Manager, Solutions Architect

About the role

You will lead a team of Solutions Architects supporting customers across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Eastern Europe from a remote base in Germany. This role is a player-coach position where you will guide technical sales strategy for complex deals while actively participating in high-impact opportunities to ensure technical success and build customer trust in the GitLab DevSecOps platform. You will translate the company vision into regional execution, ensuring that technical capabilities align with customer business outcomes. The position requires balancing hands-on solution design with leadership responsibilities to drive both team and customer success. You will act as a critical bridge between customer needs and GitLab's product and engineering capabilities. Success in this role depends on your ability to foster trust, demonstrate expertise, and scale the impact of the Solutions Architecture function across a diverse region.

Key facts

What you'll do

Manage and guide a team of Solutions Architects across Central & Eastern Europe, setting clear objectives, performance expectations, and ensuring high-quality delivery against strategic goals.

Act as a player-coach by directly contributing to strategic customer engagements, fostering executive relationships, and mentoring the team through complex sales cycles to achieve technical wins and measurable business value.

Define and drive the regional strategy for technical evaluations, customer workshops, product demonstrations, and proof-of-concept projects, ensuring customer needs are translated into tangible technical and business value.

Collaborate closely with global Solutions Architecture, Sales, Channel, Marketing, Sales Enablement, and Product Management teams to align on priorities, messaging, and execution of regional objectives.

Oversee dotted-line relationships with Channel Solutions Architects and subject matter experts to promote collaboration, knowledge sharing, and shared goals across partner organizations.

Maintain operational rigor in areas such as workload planning, resource allocation, headcount forecasting, and opportunity pipeline management to ensure team efficiency and effectiveness.

Establish and monitor key performance indicators for the team, communicating progress, risks, and priorities transparently to team members, peers, and senior leadership.

Recruit, develop, and retain high-performing Solutions Architects, enhancing team capabilities, fostering innovation, and building a scalable regional organization that supports long-term growth.

Leverage AI tools as part of daily workflows to increase efficiency, derive insight, and enhance customer engagement during technical discussions and solution design.

Ensure compliance with GitLab travel policies and business needs when planning and executing activities that require in-person presence across the region.

Requirements

Experience managing technical teams in software or technology sales, pre-sales, consulting, or a similar field within Central Europe, demonstrating an understanding of regional market dynamics.

Solid background in solution architecture or equivalent practical experience, with the ability to connect technical details to customer business value and apply transferable skills from related domains.

Proven ability to develop, mentor, and scale Solutions Architecture practices or similar customer-facing technical organizations within growing companies or fast-paced environments.

Strong communication and technical presentation skills, with the capacity to engage effectively with diverse cultural backgrounds and adapt messaging for both technical and business stakeholders.

Demonstrated business acumen and sound judgment, balancing technical expertise with commercial objectives, pricing considerations, and regional priorities.

Experience influencing cross-functional stakeholders and building strong partnerships across Sales, Channel, Marketing, Enablement, Product, and other senior leadership groups to drive alignment.

Experience building inclusive, high-performing teams and establishing clear, accountable operating procedures in a distributed or remote setting, ensuring collaboration without co-location.

A genuine interest in Artificial Intelligence, with a practice of incorporating AI tools into daily work for increased efficiency and insight, and an understanding of how this approach can enhance customer engagement and solution quality.

Ability and willingness to travel as required by business needs and GitLab's travel policy, ensuring appropriate coverage across the region for key initiatives.

Commitment to maintaining data security and confidentiality in all customer interactions and internal discussions, aligning with GitLab standards and regional regulations.

Nice to have

None specified.

Practical notes

GitLab provides comprehensive benefits, flexible paid time off, Team Member Resource Groups, equity compensation, a growth and development fund, parental leave, and home office support.

We encourage applications from candidates with varied experience levels. If you are enthusiastic about this role, please apply, and our recruiters will assess your qualifications.