https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/structure/

> GitLab has at most eight layers in the company structure (Associate/Intermediate/Senior, Manager/Staff, Senior Manager/Principal, Director/Distinguished, Senior Director, VP/Fellow, Executives, Board).

> [...] You can skip layers but you generally never have someone reporting to the same layer (Example of a VP reporting to a VP).

So they're counting the board of directors as a layer above the CEO.

I'm speculating, but they probably also have an unbalanced tree - you'll often see the IT security chief reporting directly to the CEO (because it's important to keep on top of, and they need authority to do their job) but only having 50 people below them in the org chart.

In some corporations you also sometimes get almost-nonexistent ranks created to smooth over a reorganisation. If a level 5 bureaucrat decides to merge the departments of two of their level 4 bureaucrats, they could demote one of them. Or they could make one into a level 4.5 bureaucrat.

Gitlab has approx. 2300 employees (!)

I never really got why they need to be a public company in the first place.

They have 2800 employees with 5-10 reports per manager.