UX Architect

UX Architect Roles at GitLab

At GitLab, UX Architects collaborate closely with product designers, product managers, engineers, and technical writers to ensure cohesive, scalable, and systematic user experiences across the platform. They focus on the high level interaction models, information architecture, workflows, and usability heuristics that shape how users interact holistically with the product.

UX Architects take a strategic, birds-eye view of the overall GitLab product while also contributing hands-on, ensuring that information architecture and system behaviors support a unified and intuitive user experience. They establish system-wide principles that guide teams in delivering consistent, high-quality UX solutions across different product areas.

Base Requirements

• Deep understanding of information architecture principles and methodologies.
• Several years of experience architecting complex enterprise software systems.
• Strong technical background with ability to understand system capabilities and constraints.
• Proven experience using data and research to formulate logical business recommendations.
• Demonstrated ability to balance strategic thinking with the urgency to drive work forward.
• Applied expertise in technology, process, and workflows leveraged by product.
• Experience influencing cross-functional teams and prioritizing deliverables.
• Experience with taxonomy development and content modeling.
• Expertise in user flow mapping and system diagramming.
• Proven track record of documentation and technical writing.
• Strong understanding of accessibility standards and their architectural implications.
• Comfort working in a highly agile, iterative product development process.
• You share our values, and work in accordance with those values.
• Strong bias for action and ability to develop daily priorities to achieve goals.
• Proficiency in English language, both written and verbal, sufficient for success in a remote and largely asynchronous work environment.
• Working knowledge of Git workflows and DevOps principles.

Levels

UX Architect

A UX Architect is assigned to a stage group.

Job Grade

The UX Architect is a grade 6.

Responsibilities

• System Knowledge: Maintain deep understanding of the systems and features within your stage group. Act as a technical bridge by developing and applying technical understanding in design problem-solving.
• Quality and Consistency: Drive quality and consistency of UX across products through experience principles, design critiques, and audits.
• Information Architecture: Design and maintain the information architecture for your stage group’s area of the product in collaboration with engineers.
• Documentation: Create and maintain comprehensive documentation of architectural decisions and patterns.
• User Flows: Design and document end-to-end user flows that span multiple features.
• Technical Understanding: Work closely with engineering to understand technical constraints and possibilities.
• Accessibility: Ensure architectural decisions support accessibility requirements.
• Research Support: Partner with UX researchers to validate architectural decisions that impact the user experience.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with product designers, engineers, and product managers to ensure consistent implementation.

Requirements

A UX Architect is expected to meet the base requirements and execute their responsibilities with a commitment to results and agreed actions.

Senior UX Architect

A Senior UX Architect is assigned to a stage group with impact and influence across several groups.

Job Grade

The UX Architect is a grade 7.

Responsibilities

Everything in the UX Architect role, plus:

• System Knowledge: Have deep knowledge of systems within you stage group, and across the platform. Understand how different parts of the system interact.
• Information Architecture: Define and maintain information architecture patterns that can be applied across stage groups.
• Documentation: Create architectural guidelines and best practices that can be adopted across teams.
• User Flows: Design complex user flows that span multiple stage groups and systems.
• Technical Understanding: Provide architectural guidance that balances user needs with technical constraints.
• Mentoring: Guide other UX Architects and product designers in architectural best practices. Conduct design critiques with product designers to drive quality and consistency.
• Strategic Planning: Participate in strategic planning to ensure architectural considerations are addressed.
• Cross-stage Collaboration: Identify and resolve architectural inconsistencies between stage groups.

Requirements

A Senior UX Architect is expected to meet the base requirements and execute their responsibilities while modeling a sense of urgency and commitment to deliver results.

Staff UX Architect

A Staff UX Architect is assigned to company-wide initiatives, with exceptions made based on business needs.

Job Grade

The UX Architect is a grade 8.

Responsibilities

Everything in the Senior UX Architect role, plus:

• System Knowledge: Maintain comprehensive understanding of GitLab’s entire system architecture from a UX perspective. Nurture relationships with frontend and backend engineers to ensure a shared understanding of UX needs and technical constraints.
• Operational Excellence: Drive maturity of UX operations through advancing efficiencies in design processes, tools, and documented standards. Lead by example in balancing rigor with a rapid build-test-learn approach.
• Information Architecture: Define and evolve GitLab’s overall information architecture strategy.
• Documentation: Create and maintain high-level architectural vision documents and roadmaps.
• Pattern Governance: Evolve processes for architectural patterns and decisions.
• Technical Leadership: Partner with frontend and backend development to align UX and technical architecture.
• Innovation: Research and recommend new architectural approaches and methodologies.
• Mentoring: Provide mentorship and guidance to product designers and the UX architecture team.
• Strategic Vision: Help define and maintain GitLab’s long-term UX architecture vision.
• Industry Leadership: Represent GitLab’s UX architecture practices in the broader industry.

Requirements

A Staff UX Architect is expected to meet the base requirements and execute their responsibilities while coaching team members and driving architectural excellence across the organization.

Performance Indicators

System Usability Scale (SUS) score User Satisfaction (USAT) score Experience Baselines Experience Baseline Scores

Hiring Process

Candidates can expect the hiring process to follow the order below, although it can change depending on calendar availability.

• Recruiter Call (30 minutes)
  • Screening call to discuss experience, assess basic qualifications and communications skills.
  • Quickly align on compensation expectations and availability.
  • Discuss experience working at a system-wide or cross-product scale.
  • Learn why you want to join GitLab.
• Hiring Manager interview (1 hour)
  • Deep review of portfolio, examining case studies and methodologies.
  • Focus on decision-making process, problem-solving approaches, and experience working across multiple products or workflows.
  • Discuss research methodologies and how they influence IA decisions.
  • Understand approach to scalable architecture.
  • Discuss research methodologies and how they influence IA decisions and/or usability heuristics.
• PM and Engineering interview (50 minutes)
  • Focus on collaboration with product and engineering teams.
  • Determine skills alignment with stage group.
  • In-depth discussion of 2-3 key portfolio projects.
  • Discuss experience balancing UX needs with product and engineering constraints.
• Product Designer interview (50 minutes)
  • Focus on the ability to collaborate with designers with real-world examples.
  • Discuss how UX heuristics and IA decisions impact product design outcomes.
  • Review examples of working with designers to implement an IA or other related project.
• Senior Product Design Manager interview (1 hour)
  • Evaluate leadership and influence in system-wide UX strategy.
  • Discuss ability to mentor and guide teams in best practices.
  • Explore vision and discuss contribution to GitLab’s overall experience strategy.

Candidates should be prepared to:

• Present examples of complex system architecture work.
• Discuss methodology for tackling large-scale information architecture challenges.
• Show strong technical understanding and ability to collaborate with engineering.
• Explain approaches to architectural decision-making and documentation.
• Share examples of influencing design and engineering teams across an organization.

 

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About GitLab

GitLab is an open core software company that develops the most comprehensive AI-powered DevSecOps Platform, used by more than 100,000 organizations. Our mission is to enable everyone to contribute to and co-create the software that powers our world. When everyone can contribute, consumers become contributors, significantly accelerating the rate of human progress. This mission is integral to our culture, influencing how we hire, build products, and lead our industry. We make this possible at GitLab by running our operations on our product and staying aligned with our values. Learn more about Life at GitLab. Thanks to products like Duo Enterprise, and Duo Workflow, customers get the benefit of AI at every stage of the SDLC. The same principles built into our products are reflected in how our team works: we embrace AI as a core productivity multiplier. All team members are encouraged and expected to incorporate AI into their daily workflows to drive efficiency, innovation, and impact across our global organisation.

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