Senior Software Engineer (Ruby), Security Platform: Authorization

Overview:

• This role focuses on building and maintaining the authorization system that controls access for all users, tokens, and automated agents across GitLab.
• You'll work on both the existing Ruby on Rails permission model and a next-generation Rust-based authorization engine.

What You’ll Do:

• Own significant parts of the authorization system, from fine-grained token permissions to custom roles and GraphQL enforcement.
• Refactor long-lived policy code to support both the monolith and new authorization engine without changing behavior.
• Improve reliability, performance, and security of existing authorization systems, including paying down permission-model debt.

What You’ll Bring:

• Significant experience building production Ruby on Rails applications and designing authorization systems.
• A security mindset, treating permission bugs as security bugs and reasoning about blast radius.
• Strong written communication and comfort working in a fully asynchronous, distributed team.

About the Team:

• The Authorization team owns the capabilities that determine access across GitLab, working on two tracks: strengthening the monolith's permission model and building a shared authorization platform.
• The team is small, distributed across time zones, works in the open, and makes decisions in writing.