Director, Enterprise Architecture & Intelligent Automation - Gitlab - Remote, US

As the Director, Enterprise Architecture and AI Intelligent Automation (IA), you will define and govern how GitLab's internal systems connect, integrate, and evolve to support our rapidly scaling business. Reporting to the VP, Business Systems, you will lead our Enterprise Architecture, Integration, & RPA teams, setting the architectural standards, governance frameworks, and strategic vision that keep our technology landscape coherent, scalable, and aligned with business objectives. This role is both deeply strategic and hands-on: you will shape the long-term architecture while staying close enough to the work to guide critical technical decisions across teams. You will establish and lead our Architecture Review Board, partnering early and often with system owners so architecture becomes an enabler rather than a gate. You will rationalize our automation and integration landscape, clarify when to use AI, RPA, or traditional integration, reduce shadow IT and software sprawl, and drive clear patterns for data flows and system-of-record designations. Define and drive GitLab's enterprise architecture strategy, setting clear principles and patterns for how internal systems connect, integrate, and scale across platforms like Salesforce, NetSuite, Zuora, Workato, and other core business applications. Establish and lead GitLab's Architecture Review Board, engaging early with system owners and project teams to shape technical approaches, guide integration patterns, and ensure architectural decisions align with enterprise standards and business objectives including applying business capability & EA framework such as TOGAF. Design and govern integration architectures and data flow patterns, including API-first approaches, point-to-point integrations, and data warehouse and reverse ETL models, in close partnership with Data Governance and other cross-functional stakeholders. Create and execute a cohesive automation strategy that spans agentic AI, robotic process automation (RPA), and traditional integration technologies, rationalizing existing investments and defining clear decision frameworks for tool selection. Lead efforts to reduce shadow IT and software sprawl by implementing software governance processes, partnering with system owners to centralize fragmented solutions, eliminate redundant capabilities, and reduce technical debt and unnecessary spend. Ensure enterprise, integration, and IA architectures meet SOX compliance and security requirements, including robust access controls, data governance, and audit-ready integration patterns that balance risk management with business agility. Align decentralized system roadmaps with enterprise architecture strategy, systematically identify and address technical debt, and provide hands-on technical leadership and mentorship to Integration, RPA, and IA Engineering teams to elevate architectural thinking and execution.