Hiring & Talent Acquisition Handbook

Landing page for many of the handbook pages the talent acquisition team at GitLab uses.

At the core of our team’s vision, mission, and strategy is our ability to impact GitLab’s overarching mission: to make it so that everyone can contribute to and co-create the software that powers our world. When everyone can contribute, users become contributors and we greatly increase the rate of innovation.

As a Talent Acquisition team, we have an outsized impact on GitLab’s ability to make this mission a reality, by connecting top talent to profound careers from wherever they are in a truly distributed, remote workforce.

Talent Acquisition Vision Statement

To create globally inclusive access to opportunities so that everyone can contribute to and co-create the software that powers our world.

Talent Acquisition Mission Statement

It is the Talent Acquisition Team’s mission to predictably build distributed, representative teams that enable team members to co-create the future of software.

Our Guiding Principles

As we set out to achieve this vision, we will continue to rely on core guiding principles to define how we build toward the future.

  1. Experience: Stakeholder experience is central to our craft. We are a partner, an advisor, and an essential component to building high performing teams and culture at GitLab.
  2. Inclusivity: We design fair and equitable processes into the fabric of what we do. We believe Talent Acquisition has an outsized impact on the make-up of our teams, and we strive to continue to build them with inclusivity as a integral piece of our craft.
  3. Predictability: Our ability to have the right team members, in the right roles, at the right time is imperative to execute on our commitments and plans as an organization. We strive for predictability: to build accuracy in our forecasts and enable the business to look around corners through strong relationships and data driven decision making.

Our Objectives and Roadmap

We strive to be as transparent as possible, but these sections are only available for our GitLab team members.

Talent Acquisition Strategy

Talent Acquisition Pages and Processes

Team Process Pages

Shared Definitions
  • Job: A job refers to the job title (ex: Customer Support Specialist). This will also be what appears on external job boards. In the case there are multiple positions open that are the same, and we only want to list once, we can have multiple ‘openings’ (see next section) opened within one ‘Job’. Each job will have a unique identifier called a Requisition ID (example- 1001).
  • Opening: A job can have multiple openings attached to it (ex: you are hiring 3 Customer Support Specialists. You would then have 1 ‘Job’ and 3 ‘openings’ against that job). A job can have multiple openings against it, but an opening can not be associated with multiple jobs. Each opening will have a unique identifier called an Opening ID (example- 1001-1, 1001-2, 1001-3).
  • GHPiD: GHP ID is the link between Adaptive (what we use to track our operating plan) and Greenhouse (our ATS). A GHP ID has a one to one relationship with an Opening ID. It is the key interlock between our hiring plans and our Talent Acquisition activity. This is a custom field in Greenhouse.

Team Playbooks

Candidate Handbook Pages

Please find pages for potential and active applicants below.

Interviewer Processes

Hiring Manager Processes

Candidate Experience Specialist Processes

Recruiter Processes

Talent Acquisition Programs

Referrals

Internal Mobility

Global Hiring Resources

Global hiring links
  • The “country hiring status” section within the compensation calculator is the best place to look for a list of current countries available for hiring.
  • This country list, maintained by and accessible to recruiters, details specific information about each country that can help you answer candidate questions and prepare for potential hiring delays.
  • For general questions about specific policies or whether we support certain types of visas or sponsorship, message #people-group-confidential. If the request is more involved, or requires a conversation, you can slack Harley Devlin.
PEO information and timelines
  • For candidates who are located in Countries where we do not have an entity, we use a PEO (Professional Employment Organization). The actual employment contracts will be sent and issued by the PEO who also handles the processing and payment of payroll and associated taxes and compliance in each of the countries on behalf of GitLab. The contracts themselves are between the individual and the PEO.
  • GitLab is currently hiring into three PEOs
  • Remote.com
  • Global Upside
  • Papaya
  • Global Expansion
  • The following timelines to onboarding are advised:

Remote.com: remote.com onboarding timeline

Country Working days
Denmark 3
Hungary 4
Italy 3
Sweden 3
Luxembourg 4
Switzerland 8

Global Expansion:

Processing contracts for candidates hired via Global Expansion could take up to 10 bueisness days.

Country Working days
Austria 10 business days
Chile 10 business days
Costa Rica 10 business days
Kenya 10 business days
Latvia 10 business days
Mexico 10 business days
Philippines 10 business days
South Africa 10 business days
UAE 10 business days

Global Upside:

Country Working days
India 10-14 business days

Papaya

Processing for Italy (Dirigenti) could take up to a month, so we recommend start dates at least 6 weeks after the offer is generated.

Additional Resources

Candidate Experience Specialist Responsibilities
This page is an overview of the processes, and systems that the Candidate Experience Team is responsible for.
Candidate Handbook Page
This page outlines what hiring looks like at GitLab. We share the latest information about our processes and practices to ensure you have the information you need to feel confident during the interview process.
Conducting a GitLab Interview
Helpful information about how to prepare and conduct interviews for GitLab
Interviewer Prep Requirements
Learn more about the tools required to prepare you for interviewing at GitLab
Job Families
Job families are organized by function at GitLab and we use them to inform candidates of roles and current team members to evaluate their performance.
Referral Operations
This page is for information regarding the backend process of the Referral Process.
Referral Program and Process
While GitLab’s Referral program is fairly straight-forward, there are some nuances to be mindful of. Please take a moment to review the program rules outlined below before submitting a referral through Greenhouse to ensure eligibility.
Last modified August 30, 2025: Update Hiring Parent Page (102c04ad)
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