Manager, Developer Relations

Summary

Join Tailscale's growing team as a technical leader and program scaler for developer advocacy and relations. Manage a team, set a vision and roadmap for developer marketing, and directly engage with developer communities. Speak at conferences, build demos, and represent Tailscale. Scale programs to grow developer awareness and engagement globally. Improve talk submission and speaker placement processes. Define and track KPIs for developer marketing. Collaborate cross-functionally with various teams. Shape how Tailscale presents itself in the technical world. This is a player/coach role requiring technical expertise and strong leadership skills.

Requirements

• Proven expertise: minimum of 5-8+ years in developer-facing roles, including 2+ years in a lead or senior role with a measurable track record of impact
• Technical aptitude: experience using Tailscale and technical depth in networking, infrastructure, security, and/or developer tools
• Storytelling: excellent public speaking and technical storytelling skills. Experience with conference CFPs and securing high-visibility speaking slots
• Program management: you think in systems, templates, and repeatable playbooks
• People management: a strong desire to be a best-in-class people manager. We want someone who is excited and passionate about being a people manager and has experience mentoring and developing DevRel talent
• International: demonstrated success growing developer awareness outside of North America and measuring this impact
• Outcome-orientation: familiarity with key Developer Marketing KPIs and a perspective on how best to track individual and team performance

Responsibilities

• Lead the team: manage, mentor, and partner with our Lead Developer Advocate, Senior Community Manager, and Technical Content Manager
• Be a voice for Tailscale: speak at conferences, run workshops, appear in webinars, and create demo-rich content for a global developer audience. We’re especially looking for someone who can be Tailscale’s leading voice in North America – both in person and feeding into our digital outlets. You’ll be complemented by a teammate who will cover this role in Europe
• Scale our programs: build repeatable programs to grow developer awareness, education, and engagement in North America, Europe, and beyond
• Get us in the right rooms: improve our talk submission and speaker placement process for key conferences across DevOps, security, infrastructure, IT, and more
• Measure and grow: define and track KPIs for developer marketing, relations, and advocacy (e.g., reach, content engagement, brand awareness, community growth, attribution to PLG funnel)
• Collaborate cross-functionally: partner with engineering, product, growth, sales, customer success, solutions engineering, and marketing teams to ensure developer initiatives are strategic, measurable, relevant, and high-leverage
• Evolve our voice: help shape how Tailscale shows up in the technical world with clarity, authenticity, and technical nerdiness

Preferred Qualifications

• You are a Tailscale power-user and already a Tailscale advocate
• Prior experience as a software engineer or SRE
• Strong presence on dev-focused platforms (e.g., GitHub, Mastodon, YouTube, Reddit, Stack Overflow)
• Experience building or contributing to open source communities
• Previous people management experience

Benefits

• A competitive total compensation package. This includes a base salary, an equity incentive plan and variable commission (for quota-based roles)
• Comprehensive group benefits with no waiting period. Take advantage of coverage for health, vision, dental, and more for you and your family!
• All-remote with the opportunity to work from anywhere —enjoy a change of scenery wherever you can get wifi, participate in virtual and in-person social events, and leverage our corporate co-working program to visit WeWork (or other similar spaces near you)
• Connect with other Tailscalars IRL. Attend our annual company retreat, participate in team/department off-sites, or use your individual travel budget to meet up with team members in Canada, the US, or the UK
• Support for your personal and professional development. Grow your career thoughtfully with $1500 USD annually for professional development, or take advantage of mentorship, coaching, and internal promotion opportunities
• Paid time off and a healthy work-life integration. Our flexible, paid time off program supports you for any situation life throws your way, whether moving homes or travelling the world!
• A build-your-own home office setup. You choose your own company-owned laptop (Mac or PC), receive a monthly home internet reimbursement, and $1000 USD to customize your workstation to make it your own
• Generous parental leave program from your first day. We care about your life outside of work and encourage new parents to take advantage of parental leave top-ups for up to 26 weeks