Technical Lead, Developer Experience
Ably
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Remote
Location: United Kingdom
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Job Level
About the role
- Lead technical execution and vision. You’ll lead a team of five engineers building customer-facing web applications. You’ll partner with the DevEx PM as a unified leadership team, co-owning the delivery of a developer experience that becomes a reference point for the industry.
- 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.
- Be the technical authority. You’ll own the technical architecture and design decisions for our dashboard, docs platform, marketing website, and billing UI. You will ensure these applications effectively demonstrate Ably's realtime capabilities.
- 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.
Requirements
- Extensive experience leading technical teams in technical B2B SaaS or API-first products, with a track record of product-minded engineering teams that 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 have a proven track record building and shipping customer-facing web applications at scale and you must be able to write code and build prototypes that use our APIs.
- You have a natural empathy and instinct for what developer customers want because you are the target user. You are genuinely excited about building developer tools and can tap into immediate feedback loops. You understand API design, documentation, and the nuances that differentiate a great developer journey.
- You act as an AI champion and are enthusiastic about using 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.
Benefits
- 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.
Applicant Tracking System Keywords
Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.
Hard skills
ReactTypeScriptJavaScriptRuby on RailsNode.jsAPI designcode reviewtestingproduction readinessprototyping
Soft skills
leadershipmentorshipcommunicationcross-functional collaborationempathyownershipadaptabilityproduct-mindedcustomer focusteam management