Developer Relations Manager

Our everyday digital experiences are in the midst of a realtime revolution. Whether chatting alongside a livestreaming event receiving realtime financial information or working with colleagues in an online collaborative environment - consumers simply expect realtime digital experiences as standard. At Ably were not just witnessing this revolution were powering it - at scale.

At the heart of our mission lies a commitment to putting developers first. Ably provides a suite of products to build extend and deliver powerful digital experiences in realtime delivering billions of messages for millions of devices every day and supporting organizations like Harness EA Panasonic and HubSpot.

Working at Ably means helping to build the infrastructure and technology that will power and shape the future of the internet. The opportunity in front of us is immense. And wed like your help.

About this role

Developers increasingly choose infrastructure through direct evaluation peer recommendation and what AI assistants tell them - not search rankings alone. Were looking for a Developer Relations Manager to build Ablys presence trust and credibility with developers evaluating Ably AI Transport. Youll sit within the Marketing team working closely with Developer Experience and Product.

This is a foundational role; Ably hasnt had a dedicated DevRel function in some time and youll be building it back up from the ground. Youll be the voice of the developer inside Ably and the voice of Ably to developers: understanding whats genuinely driving or blocking adoption and using that to shape our community presence technical content and product conversations. Youll use AI to move faster across research writing and experimentation and you already have a credible voice in developer circles. At Ably youll help create the conditions for our engineers and product people to build theirs too.

Day to day you will

• Be the feedback loop between developers and Ably. Youll talk to developers evaluating and using Ably AI Transport - through community engagement conversations and events - and turn what you hear into clear specific input for Product and Engineering. Things like reconnection failures keep coming up in the LangGraph community or the Temporal objection keeps recurring across evaluations are the kind of signal that changes what we prioritise and how we talk about the product.
• Build a genuine presence in the Temporal and Vercel communities. Youll show up where the right practitioners already gather: contributing real knowledge engaging in technical debate building relationships. Youll also help create the conditions for Ablys engineers and product people to participate authentically alongside you.
• Turn insight into technical education. Youll write guides and demos that help developers solve real problems with Ably. Content will be specific honest about failure modes and written for the senior engineer evaluating Ably for production use.
• Help improve documentation quality. Youll work with the DevEx and AI Transport engineering teams to keep technical content accurate and easy for developers (and AI coding assistants) to use and flag the gaps that get in the way.

What success looks like

• Clear specific developer feedback that visibly shapes what Product and Engineering build and prioritise and in turn helps marketing and commercial teams tune messaging
• A credible genuinely engaged presence in the Temporal community growing into Vercel and other framework communities.
• Technical content and demos grounded in real developer insight that get shared without prompting and drive self-serve signups.
• Ably showing up accurately when developers ask AI assistants to support technical evaluations and builds.

Wed love to talk if you have

• Previous DevRel developer marketing or developer education experience at a developer-first infrastructure company.
• A technical background: you can write real code against an API read a technical architecture and hold your own in a conversation with an engineering team.
• Experience engaging directly with developers and turning what you hear into specific actionable insight that changes what a product or engineering team does next.
• Experience building or growing a developer community with a clear sense of what makes one healthy versus what makes one large.
• A genuine understanding of how developers evaluate and adopt new tools including how AI assistants now shape that process.
• A track record of technical writing that developers actually read and share and a natural inclination to voice your thinking in public (guides opinions technical takes). You love putting your work and ideas out there - its just how you operate not something a role has to ask of you.
• A point of view on realtime infrastructure and AI development patterns backed by enough technical depth to hold a credible conversation about where AI Transports session layer sits relative to orchestration frameworks like Temporal.
• Strong cross-functional instincts; comfortable collaborating across Product Engineering and commercial teams.

Bonus points if you have

• An existing developer audience: a blog newsletter YouTube channel or social following thats genuinely engaged.
• Direct experience with WebSocket infrastructure pub/sub or realtime APIs or building AI products that need streaming and session management.

Whats it like to work at Ably

Were tackling planet-scale problems and our ambitions are a testament to that. Youll join a successful deeply motivated and collaborative team that thrives on innovation experimentation and autonomy. To get a sense of life at Ably visit our careers can also read about the origins of Ablys core values on our blog.

We believe in fostering a culture thats built on inclusivity and mutual respect among all team members and we recognise that each individual is different and will want to be supported in their role in different ways. We provide a range of perks and benefits to aid folks development and wellbeing allowing them to be their best selves and do great work.

• A remote-first and flexible work -based teams come together in person once per month in our London hub (next to Old Street) and we get together as a company twice per year. Aside from that youre welcome to work wherever suits best for you.
• Equity. Were a growing start-up and we want all team to members to share in the success of the company through our EMI share options programme.
• Enhanced holiday allowance. Our policy provides Ablyans with 28 days of paid annual leave (27 regular days plus a day off to enjoy your birthday).
• Enhanced parental leave package so that you can take the time you need to get to know your new family member rest and recover.
• Home workstation budget of 500 on joining (and 150 p/a thereafter) so that your home office is set up to serve you well and that you have everything you need to work comfortably.
• Personal learning and development budget of 1000 annually and 5% L&D time during working hours to focus on improving your skillset.
• Private healthcare with BUPA.
• Medical cash plan to cover a range medical and dental costs.
• Mental wellbeing coaching and counselling from Self Space.
• Monthly wellbeing budget via Juno.
• Life assurance and income protection.
• Access to Tech & Cycle to Work schemes.
• Weekly snack allowance for our end-of-week Need To Know meeting.
• A fully-paid one-month sabbatical after five years with Ably.

Diversity Inclusion & Belonging at Ably

We believe our differences as individuals is what makes us great. Our people are at the heart of what we do and we encourage everyone to be their most authentic self at Ably: we see inclusivity and openness as fundamental to creating long-term success as an organization. We encourage applications from all backgrounds regardless of age disability gender sexual orientation parental status race religion educational background or neurodiversity. Ably has an amazing opportunity ahead of us and we want anyone to be able to contribute to that opportunity.

If you enjoy working as part of a technology company value open source and love solving hard problems - then wed love to hear from you regardless of whether you fit the job description exactly or not. If in doubt drop us an email; wed be more than happy to give you some advice on your application.

Required Experience:

Manager

Employment Type : Full-Time
Experience: years
Vacancy: 1