Head of Developer Relations

Adyen•Chicago, IL

56d•Hybrid

About The Position

We’re looking for a Head of Developer Relations to help shape and scale an industry-leading developer experience for Adyen’s customers and partners. This is a strategic, product-focused role within our Developer Experience (DevX) group. Your influence will stretch from internal engineering teams to the external developers building on our platform every day. In this role, you’ll play a key part in co-leading Adyen’s global Developer Experience strategy by partnering deeply with engineers, product teams, and external developers to drive meaningful improvements to our platform. Your goal is to ensure that developers have a seamless, powerful experience building on Adyen – and that their voice directly influences our roadmap. You’ll champion a content strategy and turn friction logs into product opportunities, ensuring developers’ feedback is heard, understood, and acted upon. At the same time, you’ll help grow and lead a team of developer advocates who empower developers and guide them toward long-term success with Adyen. The focus is on driving real product impact through technical insight, empathy for developers, and strong internal alignment.

Requirements

You have deep empathy for developers and a strong technical foundation - you’ve built or supported APIs, SDKs, dev tools, integrations, or products meant to improve developer experience.
You’re a strong communicator, able to translate technical feedback into product opportunities - and vice versa. You are comfortable representing Adyen in front of internal and external technical audiences, including senior product and engineering leaders at customer organizations.
You have a strategic mindset, closely follow industry trends and like to try getting hands-on experience with new technology.
You’ve worked closely with product and engineering teams and know how to advocate for user needs in a way that drives meaningful product improvement. You thrive in cross-functional environments - partnering across engineering, product, implementation, and commercial teams.
You have experience in community engagement, but you care most about influencing the product. You understand how community and product advocacy can reinforce one another when done right.
Track Record: 8+ years of experience in developer advocacy, developer relations, or a related technical role, ideally in fintech or big tech.
Leadership: 5+ years of experience leading teams.
Technical Skills: Deep understanding of APIs, SDKs, and developer tools. As well as expertise in one or two major programming languages.
Strategic Thinking: Strong ability to design and execute plans that drive developer adoption and engagement. Fast learner with a passion for technology and a launch-fast-iterate mindset.
Communication Skills: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly explain complex technical topics. Confident public speaker and experienced presenter in both technical and business contexts. Full professional proficiency in English.
Product Collaboration: Proven experience working closely with product and engineering to influence roadmaps and deliver improvements.
Team-first Approach: Collaborative, low-ego leader who prioritizes the growth and success of the team.
Global Outlook: International experience is preferred.

Responsibilities

Build an industry-leading developer experience
Champion the end-to-end developer journey across Adyen’s APIs, SDKs, documentation, and tooling - with a relentless focus on removing friction and increasing adoption.
Design and scale structured feedback loops with developers (customers, partners, and the broader ecosystem) to identify pain points and surface actionable insights.
Co-lead Adyen’s Developer Experience strategy and execution
Collaborate with engineers, product designers, and product managers to prioritize and shape features based on real developer needs. Identify and address friction, inconsistencies, and gaps across the developer experience - from onboarding to ongoing usage.
Co-develop go-to-market strategies for new developer-facing tools and capabilities. Oversee our developer experience content strategy and the creation of high-quality content like tutorials, blog posts, and videos in close collaboration with product, engineering, and marketing.
Be a trusted technical counterpart to customers and partners
Build trusted relationships with high-impact developers in our customer and partner ecosystem.
Run early adopter programs, conduct listening tours, leverage friction logs and engage in strategic technical conversations that shape how we build.
Lead our community engagement efforts
Represent Adyen authentically in developer communities through blogs, meetups, open discussions, and conferences. Foster relationships with key influencers and community leaders in the developer space.
Focus on building meaningful relationships with the community rather than just brand visibility - but collaborating with marketing where useful.
Lead and scale the developer advocacy function
Grow and manage a high-performing team of developer advocates. Set direction, mentor team members, and ensure alignment with the broader DevX strategy.
Foster a culture of curiosity, empathy, and technical excellence - always rooted in driving product value.