What you'll do
Engage SLED customers onsite and remotely, from state capitals to university campuses, with tailored demos, technical presentations, and hands-on workshops that tie GitLab to their mission.
Partner with SLED account executives to shape account strategies that align with each customer's fiscal year budget cycle, legislative appropriations, IT modernization plans, and grant or federal pass through funding.
Own the technical evaluation process, including proof of concept (POC) and proof of value (POV) design and delivery, and provide technical responses for RFIs, RFPs, RFQs, and security questionnaires.
Support purchases made through cooperative purchasing agreements and statewide contract vehicles by working with channel and reseller partners.
Guide customers through state and sector security requirements, such as GovRAMP and NIST frameworks, and show how GitLab's built in security, auditability, and deployment options reduce compliance burden.
Help agencies and institutions modernize legacy and mainframe applications, such as unemployment insurance, tax, DMV, benefits, and student information systems, using GitLab and AI-assisted development to lower risk and offset shrinking pools of legacy skilled staff.
Advise customers on adopting AI responsibly, including the GitLab Duo Agent Platform, in line with state AI policies, governance boards, and data privacy requirements.
Lead the creation of Customer Success Plans that capture technical success criteria and handoff details, ensuring a smooth path to deployment and adoption, often for IT teams with limited capacity.
Work alongside Account Executives to build data driven business cases that quantify delivery bottlenecks, giving customers a defensible basis for budget requests and clear evidence of return on taxpayer investment.
Build relationships with CIOs, CISOs, agency directors, enterprise architects, faculty, research computing leaders, and procurement officers so they become advocates for GitLab, including across agencies and campuses that share services.
Collaborate with systems integrators and state IT shared-services organizations to scale GitLab adoption across multiple agencies, local governments, or campuses.
Serve as the SLED customer advocate internally, channeling feedback on procurement, compliance, and deployment needs to Product, Sales, and Marketing.
Stay current on GitLab and related technologies, and create reusable SLED demos, reference architectures, and assets for customers and partners.
What you'll bring
Background in technical pre-sales, consulting, or IT roles serving state agencies, local governments, or public, private, and research universities, where you guided customers through evaluations and solution design.
Working knowledge of how SLED organizations buy technology: RFP and RFI cycles, cooperative purchasing agreements, statewide contracts, fiscal-year budgeting, and the role of resellers and systems integrators.
Hands-on experience using GitLab and familiarity with modern software development and operations practices, such as CI/CD, DevSecOps, and automation.
Experience with cloud, hybrid, and self-managed deployments in regulated environments, including government cloud regions, and an understanding of data residency and sovereignty concerns.
Familiarity with security and compliance frameworks common in SLED, such as GovRAMP and NIST SP 800-53.
Ability to connect technical solutions to mission outcomes, such as resident service delivery, cyber resilience, cost avoidance, and workforce efficiency, and to advise senior stakeholders on tradeoffs and options.
Strong communication and relationship-building skills, including presenting to both technical teams and non-technical leaders such as agency heads, procurement officers, and university administrators.
Openness to learning, seeking feedback, and building new skills, including familiarity with GitLab's Solutions Architect handbook and related resources.
Nice to have
Prior experience working in or for state or local government IT, or a university IT or research computing organization.
Experience with legacy or mainframe modernization programs.
Familiarity with AI governance practices in the public sector, such as AI use-case inventories, acceptable-use policies, and risk assessments.
About the team
The SLED Solutions Architect role is part of GitLab's Public Sector Solutions Architect team, a group of trusted technical advisors who help government and education customers understand, evaluate, and adopt the GitLab DevSecOps platform. The team is distributed and collaborates asynchronously across time zones using GitLab and our handbook-first practices to share knowledge, reusable examples, and best practices.
On the SLED team, you'll help customers solve challenges unique to state, local, and education organizations: protecting resident and student data, modernizing mission-critical legacy systems, buying through public procurement processes, and stretching limited IT staff and budgets. You'll also bring SLED customer insights back to GitLab to shape product direction.
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
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.
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