Head of Developer Relations

Head of Developer Relations (DevRel)

About Hack2skill:

Hack2skill is one of the world's largest developer-engagement and innovation platforms. We

don't talk to the developer community — we are infrastructure for it.

- 8,000,000+ developers in our community, across 10,000+ institutes in India and 2,500+ globally, activated by 12,500+ campus leads and chapter ambassadors.

- 1,500+ hackathons and innovation challenges run end to end.

- We set a Guinness World Record with Google Cloud's Agentic AI Day — 57,000+ signups, 1,941 developers in one room, 700 working AI prototypes built overnight.

- We power the Smart India Hackathon — the world's biggest open innovation model — with the Ministry of Education, plus NASA Space Apps, ONDC's Build for Bharat, and

ICC Next In.

- Our clients include Google Cloud, Intel, Microsoft, Meta, GitHub, Samsung, Deutsche Telekom, Accenture, NPCI and more.

- A network of 15,000+ industry mentors and SMEs and 200+ incubators & accelerators (GDG, Startup Grind, Techstars, MassChallenge, IIT E-Cells) sits behind our programs.

For us, developers aren't a marketing channel. They're the business. Everything we build lives or dies on whether the community trusts us, shows up for us, and tells other developers about us.

Why this role exists

We're hiring a Head of Developer Relations to own that trust. This is the person who becomes the face of Hack2skill inside India's developer community — and makes H2S the platform developers want to build with.

This is not a "post on socials" role. It's a senior leadership seat at the intersection of community, product, and revenue. You'll build the DevRel function from the ground up and lead it — with the scale, brand partnerships, and flagship programs above already behind you.

What you'll own

- The developer community. Grow, energize, and retain our 8M+ community across cities, campuses, chapters, and online. Turn one-time hackathon participants into a standing community that keeps coming back.

- Being the face. Represent H2S on stage, on panels, in developer forums, and across LinkedIn, X, and YouTube. When developers in India think of hackathon and dev-community platforms, they should think of you.

- Flagship programs. Shape and lead marquee programs — the next Agentic AI Day, Smart India Hackathon, ICC Next In, client hackathons with Google/Intel/Samsung — from theme and format to judging, mentorship, and alumni engagement.

- Client-facing partnership. Work directly with our enterprise accounts (and their DevRel, developer-marketing, and ecosystem teams) to design programs that actually land with real developers — and defend the developer experience when it matters.

- Content and voice. Set the editorial and technical-content direction — talks, blogs, workshops, AMAs, campaigns — that earns credibility with a technical audience instead of marketing at them.

- The team. Build and lead a high-caliber DevRel and community team over time. Set the standard, hire against it, coach to it.

- Measurable outcomes. Own the numbers that matter: community growth and retention, developer participation and quality, event scale, NPS/sentiment, and the pipeline these create for the business.

Who you are (must-haves)

- 8+ years across developer relations, developer advocacy, community, or technical evangelism — with real seniority and ownership, not just a title.

- Deeply embedded in India's developer community. You don't need an intro to it — you are part of it. You know the communities, the organizers, the campuses, the GDG / DevRel / OSS circles, and the people who move the ecosystem.

- Genuine developer credibility. You've either shipped code or worked so closely with developers that they treat you as one of their own. You can hold a technical room without faking it.

- Strong public presence. A solid, active LinkedIn presence (ideally X / YouTube / GitHub too) with a real audience and real engagement — evidence that developers already listen to you.

- A proven track record of building community, not just attending it — communities you started, programs you scaled, events that became a thing.

- Executive presence. You can stand in front of a Google / Intel / Microsoft stakeholder and in front of a room of 2,000 developers in the same week, and win both.

- Bias for building. Comfortable creating a function from zero and moving fast.

Nice-to-haves

- Hands-on experience running hackathons or large developer events at scale.

- Existing relationships with major developer platforms and their DevRel / ecosystem teams.

- Background in AI/ML, GenAI, cloud, or open source — where the community energy is right now.

- Experience turning community into commercial outcomes (sponsorships, enterprise programs, talent pipelines).

Ten non-negotiables (our shortlist bar)

A candidate must clearly meet these to move forward:

1. 8+ years in DevRel / developer advocacy / technical community, with senior ownership.

2. Demonstrable depth in India's developer ecosystem specifically.

3. A public, active LinkedIn presence with genuine reach among developers.

4. At least one community, program, or event they personally built and scaled.

5. Comfort and credibility with a technical audience (can speak developer, not just marketing).

6. Experience representing a brand publicly — stage, panels, online — at scale.

7. Evidence of working directly with enterprise / large-tech stakeholders.

8. People leadership experience, or a clear, demonstrated readiness for it.

9. Track record tied to measurable community and program outcomes.

10. Based in or willing to operate on India hours, and willing to travel for events.

What success looks like

First 90 days — You've mapped and re-engaged our existing community, met the key ecosystem players, sat in on our major client programs, and delivered a clear DevRel strategy with the metrics we'll be judged on.

Six months — Our flagship hackathons and academies feel sharper and more loved by developers, community activity and retention are measurably up, and H2S's voice in the community is visibly stronger — with you at the front of it.

First year — DevRel is a real, resourced function with a team you've built. Developers actively choose H2S, enterprise clients trust us to reach real developers, and the community is a durable competitive moat.

Why Hack2skill

You'd be building the developer relations engine for a company whose entire reason for existing is developers — at genuine scale, with a Guinness World Record already on the board, direct access to the biggest tech names in the industry, and real budget behind flagship programs. If you want to own DevRel for a category rather than inherit someone else's playbook, this is it.