Global Workforce Strategy

Global Workforce Strategy forms part of the People Operations Team at GitLab and directly responsible for contributing to our International expansion efforts. This team will be collaborating very closely with Total Rewards, Finance, Legal, Recruiting and the People Operations team. It will also involve key stakeholder relationship management and enabling our PEO’s.

Global Workforce Strategy Specialist

The Global Workforce Strategy Specialist reports to the Manager, Global Workforce Strategy

Job Grade

The Global Workforce Strategy Specialist is a grade 6.

Responsibilities

Handling all country conversions from Contractor to Professional Employer Org or Professional Employer Org to Entity. This is a key focus globally in this position and includes collaboration with the overall international expansion team and various stakeholders.
Manage the full cycle of the relocation process and liaise with other teams as necessary (with support from the People Connect team on contract and administrative changes).
Engage with co-employer’s and PEO’s on a regular basis, especially during onboarding within those regions.
Managing all sponsorship requests, including for new hires and existing team members in the Netherlands (with support from People Associate team on contract and administrative changes).
Proactively identify new locations GitLab can successfully sponsor in and collaborate with internal stakeholders to ensure it is a viable business case.
Along with the International Expansion team, supporting setting up new entities globally.
Quarterly overview and reporting on relocations
Quarterly overview and reporting on Country Conversions
The ability to work autonomously and to drive your own performance & development would be important in this role.
Continue to improve the engagement with our PEO’s and team member experience.
Proactively identify process inefficiencies and inconsistencies and collaborate towards an improved and more productive process that improves the employee and/or manager’s experience.
Announcing changes and improvements in the #whats-happening-at-gitlab Slack channel

Requirements

The ability to work autonomously and to drive your own performance & development would be important in this role.
Prior extensive experience in an HR or People Operations or International Expansion role.
Clear understanding of HR laws in one or multiple countries where GitLab is active.
Willingness to work odd hours when needed (for example, to call an embassy in a different continent).
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Exceptional customer service skills.
Team player who can jump in and support the team on a variety of topics and tasks.
Enthusiasm for and broad experience with software tools.
Proven experience quickly learning new software tools.
Willing to work with git and GitLab whenever possible.
Willing to make People Operations as open and transparent as possible.
Proven organizational skills with high attention to detail and the ability to prioritize.
You share our values, and work in accordance with those values.
The ability to work in a fast-paced environment with attention to detail is essential.
High sense of urgency and accuracy.
Bachelor’s degree or 2 years related experience.
Experience at a growth-stage tech company is preferred.
Ability to use GitLab

Global Workforce Strategy Analyst

The Global Workforce Strategy Analyst reports to the Manager, Global Workforce Strategy.

As a Global Workforce Strategy Analyst at GitLab, you will play a crucial role in our global workforce strategy, helping us navigate the complexities of hiring compliantly in business priority locations. You will be the bridge between our ambitious business goals and the practical realities of global operations, ensuring we can establish and maintain compliant employment solutions in strategic regions. In this role, You will have the opportunity to create scalable solutions that ensure compliant employment practices in our business priority locations. You’ll build relationships with key stakeholders across People, Legal, Finance, and Tax teams, as well as external vendors and partners, to develop efficient pathways for compliant hiring. Your analytical skills will be put to good use as you assess compliance requirements, evaluate employment options, and recommend optimal solutions for each strategic location. The challenges are varied and exciting – from researching employment laws in business priority locations, to streamlining processes for entity setup, to ensuring our team members have a smooth transition when their employment structure changes. Your work will directly impact GitLab’s ability to hire compliantly in strategic regions, supporting our business objectives while maintaining full compliance with local requirements.

Job Grade

The Global Workforce Strategy Analyst is a grade 7.

Global Workforce Strategy Analyst Responsibilities

Responsible for ensuring excellent team member experience and compliance standards are met when discussing implementation in a new hiring location.
Support all country conversions and transition between employee types such as contractor, professional employment organization, to regular full time employment. Contribute and develop documentation required to support the program needs and ensure country hiring lists and restrictions are accurate.
Build and maintain relationships with external vendors, PEOs, and legal partners to ensure quality service delivery and compliance.
Proactively identify process inefficiencies and inconsistencies and collaborate towards an improved and more productive process that improves the employee and/or manager’s experience.
Serve as a trusted advisor to People teams, providing guidance on employment structures, compliance requirements, and global mobility solutions.
Support existing team members through employment transitions, communicating changes clearly and addressing concerns with empathy
Create and maintain documentation in our handbook to ensure transparency around our global expansion processes and accuracy of country hiring lists and restrictions.
Contribute in consolidation of necessary information and documentation for country-specific offerings and requirements based on team member feedback.
Assist with partner communications between Legal and Tax teams on international employment and contractual requirements Support PEO vendor selection process by gathering data and participating in vendor evaluations.
Announce changes and improvements as needed across the organization.

Global Workforce Strategy Analyst Requirements

The ability to work autonomously and to drive your own performance and development.
Prior extensive experience in global workforce strategy, international HR, or global mobility roles, with knowledge of various employment structures (entities, PEOs, contractors).
Strong analytical skills with the ability to research complex compliance requirements and synthesize findings into actionable recommendations.
Ability to understand the broader People Team strategy to develop flexible solutions that meet business needs.
Excellent project management capabilities, with a proven track record of managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment
Experience building relationships with external vendors and internal stakeholders across functions.
Knowledge of international employment laws, tax considerations, and compliance requirements (breadth is valued over depth).
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex topics in clear, accessible language.
Experience with process improvement and documentation, with a focus on creating scalable solutions.
Exceptional customer service skills.
Experience working in an all-remote environment and thrive in ambiguity.
Experience with tools is plus: Greenhouse, Workday, GitLab and Culture Amp.

Manager, Global Workforce Strategy

The Manager, Global Workforce Strategy reports to the Director, People Operations.

Job Grade

The Manager, Global Workforce Strategy is a grade 8.

Manager, Global Workforce Strategy Responsibilities

Establish performance expectations and development opportunities for direct reports.
Drive global workforce expansion strategy using evidence-based decision trees, coordinating with key cross-functional partners.
Implement strategic planning initiatives for all country conversions and transition between employee types such as contractor, professional employment organization, to regular full time employment.
Act as subject matter expert regarding vendor processes, program, and policy knowledge to assist team members.
Responsible for ensuring excellent team member experience and compliance standards are met when discussing implementation in a new hiring location.
Influence the implementation of country specific offerings and services based on team member feedback.
Accountable for ensuring high-quality and accuracy of documentation to support the program needs and ensure country hiring lists and restrictions are accurate.
Partner with the Legal and Tax team on international employment and contractual reviews, changes and requirements.
Evaluate and recommend business justifications for workforce expansion in critical hiring countries in partnership with the International Expansion team.
Create workforce strategy roadmaps aligned with business objectives.
Oversee the vendor for immigration questions and counsel while building self-service content regarding immigration questions/processes.
Makes independent judgment decisions regarding mobility questions and requests.
Serve as a trusted advisor with various cross-functional teams to execute program initiatives and policies to scale.
Lead and influence business cases for new market entries or workforce model changes.
Analyze ROI of workforce investments and propose optimization strategies.
Independently manage the PEO vendor selection through RFP/RFI’s, and ensure vendor QBR’s are conducted.
Design & Implement governance frameworks for workforce programs.
Manage escalation pathways for complex workforce issues.
Constantly identify process inefficiencies and inconsistencies and collaborate towards an improved and more productive process that improves the team member and/or manager experience.
Ensure transparency and collaboration by announcing changes and improvements as needed across the organization.
Understand our broader People Team strategy and processes to architect, develop and implement scalable, flexible solutions that are extensible to our business needs.

Manager, Global Workforce Strategy Requirements

The ability to work autonomously and to drive your own performance and development.
Strong leadership skills with experience managing and developing team members.
Prior extensive experience in an International Expansion or within a Senior People Operations role.
Understands HR laws and can translate requirements and drive the solutions in one or multiple countries where GitLab is active.
Strong analytical abilities to solve complex problems with strong attention to detail and organization skills.
Strategic thinking abilities with a proven track record of developing workforce initiatives.
Experience building and maintaining relationships with senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.
Proficient in optimizing process and program with a keen understanding of the balance between structure and flexibility.
Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills.
Excellent organizational skills with high attention to detail and the ability to prioritize.
Exceptional customer service skills.The ability to work in a fast-paced environment and thrive in ambiguity.
Experience with the following tools is a plus: Greenhouse, Workday, GitLab and Culture Amp.

Career Ladder

The next step in the People Operations job family is to move to the People Operations and Leadership job family.

Hiring Process

Candidates for this position can expect the hiring process to follow the order below. Please keep in mind that candidates can be declined from the position at any stage of the process.

Qualified candidates will be invited to schedule a 30 minute screening call with one of our Global Recruiters.
Next, candidates will be invited to schedule a 45 minute interview with our Manager, People Connect.
After that, candidates will be invited to schedule a 30 minute interview with members of the People Operations and Global Workforce Strategy Team.
After that, candidates will be invited to interview with the Senior Director, People Operations.
Finally, a member of our e-team might request a final interview.

Additional details about our process can be found on our hiring page.

About GitLab

GitLab Inc. is a company based on the GitLab open-source project. GitLab is a community project to which over 2,200 people worldwide have contributed. We are an active participant in this community, trying to serve its needs and lead by example. We have one vision: everyone can contribute to all digital content, and our mission is to change all creative work from read-only to read-write so that everyone can contribute.

We value results, transparency, sharing, freedom, efficiency, self-learning, frugality, collaboration, directness, kindness, diversity, inclusion and belonging, boring solutions, and quirkiness. If these values match your personality, work ethic, and personal goals, we encourage you to visit our primer to learn more. Open source is our culture, our way of life, our story, and what makes us truly unique.

Top 10 Reasons to Work for GitLab:

Mission: Everyone can contribute
Results: Fast growth, ambitious vision
Flexible Work Hours: Plan your day so you are there for other people & have time for personal interests
Transparency: Over 2,000 webpages in GitLab handbook, GitLab Unfiltered YouTube channel
Iteration: Empower people to be effective & have an impact, Merge Request rate, We dogfood our own product, Directly responsible individuals
Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging: A focus on gender parity, Team Member Resource Groups, other initiatives
Collaboration: Kindness, saying thanks, intentionally organize informal communication, no ego
Total Rewards: Competitive market rates for compensation, Equity compensation, global benefits (inclusive of office equipment)
Work/Life Harmony: Flexible workday, Family and Friends days
Remote Done Right: One of the world's largest all-remote companies, prolific inventor of remote best practices

See our culture page for more!

Work remotely from anywhere in the world. Curious to see what that looks like? Check out our remote manifesto and guides.

Last modified March 25, 2025: Update file global-workforce-strategy.md (3bd2623d)

View page source - Edit this page - please contribute.