GoKawiilWe've been working through some significant changes inside GitLab over the past few days, and I want to share them with you directly. The email I sent the team is included below for full context.
The agentic era affords GitLab the largest opportunity in our history as a company, and we're making the structural and strategic decisions to meet it.
This letter has three parts. First, the operational and structural news, which is hard. Second, the strategic thesis we're betting on. And finally, what this means specifically for you, our customers and investors.
The structural news
This morning we shared with team members that we're beginning a restructuring process at GitLab, and we're running it differently than most. The planning is happening openly, including a voluntary separation window. That creates real uncertainty for our team over the next few weeks, but we believe the outcome will be better for it. Where we can, we plan to finalize the new shape of the company on or before June 1. Where local requirements apply we will not make any changes until the local process is complete.
Four operational changes are part of the workforce reduction.
We're reevaluating our operational footprint, and are planning to reduce the number of countries by up to 30% where we have small teams. We'll continue serving customers in those markets through our partner network. We're planning to flatten the organization, removing up to three layers of management in some functions so leaders are closer to the work. We’re re-organizing R&D to create roughly 60 smaller, more empowered teams with end-to-end ownership, nearly doubling the number of independent teams. We're rewiring internal processes with AI agents, automating the reviews, approvals, and handoffs to speed us up, and plan to right-size roles across the company to follow suit.
Operational changes and the update to our strategy are happening together: they are related but independent. Operationally, we grew into a shape that was right for the last era and isn't right for this one. The strategy below is what we're betting on next, and stands on its own.
We are reaffirming our Q1 and full year FY27 guidance today. The final scope and financial impact of the restructuring will be shared on our June 2 earnings call, once we’ve finished the plan and received approval by our board.
Our Core Beliefs
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