Senior Director - Professional Services

An overview of this role

As the Senior Director of Professional Services, you will be responsible for leading GitLab’s global services delivery across EMEA, ensuring customers realize the full value of our AI-powered DevSecOps platform. You’ll oversee a distributed team of managers, architects, engineers, and other services professionals, setting the vision and strategy for how we design and deliver consulting, implementation, training, and advisory services. Reporting to the VP, Global Professional Services (based in AMER), you’ll translate company goals into a clear services strategy, drive operational excellence, and own key delivery and financial outcomes for the region. In your first year, you’ll refine our delivery model, strengthen collaboration with Sales, Product, and Customer Support, and scale the organization in line with a fast-growing, subscription-based business. This is a unique opportunity to shape how GitLab customers adopt and expand GitLab, co-creating the future of DevSecOps with some of the world’s most innovative companies.

Some examples of our projects:

• Leading complex, multi-region implementation programs that accelerate adoption of GitLab across large enterprises

• Defining and improving sales/delivery methodologies, tooling, and best practices for our professional services teams

• Collaborating with Product and Engineering to align new service offerings with GitLab’s roadmap and customer needs

• Partnering with Sales to develop services-led go-to-market plans that drive renewals, expansions, and long-term customer success

What you'll do

• Lead the strategy, sales, delivery, and continuous improvement of GitLab’s Professional Services organization across EMEA, ensuring high-quality outcomes for customers and strong alignment with company objectives. 

• Partner closely with sales, customer success, support, and product teams to design and deliver services that accelerate adoption of GitLab’s AI-powered DevSecOps platform and drive customer value.

• Define, track, and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) for Professional Services, including bookings, utilization, delivery quality, customer satisfaction, and financial performance against the Professional Services profit and loss (P&L).

• Build and maintain strong executive-level relationships with key customers across EMEA, acting as a senior escalation point and trusted advisor to ensure successful outcomes, renewals, and expansions.

• Own the Professional Services portfolio and delivery lifecycle, from scoping and proposal through implementation, enablement, and post-go-live success, ensuring engagements meet contractual commitments and customer expectations.

• Work closely with product and engineering teams to ensure services offerings are aligned with GitLab’s roadmap, including on-premises, SaaS, and cloud deployments, and to provide structured feedback from customers.

• Manage and optimize resource planning, staffing models, and partner delivery strategies (including consulting and implementation partners) to deliver services efficiently and profitably at scale.

• Foster a culture of high performance, accountability, and learning within the Professional Services team, supporting career growth, mentoring leaders, and continuously improving delivery methodologies, processes, and tools.

What you'll bring

• Demonstrated progressive experience leading and delivering professional services in a technology or software company, including overseeing complex customer engagements from design through successful outcomes.

• Proven experience building and scaling a professional services business, including managing budgets and financial performance (for example, working with P&L and other key metrics).

• Experience leading technical, cross-functional professional services organizations (for example, consulting, implementation, training, project management, and delivery partners), with a focus on coaching managers and developing high-performing teams in a fast-paced, growing company.

• Strong background in subscription-based business models and delivering both on-premises and SaaS solutions, with a clear understanding of how services drive renewals, expansions, and customer success.

• Deep familiarity with software development lifecycle (SDLC), agile and DevOps practices, and modern software development tools and technologies (for example, Docker, Kubernetes, and major cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure).

• Strategic thinking and business acumen, with the ability to translate company goals into clear professional services strategies, offerings, and scalable delivery models.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships with senior customer stakeholders, internal executives, and cross-functional partners.

• Ability to operate autonomously in a fully remote, distributed, and asynchronous work environment, while remaining highly accountable to outcomes and able to travel up to 20 percent of the time if needed, in line with GitLab’s travel policy.

About the team

The Professional Services team at GitLab is dedicated to helping customers realize the full value of our platform through high quality consulting, implementation, and enablement services. We own the delivery and evolution of service offerings and delivery models that drive successful outcomes, accelerate adoption, and support long term customer success. Composed of experienced managers, architects, engineers, project managers, and other specialists distributed across multiple regions, we operate asynchronously to support customers globally and maintain continuous progress. We focus on delivering predictable, high impact engagements, fostering open communication with customers and internal teams, and adapting to the evolving needs of a fast growing, subscription based business.