Lead Developer Advocate - VP

Description

The team builds software that gives the business, the platform and the technology side what they need, for customers and colleagues alike.

This is a teaching-focused engineering role in which you remain a working engineer while helping others learn.

Roughly 30, 50% of your time goes to hands-on building: production-quality solutions, prototypes, demos, code samples, learning platforms and workshop material.

The rest goes to coaching engineering teams, designing learning experiences, running workshops and events, writing educational content and helping engineers adopt modern tools and practices.

You will speak to audiences from individual practitioners to groups of hundreds of engineers and senior technology leaders.

The aim is to turn complex technology and engineering practice into practical learning people can use day to day.

This suits someone with a substantial, recent software engineering background who has moved, or wants to move, toward developer advocacy, technical education, enablement or developer relations while staying a credible, active practitioner.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop and improve software using a range of engineering methods.
• Deliver high-quality, scalable, maintainable and performant solutions with current languages, frameworks and tools.
• Work with product managers, designers and other engineers to define requirements, shape solution approaches and fit work to business goals.
• Take part in code reviews and help build a culture of code quality and knowledge sharing among peers.
• Track industry technology trends and innovations, and contribute to the organization's technology communities to build technical excellence and growth.
• Apply secure coding practices to reduce vulnerabilities and protect sensitive data.
• Write unit tests that check code design, readability and reliability.
• As a Vice President, help set strategy, shape requirements and recommend change. Plan resources, budgets and policies, maintain policies and processes, drive continuous improvement, and escalate policy or procedure breaches.
• If you manage a team, define roles and responsibilities, plan the department's future needs and operations, coach staff on performance and contribute to pay decisions. Lead specialists in line with strategic and tactical priorities, balance short and long term goals, and keep budgets and schedules aligned with corporate requirements.
• People leaders are expected to show the four LEAD behaviours: Listen and be authentic, Energize and inspire, Align across the enterprise, and Develop others.
• As an individual contributor, act as the subject matter expert in your discipline and guide technical direction. Lead multi-year collaborative assignments, guide team members through structured work, and bring in other specialisms where needed. Train, guide and coach less experienced specialists, and share information affecting long-term profit, organizational risk and strategic decisions.
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership and senior management, on impact and alignment within and across functions.
• Assess and mitigate risk to support control and governance, and show leadership and accountability for risk and controls in your team's work.
• Understand how the organization's functions fit together and how business support areas operate, so you keep pace with business activity and strategy.
• Use sophisticated analysis to compare complex options, and apply in-depth, interpretive thinking to define problems and devise new solutions. Bring research findings into your problem solving.
• Build and maintain trusted relationships with internal and external stakeholders, using influence and negotiation to reach key business goals.

Requirements

• Significant and recent experience in software engineering, including designing, building and delivering real production applications with modern practices, and proficiency in at least one language such as Python, Java, C or Go.
• Strong ability and passion for teaching technical ideas, gained through developer advocacy, developer relations, technical training, enablement, mentoring or similar work, and the skill to make complex subjects engaging and practical.
• Strong technical communication and presentation skills: you can work hands-on with engineers, run interactive workshops, and present to audiences from individuals to rooms of hundreds.
• Experience creating technical learning material such as workshops, demonstrations, code samples, tutorials, documentation, videos, prototypes or other learning formats.
• The ability to influence across levels of a technology organization, adjusting your message for hands-on engineers, technical SMEs and senior technology leaders, and earning credibility through expertise and clear communication.
• You will be expected to demonstrate the company's values and mindset.
• You may be assessed on key critical skills such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking, digital and technology, plus job-specific technical skills.
• Other highly valued skills include: hands-on experience with AI-enabled and agentic development using tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude Code or AI orchestration frameworks, and enthusiasm for learning and teaching new technology. (highly valued)
• Other highly valued skills include: experience building and engaging technical communities through workshops, hackathons, engineering events, communities of practice, forums or knowledge-sharing programmes. (highly valued)
• Other highly valued skills include: good technical content creation and storytelling, such as tutorials, articles, documentation, presentations, videos, demonstrations or structured learning programmes. (highly valued)
• Other highly valued skills include: experience helping engineering teams adopt new technologies and practices, combining technical depth with coaching, enablement and an understanding of human and organizational factors. (highly valued)
• Other highly valued skills include: deep empathy for developers and genuine enthusiasm for helping others grow, with the curiosity, credibility and collaborative mindset to coach, identify learning needs, share experience and champion engineering excellence. (highly valued)

Conditions

Based in the Whippany, NJ office.

Base salary range is $170,000 to $230,000. This covers base salary only and excludes other compensation and benefits.

Benefits

• Medical, dental and vision coverage, 401(k), life insurance, and paid leave for qualifying circumstances.
• Eligible for an incentive award.