Ajay Thomas

Ajay Thomas is an accomplished engineering manager with extensive experience in the technology sector. Currently serving as an Engineering Manager at GitLab since August 2025, Ajay leads a team focused on end user authorization solutions. Prior experience includes a role at dbt Labs, where Ajay founded and led the enterprise engineering team responsible for user identity and backend development for dbt Cloud. At Okta, Ajay contributed significantly to the Identity Engine team and developed zero-trust policy frameworks for adaptive risk-based authentication. Early career roles included a Technical Lead position at WinMagic, overseeing developers on key management and encryption projects, and co-founding CollegeMart, a web portal for student transactions. Ajay holds a Master's degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka.