Developer Relations Manager

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United Kingdom.

📋 Description

• Take charge of Ably's technical education program by creating quickstarts and guides that help developers tackle genuine AI challenges using Ably. This content will focus on practical application rather than just API usage, addressing the needs of senior engineers assessing Ably for production deployment rather than newcomers following introductory guides.

• Establish yourself as a credible figure within relevant communities and encourage collaboration with others. Identify the developer spaces where key practitioners congregate and engage authentically by sharing valuable knowledge, participating in technical discussions, and cultivating relationships. Create an environment (playbooks, prompts, and reducing friction) that facilitates genuine participation from Ably's engineers and product teams, ensuring that multiple credible voices represent Ably in key spaces.

• Gather and disseminate developer insights across Ably. As the link to developers before they sign up—through communities, events, and content—you will compile observations regarding recurring issues, framework community challenges related to the pain AIT addresses, common objections, and areas where Ably is lacking in discussions. This intelligence will be shared with DevEx, Product, AI Transport engineering, and sales and marketing teams, driving strategic decisions rather than account tracking. Your role will focus on identifying specific, actionable patterns, such as “three developers in the LangGraph community encountered reconnection failures at scale this month” or “the Temporal objection is consistently raised during evaluations,” which will influence sales priorities and guide documentation and DevEx efforts.

• Enhance documentation quality by collaborating with the DevEx and AI Transport engineering teams to ensure that technical content is accurate, structured for developer use, and easily interpretable by LLMs. Identify gaps highlighted by AI coding assistants during their attempts to implement Ably and advocate for necessary improvements.

⛳️ Requirements

• A technical background with the ability to write code against an API, comprehend technical architectures, and engage effectively in conversations with engineering teams.

• A proven history of producing technical writing that resonates with developers and encourages sharing, focusing on content that builds trust rather than documentation for its own sake.

• Experience in building or expanding a developer community, with a solid understanding of the factors that contribute to a healthy community versus merely a large one.

• A genuine understanding of the criteria developers use to evaluate and adopt new tools, particularly in the context of how AI assistants influence that process.

• A well-formed opinion on realtime infrastructure, AI development patterns, or developer experience that you are prepared to defend publicly.

• Sufficient knowledge of orchestration frameworks (specifically Temporal and Vercel) to clearly articulate the positioning of AIT’s transport and session layer in relation to state management and orchestration, as this objection frequently arises in technical evaluations and requires a credible technical response rather than a marketing-driven one.

• Experience integrating AI into your workflow for research, writing, content organization, and experimentation.

• Strong cross-functional instincts, enabling you to work collaboratively across marketing, product, and engineering without being solely aligned with any single team.

🏝️ Benefits

• A remote-first and flexible work environment. Our UK-based teams gather in person once a month in our London hub (located near Old Street) and connect as a company twice annually. Outside of these occasions, you are free to work from wherever suits you best.

• Equity options. As a growing start-up, we want all team members to partake in the company's success through our EMI share options program.

• Enhanced holiday allowance. Ablyans enjoy 28 days of paid annual leave (27 regular days plus an additional day to celebrate your birthday).

• Comprehensive parental leave package, allowing you the necessary time to bond with your new family member and recuperate.

• A home workstation budget of £500 upon joining (and £150 annually thereafter) to ensure your home office is well-equipped for comfortable work.

• An annual personal learning and development budget of £1000, along with 5% of your working hours dedicated to enhancing your skills.

• Private healthcare coverage through BUPA.

• A medical cash plan to help cover various medical and dental expenses.

• Mental wellbeing coaching and counseling services provided by Self Space.

• A monthly wellbeing budget via Juno.

• Life assurance and income protection benefits.

• Access to Tech & Cycle to Work schemes.

• A weekly snack allowance for our end-of-week “Need To Know” meeting.

• A fully-paid one-month sabbatical after five years with Ably.