Developer Relations Lead

HeroDevs keeps the open source software the world runs on secure after it reaches end of life. Our Never-Ending Support (NES) products give teams secure, drop-in replacements for end-of-life frameworks and libraries across Java, JavaScript, and a growing list of other ecosystems, and our Evergreen platform helps them stay current over the long haul.

We can only do that work well alongside the people who built those projects. HeroDevs was born from open source and we continue to build our business with service to open source communities an developers front and center. That's why we invest in maintainers directly, through partnerships, co-created work, and the Open Source Sustainability Fund.

Developer Relations at HeroDevs' is our bridge to open source maintainers, foundations, and the developer communities around them. You'll own those relationships long term, turn them into content and campaigns that show off the projects and the people behind them, and be a visible, trusted voice for HeroDevs in the community.

You’ll join as an early Developer Relations role for HeroDevs, reporting to our Chief Product Officer and working closely with product leaders, marketing team, and partnerships leaders as an individual contributor. 

What you'll do

Build and own maintainer relationships

• Work with our NES product leads to identify the maintainers, projects, and foundations we want to partner with
• Nurture strategic relationships over time, pulling in product leaders and executives to deepen partnerships
• Participate in strategic partner identification and strategies to purse a relationship

Create content and campaigns with maintainers

• Co-create content with maintainers and run joint campaigns that showcase their project and their work
• Gather maintainer quotes, stories, and other materials our Sales and Marketing teams can use in GTM motions
• Partner with Product Marketing so maintainer content lines up with launches and campaigns

Show up in the community

• Speak at conferences and meetups, appear on (or host) podcasts, and represent HeroDevs at events
• Engage in the communities where our users and maintainers spend time
• Contribute thought leadership on open source sustainability, security, and compliance

Bring the outside in

• Share what you hear from maintainers and developers with Product, so it shapes what we build and how we talk about it

• 4+ years in developer relations, developer advocacy, or software engineering with a strong community-facing side
• Deep, genuine connections across the open source community; you can talk shop with a framework maintainer and be taken seriously
• A track record of building real, lasting relationships with open source maintainers or foundations
• A public body of work: talks, blog posts, videos, podcasts, or open source contributions we can look at
• Strong technical writing and storytelling, and comfort turning a maintainer's story into a campaign
• A solid grasp of how open source works: governance, licensing, sustainability, and the pressures maintainers face
• Comfort reaching out cold and following through over months, not days
• Experience working with product managers and marketers toward shared goals
• Willingness to travel for conferences and maintainer meetings

• Strong preference: deep ties in the Java open source world (for example the Spring, Jakarta EE, or Apache communities), with JavaScript connections a plus
• Experience with open source foundations such as the Linux Foundation, OpenJS, Apache, or Eclipse
• Background in application security, CVEs, or software supply chain and SCA tooling
• Familiarity with ecosystems beyond Java and JavaScript (.NET, PHP, Python, and others) to support our Incubator
• Experience hosting a podcast, running a meetup, or organizing community events
• Prior work at a startup or a company that funds or commercially supports open source