USD per year
Principal Engineering Advisor
About DX
DX is one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in the country, helping engineering leaders build high-performing, productive teams. Our platform delivers actionable insights into developer experience and productivity - empowering companies like Netflix, Uber, Dell, Pfizer, and Vanguard to operate at their best. DX has grown from a bootstrapped startup into a category-defining company with a customer base that spans some of the most sophisticated engineering organizations in the world. We recently closed on our acquisition by Atlassian, which means more resources behind our mission, faster product innovation, and an even bigger impact for the teams who rely on us. How we work at DX: Companies have all kinds of culture slides. At DX, we want to be very clear about what we care about and how we judge performance. For us, it all boils down to individual mastery, becoming the best at your craft. Those who exhibit this quality will thrive here and be unduly rewarded. We can’t control outcomes due to competitors, the economy, decision-makers, etc., but what we can control is doing our jobs at the highest level possible.
About the role
We're looking for a Software Engineering Leadership Advisor to join the DX team as a practitioner voice and executive-level advisor. The ideal candidate is someone who has lived the problems our audience faces—someone who has scaled engineering organizations, navigated the transition to AI-assisted development, and made real decisions about developer productivity with real consequences. Someone who Fortune 500 VPs of Engineering and CTOs already respect or would otherwise recognize as a peer. You'll work within our research team to translate data and findings into practitioner-grounded commentary, frameworks, and guidance that resonates with senior engineering leaders. You'll represent DX externally at executive dinners, on conference stages, on panels, and in advisory conversations with our largest customers. You'll be the person in the room who makes engineering leaders lean in because you've done what they're trying to do. Think of this role as part industry advisor, part executive coach, part practitioner-in-residence. You bring the credibility and the relationships. We bring the data, the platform, and the publishing engine.
Responsibilities
Practitioner commentary and thought leadership
- Provide practitioner-grounded commentary on research findings, data analyses, and frameworks produced by the research team. You're the person who looks at the data and says "here's what this actually means if you're running a 500-person engineering org."
- Co-author and contribute to flagship reports, essays, and talks.
- Develop and contribute to practitioner frameworks, playbooks, and maturity models drawn from your own experience and your network's collective wisdom.
Executive advisory and customer engagement
- Serve as a trusted advisor to DX's largest customers and prospects. Lead workshops, advisory sessions, and executive briefings where engineering leaders are looking for guidance from someone who's been in their seat.
- Participate in customer inquiries and consultations helping engineering leaders apply DX's research and data to their specific organizational challenges.
- Build and maintain relationships with senior engineering leaders across the industry. You should already have a network of VPs of Engineering, CTOs, and Heads of Platform/DevEx.
External presence and industry influence
- Represent DX on conference stages, executive panels, industry podcasts, and at invite-only dinners and roundtables.
- Be a visible, recognized voice in the developer productivity and engineering leadership community.
- Build DX's reputation as the place where senior engineering leaders go for guidance.
Shipping cadence
Each member of this team is expected to produce:
- Two "small ships" per month: quick, high-signal pieces that capture one strong insight or idea. For you these will lean toward practitioner commentary and applied guidance. For example:
- Your take on a trend the research team is seeing in the data; what it means in practice; what leaders should do about it.
- Lessons or frameworks from your own experience leading engineering organizations connected to DX's data/research.
- Key takeaways/commentary from an executive dinner/panel/advisory conversation.
- One "big ship" per quarter: flagship report or talk combining data/practitioner perspective/actionable guidance reframing how leaders think about a problem. For example:
- A practitioner's guide to complex topics (e.g., measuring AI impact; building platform teams; scaling developer experience) grounded in your experience + DX's data.
- Co-authored report with research team providing practitioner framing + real-world context.
- Compilation of advisory insights/patterns seen across customer conversations.
Qualifications
Who you are
- You've led engineering organizations or platform/developer experience teams at scale—typically as VP of Engineering, Head of Platform/Developer Experience or Senior Director of Engineering or similar.
- You've made real decisions about developer productivity/tooling/team design with real consequences.
- You are known/respected by senior engineering leaders (VPs of Engineering/CTOs at Fortune 500 companies would take your call/attend your talk/want you at their dinner table).
- You've been on stages/panels/podcasts/rooms where senior engineering leaders gather.
- You can provide sharp credible commentary on data/research without needing to run analysis yourself; know how to read datasets/provide commentary/translate into actionable guidance for busy CTOs.
- Strong writer/communicator.
- Opinionated but intellectually honest; strong views on running engineering orgs but update views when evidence changes.
You're looking for a role where you can
- Shape how entire industry thinks about developer productivity & AI.
- Combine real-world experience with data from hundreds of orgs producing guidance that changes how leaders operate.
- Be person Fortune 500 engineering leaders turn to for advice backed by data/brand/distribution engine of DX & Atlassian.
- Work alongside world-class researchers & serious insight craft team.
- Build body of work you're proud of.
Atlassian helps teams change the world by advancing humanity through the power of software. Their mission is to unleash the potential of every team through open work. They provide products that empower teams in various fields such as medicine, space travel, disaster response, and more.
View Company Profile