Cognition

Developer Community Manager at Cognition (San Francisco, CA)

Cognition· San Francisco, CA·

Role details

Work type
Onsite
Employment
Full-Time
Skills
APIsSDKsDeveloper RelationsCommunity ManagementTechnical Event PlanningSoftware EngineeringOpen Source ContributionsUniversity Program Management

Cognition at a glance

Applied AI lab behind Devin, the autonomous AI software engineer, and the Windsurf IDE.

Cognition is an applied AI lab building autonomous software engineering agents. Its flagship, Devin, plans, writes, tests, and ships production code inside a customer's own codebase and tooling. After acquiring Windsurf in 2025, it also runs the Windsurf AI-native IDE as a synchronous complement to Devin's async agent work.

$1.5B+ raised · latest: Series D · $1B+ · $26B valuation · May 2026 · backed by Lux Capital, General Catalyst, 8VC, Founders Fund

Summary

The Developer Community Manager serves as the connective tissue between Cognition and the developer ecosystem, running events, cultivating technical ambassadors, and promoting Devin and Windsurr. This role requires deep technical expertise to engage software engineers and design community programs that resonate with...

Job description

WE ARE AN APPLIED AI LAB BUILDING END-TO-END SOFTWARE AGENTS.

We're the makers of Devin, the first AI software engineer.

Our team is extremely talent-dense. Among our founding team, we have world-class competitive programmers, former founders, and leaders from companies at the cutting edge of AI including Scale AI, Palantir, Cursor, Waymo, Tesla, Lunchclub, Modal, Google DeepMind, and Nuro.

Building Devin is just the first step—our hardest challenges still lie ahead. If you’re excited to solve some of the world’s biggest problems and build AI that can reason on real-world tasks, apply to join us.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Devin is reshaping how developers work, and we want to build a community around that transformation. As our Developer Community Manager, you’ll be the connective tissue between Cognition and the broader developer ecosystem: running events, cultivating ambassadors, and bringing Devin to universities and developer communities worldwide.

This isn’t a traditional community manager role. We’re looking for someone with genuine technical depth, ideally a developer or engineer by background, who can speak credibly to software engineers, demo Devin and Windsurf in real workflows, and design programs that resonate with a deeply technical audience. You’ll own the strategy and execution of our community programs from the ground up, building something that doesn’t yet exist at Cognition.

This role is perfect for someone who loves being at the intersection of engineering and community.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Scale Cognition’s developer ambassador program, recruiting, onboarding, and supporting technical advocates who champion Devin in their communities
  • Plan and execute developer events including hackathons, meetups, demo days, and conference activations that showcase Devin’s capabilities to engineering audiences
  • Build and manage university programs: campus ambassador networks, workshop series, and partnerships with CS departments and student engineering organizations
  • Create compelling technical content and resources including tutorials, demo scripts, and workshop materials that help developers understand and adopt Devin
  • Own the community feedback loop: synthesize what developers are saying, surface product insights to engineering, and close the loop with the community
  • Manage community platforms and channels, fostering authentic engagement and surfacing high-signal discussions
  • Collaborate with product, engineering, and go-to-market teams to align community programs with company priorities and product launches
  • Track and report on program metrics including ambassador activity, event attendance, community growth, and product adoption from community channels, then iterate based on what’s working

REQUIREMENTS

  • Technical background: you’ve written code professionally or as part of a CS degree, and you can hold your own in a conversation about APIs, SDKs, and developer workflows
  • 2+ years of experience in developer relations, community management, technical evangelism, or a related role at a technology company
  • Demonstrated experience planning and executing technical events, workshops, or community programs
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into approachable content
  • A builder mentality: you’d rather ship a scrappy v1 than wait for perfect conditions
  • Comfort operating autonomously in a fast-moving environment where priorities shift and ambiguity is the norm
  • A record of exceptional achievements and impact in any domain

YOU MIGHT EXCEL IF YOU…

  • Have built a developer community or ambassador program from scratch and can point to measurable results
  • Have a genuine passion for AI-powered developer tools and strong opinions about how they’ll change the way software is built
  • Are known in developer communities, whether through open source contributions, conference talks, content creation, or community leadership
  • Have experience running programs at universities or with early-career developers and understand what resonates with that audience
  • Thrive on the autonomy, intensity, and pace of an early-stage startup where your work directly shapes the company’s trajectory
  • Have a software engineering background and want to channel that technical credibility into a community-facing role with broader impact

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Cognition is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities throughout the hiring process - please let us know if you need any.

Why work at Cognition

  • Culture: “Talent-dense,” interdisciplinary, low-ego, and urgency-driven. The team works on “the hardest problems in AI” and values shipping real impact.
  • Work model: Hybrid/office-first with major hubs in San Francisco, New York, Austin, London, Singapore, Tokyo, and others. Many roles list specific locations, suggesting in-office presence is expected.
  • Benefits: Comprehensive medical, dental, vision insurance; unlimited PTO; meals in primary offices; wellness stipend; commuter benefits; 401(k); HSA/FSA; fertility and family building support.
  • Engineering culture: Strong emphasis on applied AI, customer proximity (“we work alongside our customers”), and building infrastructure that redefines software engineering.

Application questions