or enterprise software company. • A track record of owning complex, multi-stakeholder escalations end-to-end, including executive customer engagements and structured resolution or account plans. • Executive-level written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate technical detail into plain-language updates for customers and GitLab leadership. • The ability to coordinate Engineering, Support, Product, Customer Success, and Sales under pressure without formal authority over those teams. • Calm, structured decision-making with i