New Compensation Survey Finds Cloud Infrastructure Companies Offer Highest Pay for Developer Relations Roles, Seniority Imbalances Related to Gender

Common Room releases first ever Developer Relations Compensation Report to empower every DevRel professional with concrete earnings data that enables them to have informed compensation conversations.

Common Room, the intelligent community growth platform for fastest-growing companies, released the first ever 2022 Developer Relations Compensation Report in an effort to create greater transparency within the industry and shed light on compensation structures. Among other key findings, the survey found that the median salary for DevRel roles across the globe is approximately $180,000 USD per year with cloud infrastructure companies having the highest compensation for developer relations and developer advocate positions. Additionally, the survey found that the DevRel median salary in the United States is $28,000 higher than the global median.

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“Through my conversations with DevRel builders, it was clear there wasn’t enough compensation data for community members to walk into their next salary conversation with confidence in terms of what was fair, expected, or even ‘normal’,” said Rebecca Marshburn, Head of Community at Common Room. “This survey is just the beginning of what we’re committed to contributing to the DevRel community. A big part of my job is empowering communities with the tools they need to succeed in their roles, and that starts with empowering professionals with data that enables them to increase their agency within the DevRel field.”

The report features responses from 140+ DevRel professionals across multiple continents but primarily in the U.S. and presents their compensation in relation to their organizational demographics, team demographics, and individual demographics. Key findings from the report include:

• Individuals who have 1–5 years of total experience make on average $98,000 per year compared to people with at least 16 years of experience who typically earn $210,000 annually.
• As the highest paying industry, Cloud Infrastructure organizations pay a median salary of $218,000 USD for DevRel roles.
• A majority of Developer Relations professionals identify as male (66%) and this imbalance becomes more pronounced when looking at the Developer Relations professionals with more senior titles (80% of directors, 91.7% of principals, and 75% of vice presidents identify as male).
• The median salary of DevRel advocates having software engineering experience is 26.3% higher compared to those without prior software engineering experience.

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“Nobody has any idea what to pay DevRel because we’re not-developers, not-marketers, not-community-managers, and not-product-managers, but an increasingly in-demand blend of all of the above,” said Shawn Wang, Head of Developer Experience at Airbyte and Editor at DX Tips. “Common Room’s new compensation survey will give founders and DevRel professionals the resources to run successful DevRel programs. And it will enable us to create more equitable and fair compensation conversations for this rare combination of hard and soft skills that has led to the success of companies like Twilio, Supabase and Vercel.”

Read the full 2022 Developer Relations Compensation Report at commonroom.io. For more resources and insights for DevRel and community leaders, including new job postings, join the Uncommon community. For organizations interested in a solution to help them activate the power of their community, learn more at Common Room’s solutions for DevRel teams page. Get started for free or request a demo to see the Common Room platform in action.

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