Principal, R&D Learning Products & Enablement

Samsara

9h • $122,080 - $218,000 • Remote

About The Position

Samsara is seeking a senior, hands-on individual contributor to define the future of R&D Enablement. The role will understand how Product, Engineering, and Design teams work; identify high-value capability and performance needs; and translate emerging technologies and business priorities into scalable learning products and enablement solutions. It will build and prioritize the R&D Enablement roadmap, create tools, automations, knowledge solutions, and learning experiences, and partner with R&D leaders, engineers, technology vendors, Global Learning & Development, People, and Business Technology.

The role combines strategy, technical product understanding, learning-product design, and end-to-end program delivery. It will lead R&D and developer onboarding, develop practical ways for technical employees to adopt AI and other tools, build functional prototypes and workflow automations, and measure outcomes such as adoption, behavior, capability, time-to-proficiency, self-service, efficiency, and quality. As the senior functional leader for R&D Enablement, the role will establish clear ownership and reusable practices, guide and mentor junior team members and partners, and lead through expertise and influence rather than formal authority.

This is a remote position open to candidates residing in the United States.

Requirements

• At least 8 years of experience in technical product management, technical program management, developer enablement, technical learning, learning technology, product enablement, or a related field.
• At least 5 years of experience working directly with software engineering, product, data, or AI teams to deliver technical products, programs, or enablement solutions.
• Experience supporting Product, Engineering, Design, or another highly technical organization and developing a credible understanding of how technical employees work.
• Ability to understand emerging technologies, developer tools, AI platforms, and technical workflows and translate them into practical adoption and enablement strategies.
• Experience partnering directly with engineers, technical leaders, and technology providers to understand product capabilities, implementation considerations, dependencies, and tradeoffs.
• Hands-on experience creating functional prototypes, tools, workflow automations, or self-service solutions using AI-assisted development environments, APIs, integrations, low-code platforms, or comparable technologies.
• Experience helping technical teams adopt AI-enabled tools and workflows, including selecting use cases, redesigning work, evaluating outputs, and establishing appropriate human judgment and oversight.
• Experience translating business and user problems into product requirements, user stories, workflows, success criteria, implementation plans, and scalable solutions.
• Experience defining strategy and roadmaps in ambiguous environments, prioritizing a portfolio, and making build, configure, buy, integrate, or stop recommendations.
• Strong product and program leadership, including managing interdependencies, delivery risks, competing priorities, and decisions across teams not directly managed.
• Experience designing and scaling learning products, technical onboarding, knowledge solutions, developer education, or adoption programs.

Nice To Haves

• Experience leading developer onboarding, developer education, engineering enablement, developer advocacy, or technical community programs.
• Experience with generative AI, developer-focused AI tools, retrieval-augmented generation, knowledge architecture, enterprise search, agentic workflows, or conversational user experiences.
• Experience working with external technology providers to design and scale product-adoption or enablement programs.
• Experience creating product requirements, process flows, integration requirements, technical documentation, or comparable delivery artifacts.
• Familiarity with adult-learning principles, performance consulting, learning-product design, or partnering with instructional and learning-experience designers.
• A portfolio of learning products, prototypes, internal tools, automations, knowledge solutions, or technical programs demonstrating hands-on building and measurable impact.
• Experience establishing or materially redesigning a technical learning, developer enablement, learning-product, or internal-product function.
• Experience measuring adoption and effectiveness and using evidence to determine whether a product or program should continue, change, scale, transfer, or stop.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence, provide functional direction, and create clarity and accountability across contributors without formal authority.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate among technical, business, and learning audiences and influence senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Define the R&D learning-products and enablement strategy, roadmap, service model, and measures of success based on the needs of R&D employees and leaders.
• Build trusted relationships across R&D and conduct discovery to identify capability, knowledge, adoption, and performance needs.
• Diagnose whether needs are best addressed through learning, structured knowledge, workflow changes, automation, self-service tools, communities, manager resources, or other interventions.
• Monitor emerging technologies, AI models, developer tools, and changes in technical work; recommend practical approaches for AI and agent adoption, output validation, and appropriate human oversight.
• Partner with R&D employees and technical leaders, Business Technology, Security, enterprise AI teams, and external technology providers to turn ideas into practical tools, workflows, prototypes, and scalable adoption.
• Translate technical concepts into learning products, developer-onboarding experiences, knowledge resources, playbooks, tools, automations, and communities.
• Create and test functional prototypes, tools, and workflow automations using AI-assisted development environments, APIs, low-code platforms, and other appropriate technologies.
• Develop product and program requirements, user stories, workflows, success criteria, and implementation plans for solutions requiring Engineering or Business Technology support.
• Lead complex programs from discovery through launch and adoption, managing ownership, milestones, dependencies, risks, communications, feedback loops, and decision points.
• Recommend whether to build, configure, buy, integrate, transfer, scale, or stop solutions.
• Own and continuously improve R&D and developer onboarding so employees can access the systems, knowledge, resources, and communities needed to become productive.
• Define outcome measures beyond attendance and satisfaction, using adoption, behavior, capability, time-to-proficiency, self-service, efficiency, quality, and business evidence to guide decisions.
• Serve as the senior functional leader for R&D Enablement, establishing clear ownership, reusable practices, and execution leverage across contributors and partners.
• Guide and mentor more junior team members and partners, leading through expertise and influence rather than formal authority.
• Champion and embed Samsara’s cultural principles as the company scales globally and across new offices.

Benefits

• Initial RSU grant with no vesting cliff and ongoing refresh opportunities tied to performance, subject to plan terms and conditions.
• Base salary, performance-based bonus or variable pay, and equity for eligible roles.
• Professional development stipend.
• Comprehensive health and parental leave plans.
• Flexible, employee-led remote working model.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed