CTO Leadership Team

The CTO Leadership Team is composed of the CTO’s direct reports and the Office of the CTO (OCTO). The Engineering Leadership Team (ELT) includes leads for the org focus areas: AI, Customer Support, Data Engineering, DevOps, Platforms & Infra, R&D PMO, and Sec.

Office of the CTO (OCTO)

The OCTO is led by the CTO Chief-of-staff and is composed of the CTO org partners including the Engineering EBAs, the CTO’s People Business Partners, and the CTO’s Director of Technical Program Management. This team works to amplify the CTO’s reach, vision, and mission. They work together to deliver programs and results across the entire Engineering Division.

Engineering All-Hands

The Engineering All-Hands meeting takes place approximately twice per quarter (except when we align with the shared Product & Engineering All-Hands). The meetings are scheduled mid and end of each quarter, with time slots that accommodate both EMEA/AMER and APAC/AMER-friendly time zones. Twice per year, we schedule an alternative EMEA/APAC and AMER-friendly time slots to better support global team participation.

The purpose is to share org updates, stay connected, and receive feedback.

The entire Engineering group is invited, though anyone at GitLab is welcome to attend and contribute to the All-Hands agenda (internal). As with all general meetings at GitLab, attendance is optional though encouraged, and will be recorded.

All Hands Prep Process

1. Two Weeks Before the All Hands:
   1. The assigned Engineering EBA will add a topic to the leadership weekly meeting to solicit discussion topics and assign DRIs.
   2. The Engineering EBA will prepare a slide deck template for use by all presenters.
   3. Once topics and DRIs are confirmed, the Engineering EBA will create a temporary Slack channel named ’tmp_YYYY_MM_eng_all_hands_presenters’ for presenters and stakeholders to discuss and align on content. This channel will be archived after the All Hands is completed.
   4. Stakeholders/Presenters are encouraged to invite additional stakeholders to the channel as needed or opt out if they do not plan to present.
2. Content Requirements and Guidelines:
   1. Presenters should note the expected length of their presentation in the slide notes to ensure proper time allocation.
   2. To ensure accessibility and consistency, presenters must include their speaking script in the presentation deck’s speaker notes. This eliminates the need for team members to provide real-time transcription during presentations.
   3. Presenters must include slide change indicators by manually highlighting the relevant text at the end of the sentence in the speaker notes.
   4. Stakeholders/Presenters must clearly indicate in the speaker notes if different speakers are presenting in each session.
3. Content Development and Submission:
   1. Presenters are accountable for completing their content following the above requirements, including speaker notes, and submitting it no later than 48 hours before the first session.
   2. Any updates or clarifications during development can be addressed in the Slack channel.
   3. The Engineering EBA will organize and share all final content in the agenda doc.
4. Day of All-Hands Meeting:
   1. The Engineering EBA will schedule and facilitate a 15-minute tech check with all presenters for both sessions.
   2. Stakeholders should ensure additional presenters from their teams are included in the tech check if applicable.

Engineering Manager+ Meetings

The Engineering Manager+ meetings take place once per quarter, alternating between APAC and EMEA friendly time slots to support our global team. These meetings bring managers together to discuss topics such as effective execution and team leadership.

The purpose is to share leadership updates, discuss management best practices, and foster collaboration among engineering leaders.

All Engineering Managers and above are invited to attend, and sessions will be recorded for asynchronous viewing.

Engineering Director+ Meetings

The Engineering Director+ meetings take place twice per quarter, with the third monthly slot used for the Engineering Manager+ meetings.

The purpose is to share strategic updates, discuss engineering direction, and align leadership priorities.

All Engineering Directors and above are invited to attend, and sessions will be recorded for asynchronous viewing.

CTO Office Hours

Additionally, the CTO hosts CTO Office Hours weekly, alternating between EMEA/AMER and APAC/AMER time zones each week. These office hours are available to anyone in the company to ask about any topic that is “Top of Mind” for the CTO or the Engineering Division. These meetings are recorded and notes published for those who wish to review async.

For team members who have a private “Top of Mind” topic they would like to discuss, the CTO office has 20min slots available that can be scheduled as needed. See available time slots marked as Available Time Slots for Office Hours. If no slots are available, reach out to the CTO-EBA to book additional time.

CTO Leadership Offsite

The semi-annual CTO Leadership Offsite provides a forum for longer-form discussion among the CTO’s Leadership Team. This offsite is planned by the OCTO Team and rotates between in-person and virtual.

Schedule

The CTO Leadership Offsite schedule is currently being determined. We will update the handbook with the cadence once confirmed.

The offsite working days are scheduled from Tuesday to Thursday with travel days planned to accomomodate arrivals in time for a Monday evening get together and departures on Thursday later afternoon.

Goals

Some of the goals for the offsite are documented below, but each offsite may have additional goals which would be covered.

1. Review and align on technical vision for the Engineering Division
2. DIB Overview & Goal Setting
3. Discussing cross-functional topics (e.g. communication, prioritization, etc.)
4. Reviewing organization design
5. Reviewing technical topics of interest

Agenda

The specific agenda for each offsite depends on active projects and the goals of the offsite. Typical items may include:

1. People
   1. Succession planning
      1. Did anything change in the succession plan compared to six months ago?
      2. Did anything change in the Talent Assessment for all VP’s directs?
   2. Director+ promotion planning
   3. Hiring plan
   4. Relevant People projects around performance, engagement, and retention
2. Big rocks (large initiatives) presentation and discussion
3. Direction updates (annual in Q4)
4. Department-to-department feedback

In general, we prefer to have more items than we can fit into the agenda, and then push some items out, rather than have too little.

CTO Tech Lead Summit

This is an annual event that we try to host in-person, but will host remote participation as required for individuals to be able to participate. These events are focused on the technical challenges the org is undergoing with invitations that include all identified decision makers as determined by the agenda. The agenda is put together by our Principal+ individual contributors and the CTO.

CTO Reviews

Periodically, the CTO will ask for a review with team members working on critical programs and initiatives. The reviews allow the CTO to understand the current state and plans in each particular area, dive deeper into details to provide strategic guidance and technical direction, lend support by unblocking barriers, and recognize great work.

These reviews are both proactive and reactive. Teams may be asked to present how they are addressing broad impacting issues, and teams can also request a review of ideas and programs they are wishing to pursue. Topics are selected by the CTO Leadership team based on strategic priority and business impact. Reviews typically focus on current state, key challenges, next steps, and support needed from leadership.

To request a timeslot on the CTO Review calendar, reach out to Audrey Van Belleghem, Chief of Staff to the CTO.