Director, Support (EMEA)

GitLab is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps. GitLab enables organizations to increase developer productivity, improve operational efficiency, reduce security and compliance risk, and accelerate digital transformation. More than 50 million registered users and more than 50% of the Fortune 100* trust GitLab to ship better, more secure software faster. The same principles built into our products are reflected in how our team works: we embrace AI as a core productivity multiplier, with all team members expected to incorporate AI into their daily workflows to drive efficiency, innovation, and impact. GitLab is where careers accelerate, innovation flourishes, and every voice is valued. Our high-performance culture is driven by our values and continuous knowledge exchange, enabling our team members to reach their full potential while collaborating with industry leaders to solve complex problems. Co-create the future with us as we build technology that transforms how the world develops software. * Fortune 500® is a registered trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, used under license. Claim based on GitLab data. Fortune 100 refers to the top 20% ranked companies in the 2025 Fortune 500 list, published in June 2025. Fortune and Fortune Media IP Limited are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of GitLab. An overview of this role As Director, Support Engineering for EMEA, you'll manage an experienced, distributed team serving enterprise customers across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Reporting to the Vice President of Support Engineering, you'll own the region's people strategy, operational delivery, and customer support outcomes while building a healthy team that delivers a strong customer experience. You'll bring deep experience managing multi-country teams, operating across time zones, and shaping enterprise technical support in an AI-first environment. As a member of the global Support Engineering management group, you'll work with peer managers across the Americas and Asia-Pacific to improve service delivery, regional coordination, and GitLab's global support strategy. What you’ll do Manage the full people agenda for the EMEA Support Engineering team, including performance, career development, succession planning, retention, internal mobility, and team culture across multiple countries. Manage managers and senior contributors across EMEA time zones, setting clear expectations and supporting consistent performance. Partner with the EMEA People Business Partner on employment considerations across jurisdictions, including Works Council engagement where applicable. Own regional service-level target performance, customer satisfaction, ticket quality, resolution outcomes, escalation workflows, and reporting against global key performance indicators. Improve shift handoffs and Request for Help coordination with Product Engineering and Support Engineering hubs in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Bengaluru. Oversee EMEA's adoption and ongoing improvement of GitLab's AI toolchain, working with Support Operations and Strategy on tooling, data insights, capacity planning, and staffing management. Represent the needs of EMEA customers inside GitLab by identifying field patterns, escalating systemic product issues, influencing the product roadmap, and joining customer or partner conversations that require executive support. Shape global Support Engineering strategy with peer managers, including geographic coverage, quality standards, knowledge exchange, the operating model, annual planning, headcount modeling, and the regional roadmap. What you’ll bring Progressive experience in technical support engineering or a related customer-facing technical discipline. Experience managing managers, senior contributors, and distributed teams through a manager-of-managers structure. Experience managing multi-country teams in EMEA, with knowledge of employment considerations, cultural differences, and communicatio