Jane Gianoutsos - Manager, Support Engineering · APAC Region

I welcome all feedback and you're very welcome to contribute by opening a merge request.

About me

I live in Auckland, New Zealand, with my husband and the very pleasing company of native birds in our neighbourhood. I've been at GitLab since 2020.

I came to IT via an uninspiring physics teacher (goodbye astrophysics dreams) and an inspiring computer science lecturer at university — and it's felt like home ever since. I love people and their stories: how they've arrived where they are, and where they're heading.

I'm a serial hobbyist. Right now that mostly means speed puzzling — I'm genuinely not very fast, but I love it anyway. I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, and I'm a self-confessed coffee snob and confident cook.

My leadership philosophy

I made a clear decision writing this to be intentionally vulnerable. Trust is earned, and I hope this gives you a basis for why you might trust me, and a sense of what a good working relationship with me looks like.

I believe the magic is in the together — that average people, working brilliantly as a team, can outperform almost any collection of individual stars. That's not accidental. It's the result of shared language, psychological safety, good habits, and real connection.

My job, as I see it, is to build and protect those conditions.

That means I pay as much attention to how a team functions as to what it produces. I care about whether people understand each other, trust each other, and feel safe enough to raise problems early. I care about whether we have consistent practices that reduce cognitive load, and whether the systems we work inside actually support the behaviour we want to see. I think of this as organisation design, even when it shows up as an onboarding doc, a team ritual, or a conversation about a ticket closure habit.

What I'm good at

Order from chaos. I build frameworks, shared language, and models that help teams make sense of their own work — not as bureaucracy, but as scaffolding for better judgment and consistency.

Minimising mental gymnastics. When something isn't working, I look for why the habit isn't sticking before I reach for enforcement. I'd rather design a mechanism that's easy to follow naturally than one people have to think their way around.

Building safety and connection deliberately. Distributed teams need social architecture. I invest in it explicitly — connection rituals, low-pressure ways for people to know each other, structured reflection — because belonging is a reciprocal act, not a passive one.

Flexible perspective. I'm comfortable working at multiple levels at once — the human, the behavioural, the operational. I can sit with you in the detail of a specific ticket or a tricky conversation, and then zoom out to what it tells us about how the system is working. I find the connection between those levels interesting, not exhausting.

What I'm working on

I tend to do a lot of work quietly and close to the ground. I'm actively working on narrating the why and so what of that work more explicitly — making the strategic value visible to people who aren't close to it. If you can see me doing something useful but can't quite articulate why it matters, call it out. I'll take it as a gift, not a criticism.

About working together

What's going on in your life doesn't stop because you're at work. Please don't feel you can't talk about something because it's not work-related. Life is messy — let's work together to make it a little easier.

I deeply respect your dignity and I count it a privilege to do a little bit of life with you.

I'm very at ease with emotion. I don't attach shame to tears — some things just need that release, and it's part of being fully human.

I invest a lot in understanding myself — anxiety, emotional complexity, and the ongoing work of building a better approach to life are all familiar territory. I'm also learning to appreciate the ways I'm wired differently, and I live with a physical disability (cauda equina syndrome) and very special eyesight! I'm passionate about neurodiversity, identity, accessibility, and belonging — not just as ideals, but as things I navigate personally. I welcome chatting and learning together.

What I assume about you:

• honesty — I'll take you at your word
• you want to contribute work that is satisfying and that you are proud of
• you're bringing the best you can on any given day, and that will fluctuate
• you've got more going on than I know about, or perhaps than you realise yourself You can assume the same about me.

How to communicate with me

I'm usually online around 10am NZT, though I try to avoid meetings for the first 30 minutes to clear overnight messages and be a bit more human first. I'm still available during that time.

I seek to finish work by 6:30pm NZT for my own wellbeing. On-call responsibilities sometimes extend that, but I limit activity after 6:30pm to those needs.

I don't like being expected to read between the lines — and I don't expect that of you either. Please be as open and direct as you feel comfortable being. If that's hard right now, let me know and we can work it out together.

I ask a lot of questions. Not to be difficult — because good questions do more work than quick answers. If I ask something you weren't expecting, I'm trying to understand your reasoning, not interrogate your conclusion.

I care deeply, and I've come to believe that directness is one of the kindest things you can offer someone. Vagueness might feel safer, but it rarely is.

What I need from you

Tell me what's actually going on. I can't help with things I don't know about. I'd rather hear hard things early than have them surface late.

Push back on me. If I've framed something in a way that doesn't fit your experience, say so. I change my mind regularly and I'm not attached to being right.

Be patient with the quiet work. Some of what I do takes time to become visible — rituals, shared language, habit change. If you're not sure what I'm working on or why, please ask.

I'm excited to see what we can build together!