Where Do Developer Advocates Go Next? Reflections on Career Paths in 2026

cto_michelle · February 23, 2026, 7:54pm

Last month, one of our best Developer Advocates came to me with a career question that’s stuck with me: “I’ve been doing DevRel for 5 years. I’m a Staff-level developer advocate. What’s next for me? Do I have to become a manager to progress?”

It’s a question I’ve been asking myself throughout my career - as someone who’s gone from software engineer to architect to CTO. And it’s a question that matters more in 2026 because DevRel as a discipline is maturing, but career paths are still unclear.

The DevRel Career Path Problem

For software engineers, the career path is relatively clear:

Junior → Mid → Senior → Staff → Principal → Distinguished Engineer
Or: Senior → Team Lead → Engineering Manager → Director → VP → CTO

For product managers:

Associate PM → PM → Senior PM → Group PM → Director → VP Product

But for Developer Advocates? The path is murky:

Developer Advocate → Senior Developer Advocate → …then what?

Most companies don’t have Staff Developer Advocate roles. Many don’t have clear progression beyond Senior. And the jump to “VP of DevRel” or “Head of Developer Relations” is massive and requires managing - which isn’t what all advocates want.

Why This Matters

DevRel is attracting talented people with unique skill combinations:

Technical depth and credibility
Communication and teaching ability
Community building and empathy
Product understanding and user focus
Public speaking and content creation

These are INCREDIBLY valuable skills. But if there’s no clear career progression, we’ll lose talented people who need growth opportunities.

Traditional Career Paths

From what I’ve observed, DevRel careers typically go in a few directions:

Path 1: Management Track

Developer Advocate → Senior DA → Lead DA → Manager, DevRel → Director → VP DevRel

This is the most common path for advancement. But it requires becoming a manager, which means less hands-on technical work and less direct community engagement.

Path 2: Back to Engineering

Some advocates return to software engineering roles, using their DevRel experience as “taking a detour.” They bring valuable perspective (user empathy, communication skills) back to engineering.

Path 3: Product Management

Developer Advocates often transition to Product Management, especially Technical PM or API Product roles. The skills transfer well: user empathy, technical credibility, stakeholder communication.

Path 4: GTM/Sales Engineering

Some advocates move into Go-To-Market roles: Solutions Engineers, Sales Engineering, Customer Success Engineering. The technical + communication skills are highly valued.

Path 5: Freelance/Consulting

Independent developer advocates consulting across multiple companies. More control, but less stability and organizational impact.

My Perspective: DevRel Skills as Leadership Skills

Here’s what I’ve observed as CTO: the best engineering leaders have DevRel sensibilities.

They can:

Communicate complex technical concepts clearly
Advocate for their teams and technology choices
Build relationships across organizational boundaries
Influence without authority
Balance technical depth with strategic thinking

DevRel isn’t a separate career track - it’s TRAINING for leadership.

Some of the best VPs of Engineering I know started as Developer Advocates or did DevRel-type work early in their careers. The skills transfer beautifully.

The Question: Individual Contributor vs Management

But here’s the tension: Not everyone wants to manage. Some people want to remain individual contributors with growing impact and influence.

Can we create Staff Developer Advocate roles equivalent to Staff Engineer? Principal Developer Advocate equivalent to Principal Engineer?

What would that look like?

Staff Engineer criteria (simplified):

Deep technical expertise
Influences technical direction across multiple teams
Mentors other engineers
Solves complex technical problems
Has organizational impact beyond their immediate team

Could we define Staff Developer Advocate similarly?

Deep technical expertise + communication excellence
Influences developer community strategy across multiple products/teams
Mentors other advocates and community members
Solves complex community and developer experience problems
Has organizational impact on developer adoption and satisfaction

The Organizational Challenge

The problem: Most companies don’t have enough DevRel headcount to support multiple levels of IC progression.

A company might have:

100+ engineers (supporting Staff/Principal IC tracks)
20+ product managers (supporting Senior IC tracks)
5 developer advocates (making IC progression difficult)

With small teams, you need people to wear multiple hats. Specialization and leveling are luxuries of larger teams.

The Skills That Transfer

For developer advocates thinking about career progression, here’s what I see as highly transferable:

To Engineering Leadership:

Technical depth + communication
User empathy and product thinking
Cross-functional collaboration
Influence without authority

To Product Management:

User research and empathy
Technical credibility with engineers
Communication and stakeholder management
Feedback synthesis and prioritization

To Executive Leadership:

Strategic thinking about technology and markets
Communication and influence
Community and relationship building
Business acumen (if you’ve connected DevRel to business metrics)

My Advice to Developer Advocates

If you’re thinking about career progression:

Build business acumen: Connect your work to business outcomes. Understand GTM, sales, customer success.
Develop strategic thinking: Move beyond execution. Think about strategy and organizational impact.
Cultivate multiple options: Don’t box yourself into “DevRel only.” Build skills that transfer to engineering, product, or leadership.
Find mentors outside DevRel: Learn from CTOs, VPs of Product, engineering leaders. Understand how they progressed.
Consider management if you want organizational scope: Sad reality - many organizations require management for senior impact.
Or create the IC track yourself: Prove the value of Staff/Principal DA roles through your impact.

The Question for 2026

How do we, as an industry, create clear and compelling career paths for DevRel professionals?

Do we need:

Standard leveling frameworks (like engineering has)?
Staff/Principal IC tracks for larger teams?
Better pathways to related roles (PM, Engineering Leadership)?
Compensation parity with engineering at senior levels?

I don’t have answers, but I think it’s one of the most important questions for DevRel’s maturity as a profession.

What are you seeing for DevRel career paths? What’s working? What’s broken? How do we make DevRel a sustainable long-term career?

vp_eng_keisha · February 23, 2026, 7:54pm

Michelle, this resonates deeply with my career journey and what I’m seeing with my teams.

I went from IC engineer at Intel → Senior Engineer at Adobe → Engineering Manager → Director → now VP of Engineering. Along the way, I did a LOT of DevRel-type work: conference talks, mentoring, technical writing, community building.

And honestly? The DevRel skills were MORE important for my leadership progression than pure technical skills.

DevRel Skills Are Leadership Skills

Here’s what I learned: the transition from Senior Engineer to Staff Engineer (or Manager) requires skills that are fundamentally DevRel skills:

Communication: Explaining complex technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders
Influence: Getting teams to adopt your technical direction without authority
Mentorship: Helping other engineers grow and develop
Community: Building relationships across the organization
Advocacy: Representing your team’s needs to leadership

These are EXACTLY the skills Developer Advocates develop. They’re just doing it externally instead of internally.

The Career Path I’ve Seen Work

At my companies (Google, Slack, current EdTech startup), I’ve seen Developer Advocates progress in several ways:

Internal Developer Advocate → Engineering Leadership

Some of the best engineering managers I’ve worked with started in DevRel-type roles. They understand both the technical depth and the people/communication side.

Example: At Slack, one of our DevRel people became an Engineering Manager, then Director. The transition was natural because they already had the influence and communication skills. They just redirected them internally.

External DevRel → Product Engineering

Developer Advocates often move into product engineering roles where they work on developer-facing features: APIs, SDKs, CLI tools, documentation systems.

This is a great fit because they understand both what developers need AND how to build it.

DevRel → Technical Program Management

Some advocates move into TPM roles, where their cross-functional communication and project coordination skills are highly valued.

The IC Track Question

Michelle asked about Staff/Principal Developer Advocate IC tracks. I think this is possible but requires clear criteria.

At my current company, Staff Engineer criteria include:

Technical leadership across multiple teams
Organizational impact beyond immediate team
Mentorship and knowledge sharing
Solving complex, ambiguous problems

We could define Staff Developer Advocate similarly:

DevRel strategy leadership across multiple products
Organizational impact on developer adoption/satisfaction
Mentorship of other advocates and community leaders
Solving complex developer experience problems

The key: tying it to ORGANIZATIONAL IMPACT, not just individual execution.

My Advice: Think Beyond DevRel

For Developer Advocates thinking about career progression, my advice:

Short-term: Excel at DevRel and build your technical credibility
Medium-term: Develop skills that transfer (product thinking, business acumen, strategic thinking)
Long-term: Consider where your unique combination of skills creates most value

Don’t limit yourself to “DevRel career path.” Think about “careers where DevRel skills are valuable” - which is a MUCH bigger opportunity space.

The Diversity Angle

One more thing: DevRel can be a powerful path for underrepresented folks in tech.

For people from underrepresented backgrounds, traditional engineering IC or management tracks can be harder to navigate due to bias and lack of sponsorship. DevRel offers an alternative path that values different skills (communication, community, empathy) while still maintaining technical credibility.

I’ve seen several women and people of color use DevRel as a launching pad into engineering leadership precisely because it let them build influence and relationships in a different way than traditional IC tracks.

Michelle, I love that you’re raising this question. DevRel career path clarity is crucial for the profession’s maturity.

product_david · February 23, 2026, 7:54pm

Michelle, this is such an important discussion because I’ve seen this play out from the product side.

Developer Advocates → Product Management is a career path I’ve seen work really well. Let me explain why and how.

Why DevRel → PM Works

The core skills of Product Management:

User empathy and research: Understanding user needs deeply
Technical credibility: Working effectively with engineering teams
Communication: Synthesizing feedback, communicating strategy
Stakeholder management: Influencing without authority
Feedback synthesis: Turning qualitative insights into product decisions

Developer Advocates have ALL of these skills. They just developed them in a community context rather than a product context.

The Transition Path I’ve Seen

At my companies (Google, Airbnb, current fintech), I’ve seen several Developer Advocates transition to Product Management:

Stage 1: Technical Product Manager
Start with developer-facing products: APIs, SDKs, developer tools, documentation platforms. Your DevRel background is a huge asset here.

Stage 2: Product Manager
Move into broader product roles, bringing your user empathy and technical credibility.

Stage 3: Senior PM / Product Lead
As you gain product experience, progress through standard PM career ladder.

What You Need to Add

The skills Developer Advocates typically need to develop for PM:

Product roadmap and prioritization: Frameworks like RICE, value vs effort, strategic alignment
Business and financial acumen: Understanding unit economics, CAC/LTV, business models
Data analysis: Comfort with product analytics, A/B testing, metric interpretation
Wireframing and design collaboration: Working with designers on UX
GTM and go-to-market: Launch planning, positioning, marketing

But honestly? These are learnable. The hard-to-teach skills (empathy, communication, technical credibility) Developer Advocates already have.

My Observation: DevRel People Make Great PMs

The best Technical PMs I’ve worked with have DevRel backgrounds or sensibilities. Why?

They understand what developers actually need (not just what engineering wants to build)
They communicate effectively with both technical and business stakeholders
They synthesize feedback from community into product requirements
They have technical credibility so engineers respect their input

Example: At Airbnb, one of our best API Product Managers came from Developer Relations. She understood how developers would actually use our API, which edge cases mattered, what documentation was critical. Engineering loved working with her because she spoke their language.

The Career Progression Advantage

Here’s something interesting: PM career paths are clearer than DevRel paths.

PM ladder: Associate PM → PM → Senior PM → Group PM → Director → VP Product → CPO

Compensation tends to be higher than DevRel at senior levels (because PM is directly tied to revenue).

So DevRel → PM can be a career accelerator for people who want clearer progression and higher compensation ceilings.

The Advice: Build Product Skills Proactively

For Developer Advocates considering PM:

Work closely with product team: Understand how they prioritize, plan, measure
Learn product analytics: Get comfortable with Mixpanel/Amplitude/etc
Participate in roadmap discussions: Bring community feedback to product planning
Take on hybrid projects: “Developer Experience Product Manager” type roles
Build business acumen: Understand how your work ties to revenue and growth

The Challenge: Don’t Abandon Your Strengths

One caution: Don’t lose what makes you valuable.

The best PMs with DevRel backgrounds maintain their:

Community connection and user empathy
Communication excellence
Technical depth and credibility

Don’t become a generic PM. Be a PM who brings unique DevRel perspective and skills.

Michelle, I think DevRel → PM is one of the most natural and valuable career progressions. We should be encouraging it more.

eng_director_luis · February 23, 2026, 7:54pm

Coming from the leadership perspective at a large financial services company, I want to share what I tell engineers who are thinking about career paths.

DevRel Work Isn’t Separate from Engineering

First: I don’t think of DevRel as a separate career track. I think of it as work that senior engineers should be doing as part of their role.

At my company:

Senior Engineers are expected to document their work, mentor others, participate in technical discussions
Staff Engineers are expected to influence across teams, share knowledge broadly, represent the company at conferences
Principal Engineers are expected to shape technical direction org-wide, mentor senior engineers, build technical community

All of these are essentially DevRel activities. We just don’t call them that.

The IC Path: DevRel as Part of Senior Engineering

Michelle asked about Staff/Principal Developer Advocate IC paths. My answer: yes, but integrate it into engineering tracks.

Instead of separate DevRel roles, have engineering IC expectations that include DevRel work:

Staff Engineer expectations:

Technical leadership on complex projects
Mentorship of senior engineers
Knowledge sharing (blog posts, tech talks, documentation)
Representing company in technical community
Contributing to open source

Principal Engineer expectations:

Organizational technical direction
Industry thought leadership
Building technical community (internal and external)
Evangelizing technical excellence

These are DevRel activities integrated into engineering roles, not separate tracks.

The Management Path: From Engineers Who Do DevRel

For engineers who want to go into management, DevRel experience is incredibly valuable.

The transition from IC to manager requires:

Communication with non-technical stakeholders
Mentorship and people development
Influence without technical authority
Cross-functional collaboration

All of these are skills DevRel work develops.

The Question About Career Progression

Does DevRel have to be management-track only? No. But IC progression requires demonstrating organizational impact.

At my company, Staff Engineer promotion requires showing impact beyond your immediate team. DevRel-type work (technical writing, mentorship, community building) is one way to demonstrate that impact.

So the answer isn’t “create a separate DevRel IC track.” It’s “recognize DevRel work as part of senior IC engineering expectations.”

Compensation Parity

Michelle mentioned compensation parity. This is important.

If we want senior engineers to do DevRel work, we need to compensate it at the same level as other senior IC work.

At my company:

Staff Engineer doing DevRel work = same comp as Staff Engineer doing pure technical work
Principal Engineer with community focus = same comp as Principal Engineer with systems focus

The work is different, but the organizational impact and seniority level are equivalent.

My Advice: Integrate DevRel into Your Engineering Work

For engineers thinking about DevRel:

Don’t think of it as a separate career. Think of it as expanding your scope and impact.

As Senior Engineer: Start writing technical blogs, mentoring juniors, speaking at meetups
As Staff Engineer: Expand to conference talks, significant open source contributions, cross-team technical mentorship
As Principal Engineer: Shape technical direction through thought leadership, build communities around technical practices

This is a natural progression of engineering seniority, not a separate track.

Keisha’s point about DevRel skills being leadership skills is exactly right. These aren’t separate careers - they’re complementary skill sets that make you a better, more impactful engineer and leader.

alex_dev · February 23, 2026, 7:54pm

Quick perspective from someone who’s spent 7 years as an IC engineer who also does DevRel-type work.

The IC Question: Do We Need Management to Progress?

Michelle’s question about IC vs management really resonates. I’ve been a Senior Engineer for 3 years and wondering: do I have to become a manager to continue progressing?

My answer so far: no, but it requires actively demonstrating broader impact.

What I Do as Senior Engineer That’s “DevRel”

My role includes:

Writing technical blog posts about our architecture decisions
Giving tech talks at conferences and meetups
Mentoring junior and mid-level engineers
Contributing to open source projects we use
Active in technical communities (including this one)

My company doesn’t call this “DevRel” - they call it “senior engineer expectations.” But it’s fundamentally the same work.

The Impact Question

Luis is right that IC progression requires organizational impact. The question is: does DevRel work count as organizational impact?

At my company, yes. My promotion to Senior Engineer was partly based on:

Technical blog posts that attracted recruiting candidates
Conference talks that built our company’s technical brand
Open source contributions that improved our technical reputation
Mentorship that improved team velocity and retention

These were measurable impacts that justified promotion.

Does Traditional Hierarchy Make Sense?

Here’s my honest question: does the traditional career ladder even make sense anymore?

I know Staff Engineers who have huge impact through technical writing and community building. I know Principal Engineers who rarely write code but shape technical direction through influence and communication.

The “I must become a manager to progress” mentality feels outdated. Impact matters more than hierarchy.

What I Actually Want

As an IC engineer who does DevRel-type work, here’s what I want:

Recognition: Acknowledgment that this work has organizational value
Compensation: Pay commensurate with impact, not just “years of management experience”
Clear expectations: What does Staff Engineer who focuses on community/DevRel look like?
Support: Time and resources to do this work well (not just “extra work on top of regular job”)

I don’t need a separate “DevRel track.” I just need my engineering IC track to recognize that impact comes in many forms, including community and communication.

The Skepticism About Conventional Career Advice

Michelle, you asked “how do we make DevRel a sustainable long-term career?”

I want to question the premise: why does it need to be a separate career?

What if DevRel is just… senior engineering work? What if the skills we’re talking about (communication, community, mentorship) are just what engineers should develop as they progress?

Maybe the question isn’t “how do we create DevRel career paths” but “how do we recognize that these skills are part of senior engineering careers”?

Just a different framing to consider.