Staff Technical Evangelist, Start Ups

Talantir; United States; Hybrid; USD 210,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

DigitalOcean is seeking a veteran founder- | CTO-level expert to engage deeply with technical founders, helping them land on the platform with architectures and templates that accelerate 0-to-1 progress.

You will partner with Growth, Sales and Product to recruit top AI-native founders, while providing hands-on onboarding support and collecting ecosystem feedback to shape our credit and pricing strategy.

Qualifications

• 7+ Years of "In the Trenches" experience as founder/CTO/early engineer who lived the 0-to-1 journey.
• High-velocity prototyping: rapidly build, ship, iterate on prototypes and architectures.
• The "Technical Closer" mindset combining engineering depth with GTM intuition.
• Strategic "Founder-to-Founder" empathy: speak founder language on trade-offs and burn rates.
• Ecosystem "Hunter" drive: network at demo days, accelerators, CTO roundtables.
• Storytelling with business ROI: translate cloud features into startup ROI and pricing advantages.

Responsibilities

• Founder-Persona Advocacy at founder-heavy events to onboard startups to DigitalOcean.
• Strategic Founder-Scale Content focusing on 0-to-1 architecture and cost optimization.
• Startup Program Partnership with Growth, Sales, and Product to recruit elite AI-native founders.
• High-Impact Onboarding Support as the main technical contact for startups on the platform.
• Surface ecosystem feedback to Product and Growth on founder needs and pricing competitiveness.

Skills

Founder Advocacy

Rapid Prototyping

Technical GTM

Founder empathy

Ecosystem Networking

ROI Storytelling

Job description

What You'll Do:

• Founder-Persona Advocacy: Be the \"boots on the ground\" at founder‑heavy events—demo days, accelerator meetups, and invite‑only startup events. You will identify high‑potential startups and act as their first technical point of contact, enabling them to build and scale on DigitalOcean.


• Strategic \"Founder-Scale\" Content: Craft code and content specifically for technical founders. Instead of general tutorials, you'll focus on architecture for 0-to-1, cost‑optimization for bootstrapped teams, production AI inference patterns, and building AI/SaaS products with speed‑to‑market in mind.


• Startup Program Partnership: Work closely with a pod of team members from Partner Growth, Sales, and Product to establish technical credibility and recruit elite AI-native founders to build on DO.


• High‑Impact Onboarding Support: Act as a trusted point of contact for key startups as they land on the platform. You'll help them navigate technical questions and architectural hurdles as they build and scale so they become successful, sustainable customers.


• Ecosystem Feedback: Surface \"hard-truth\" feedback from founders to our Product and Growth teams. You'll help us understand why a founder might choose a competitor's credit package over ours and how we can win their trust.

What You'll Bring to DigitalOcean:

• 7+ Years of \"In the Trenches\" Experience: You have a deep technical background as a founder, CTO, or early‑stage engineer who has lived the \"0-to-1\" journey. You don't just understand cloud infrastructure; you understand the visceral pressure of building a company from scratch.


• High‑Velocity Prototyping: You are a \"Builder First.\" You can rapidly build, ship, and iterate on high‑quality technical prototypes, templates, and \"Golden Path\" architectures that show founders exactly how DigitalOcean accelerates their specific roadmap.


• The \"Technical Closer\" Mindset: You possess a rare blend of engineering depth and Go-To-Market (GTM) intuition. You are motivated by activation and conversion—you aren't satisfied with a \"cool demo\" unless it leads to a committed founder adopting DigitalOcean as their primary platform.


• Strategic \"Founder-to-Founder\" Empathy: You can speak the language of technical trade‑offs, burn rates, and speed‑to‑market. You build credibility not by being an \"instructor,\" but by being a peer who can architect a solution that survives a startup's first 100k users.


• Ecosystem \"Hunter\" Drive: You thrive in the middle of the startup ecosystem. You are a natural networker who can navigate VC demo days, accelerator hackathons, and CTO roundtables to proactively identify and entice high‑potential teams onto DigitalOcean.


• Storytelling with Business ROI: You have the ability to translate complex cloud features into clear business advantages. You can articulate why our simplicity and predictable pricing are strategic assets for a startup's long‑term survival, not just \"nice‑to‑have\" features.

Compensation Range:

$210,000-$250,000

*This is a remote role.

#LI-Remote

Why You'll Like Working for DigitalOcean

We innovate with purpose. You'll be a part of a cutting‑edge technology company with an upward trajectory, who are proud to simplify cloud and AI so builders can spend more time creating software that changes the world. As a member of the team, you will be a Shark who thinks big, bold, and scrappy, like an owner with a bias for action and a powerful sense of responsibility for customers, products, employees, and decisions.

We prioritize career development. At DO, you'll do the best work of your career. You will work with some of the smartest and most interesting people in the industry. We are a high‑performance organization that will always challenge you to think big. Our organizational development team will provide you with resources to ensure you keep growing. We provide employees with reimbursement for relevant conferences, training, and education. All employees have access to LinkedIn Learning's 10,000+ courses to support their continued growth and development.

We care about your well‑being. Regardless of your location, we will provide you with a competitive array of benefits to support you from our Employee Assistance Program to Local Employee Meetups to flexible time off policy, to name a few. While the philosophy around our benefits is the same worldwide, specific benefits may vary based on local regulations and preferences.

We reward our employees. The salary range for this position is based on market data, relevant years of experience, and skills. You may qualify for a bonus in addition to base salary; bonus amounts are determined based on company and individual performance. We also provide equity compensation to eligible employees, including equity grants upon hire and the option to participate in our Employee Stock Purchase Program.

DigitalOcean is an equal‑opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.

Application Limit: You may apply to a maximum of 3 positions within any 180-day period. This policy promotes better role‑candidate matching and encourages thoughtful applications where your qualifications align most strongly.