Ably · London
Technical Lead, Developer Experience
Our everyday digital experiences are in the midst of a realtime revolution. Whether chatting alongside a livestreaming event, receiving realtime financial infor...
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 we’re not just witnessing this revolution, we’re 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 we’d like your help.
ABOUT THIS ROLE
As the Technical Lead for Developer Experience at Ably you will report directly to our CTO and co-own the DevEx vision and
strategy, transforming our dashboard, documentation platform, and control plane into a world-class experience. You are a senior,
hands-on engineer who’s passionate about building for developers like yourself; someone who’ll obsess over the developer journey
and elevate the user experience of the Ably platform.
You’ll blend deep full-stack expertise with a strong product mindset and lead a team of five engineers where the feedback loop is
immediate, because you and your team are the target users of the very ecosystem you are building.
DAY TO DAY YOU WILL
- Obsess over developer experience. You’ll have broad responsibility for elevating how developers interact with Ably’s platform
and services, partnering with the DevEx PM as a unified leadership team to deliver a developer experience that becomes a
reference point for the industry.
- Lead technical execution and vision. You’ll lead a team of five engineers building customer-facing web applications and own the
technical architecture and design decisions for our dashboard, docs platform, marketing website, and billing UI.
- Drive a product-first engineering culture. You’ll foster an environment where engineers are themselves principal stakeholders
of product features, and obsess over customer outcomes. You’ll challenge the "feature factory" mentality and build a team that
takes true ownership of the product.
- Thrive in a rapid iteration environment. You’ll operate in a high-velocity workspace where PMs, customers, and engineers
co-create features. You’ll lead the team in working full-stack to iterate, improve, and ship improvements quickly.
- Champion AI-assisted development. You’ll be a catalyst for AI adoption across the team. You’ll leverage LLMs and AI tools to
accelerate velocity without compromising on engineering integrity.
- Guide engineering outcomes and quality. You’ll set and enforce high standards for code review, testing, and production
readiness. You will participate in incident response and coordinate with the Infrastructure team on platform dependencies and
deployments.
- Mentor and grow the team. You’ll manage performance, career development, and hiring. You will hold the team accountable for
delivery commitments while providing the mentorship needed to turn engineers into product-minded leaders.
WE'D LOVE TO TALK IF YOU HAVE
- A natural empathy for developer customers because you are the target audience. You are genuinely excited about building
developer tools and instinctively understand what good looks like. You're fluent in API design, documentation, and the nuances
that differentiate a great developer journey.
- Extensive experience leading teams at B2B SaaS or API-first companies. You have a track record of building product-minded
engineering cultures where teams take initiative and ownership of product outcomes.
- A strong software engineering background with expertise in React, TypeScript, and modern JavaScript, alongside backend
experience in Ruby on Rails or Node.js. You're comfortable writing code and building prototypes using our APIs, and have built
and shipped customer-facing web applications at scale.
- An AI-first mindset. You champion the use of LLMs and AI tools as productivity multipliers for the team. You see AI as an
enabler for higher velocity and output, not a replacement for engineering judgment.
- Experience at a startup or growth-stage company or adaptability to thrive in a fast-paced, agile environment with a focus on
rapid iteration. To be effective in this role you’ll need excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
BONUS POINTS IF YOU HAVE
- Experience delivering solutions used by software developers (developer tooling or APIs) or similar technical personas.
- An understanding of pub/sub and familiarity with distributed systems and event based architectures.
WHAT’S IT LIKE TO WORK AT ABLY?
We’re tackling planet-scale problems and our ambitions are a testament to that. You’ll 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
page. You can also read about the origins of Ably's core values on our blog.
We believe in fostering a culture that's 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 environment. UK-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, you’re welcome to work wherever suits best for
you.
- Equity. We’re 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 we’d love to hear
from you, regardless of whether you fit the job description exactly or not. If in doubt, drop us an email; we’d be more than happy
to give you some advice on your application.
Role
Technical Lead, Developer Experience
Category
Data/IT
Locations
Published
May 15
Deadline
August 16