Job Application for Technical Product Manager at Ably (UK)

Our everyday digital experiences are in the midst of a realtime revolution. Whether chatting alongside a livestreaming event, receiving realtime financial information, or working with colleagues in an online collaborative environment - consumers simply expect realtime digital experiences as standard. At Ably we’re not just witnessing this revolution, we’re powering it - at scale.

At the heart of our mission lies a commitment to putting developers first. Ably provides a suite of products to build, extend, and deliver powerful digital experiences in realtime, delivering billions of messages for millions of devices every day and supporting organizations like Split, Hubspot, Toyota and Genius Sports.

Working at Ably means helping to build the infrastructure and technology that will power and shape the future of the internet. The opportunity in front of us is immense. And we’d like your help.

About this role

As a Technical Product Manager at Ably, you’ll help shape the future of realtime experiences by driving forward one or more of our products and other critical platform components. You'll blend your deep technical expertise and software engineering mindset to translate big ideas into powerful developer solutions. Your work will directly impact billions of people by helping thousands of developers to build fast, reliable, and scalable realtime applications that people love to use.

You’ll become the go-to expert in our market, our platform, and most importantly, our developer community. You’ll own the strategy, roadmap, and success of your product area, turning complex problems into elegant, developer-centric experiences.

Day to day, you will

Own and evolve the product vision. Collaborate closely with our founders, senior leadership, and engineering team to define and execute a compelling product strategy that aligns with our ambitious company goals.
Level up Ably’s developer platform. Partner with a talented engineering team to continuously improve and expand our platform, driving initiatives around developer tooling, seamless user experiences, account management, billing, and other foundational services.
Deeply understand our developers. Regularly engage with Ably’s vibrant developer community to gather insights, uncover pain points, and translate feedback into clear, actionable product improvements.
Drive exceptional developer experiences. Obsessively focus on building standout experiences that developers love, leading to genuine advocacy and enthusiasm for Ably within the developer ecosystem.
Guide impactful engineering outcomes. Clearly articulate problems, craft precise requirements, and provide supporting UX wireframes, API specs, or prototypes that empower engineers to deliver outstanding solutions.
Lead the end-to-end delivery process. Collaborate with Delivery and Engineering teams to navigate timelines, trade-offs, and continuously refine requirements to ensure seamless execution.
Drive product launches and commercial success. Partner with Product Marketing and Sales to create compelling go-to-market strategies, launch plans, and ultimately drive adoption and growth.
Use data-driven insights to innovate. Define, monitor, and analyze key product metrics, using data as your compass to drive continuous improvement and inform strategic decisions.

We'd love to talk if you have

Proven experience managing technical B2B SaaS products, with a track record of driving meaningful technical improvements and architectural innovation..
A strong technical background in software engineering and a solid grasp of modern web technologies and ecosystems. You’re comfortable writing code in at least one modern language like Javascript/TypeScript to prototype with our APIs.
Hands-on experience with developer tools. You have a favorite text editor, regularly interact with CLI tools, and genuinely enjoy being among the first users of your own products.
A history of designing developer-friendly APIs, crafting clear documentation, and building impactful prototypes. You understand what makes an API delightful.
A passion for tackling challenging problems head-on, analyzing complex scenarios, and delivering practical, creative solutions.
Demonstrated skill in defining clear, strategic roadmaps for technically sophisticated products.
An empathetic, detail-oriented approach to understanding developer needs and pain points, ensuring exceptional end-to-end experiences.
A hunger for data exploration, with experience turning analytics into actionable insights.
Comfort operating in fast-paced startup or high-growth environments, thriving on rapid iteration and flexibility.

Bonus points if you have

Experience delivering solutions used by developers (developer tools or APIs), or closely related solutions for other technical personas in the software development ecosystem (e.g. DevOps, cloud infrastructure etc.).
Familiarity with pub/sub, distributed systems, and event-driven architectures.

What’s it like to work at Ably?

We’re tackling planet-scale problems and our ambitions are a testament to that. You’ll join a successful, deeply motivated and collaborative team that thrives on innovation, experimentation and autonomy. To get a sense of life at Ably, visit our careers page. You can also read about the origins of Ably's core values on our blog.

We believe in fostering a culture that's built on inclusivity and mutual respect among all team members, and we recognise that each individual is different and will want to be supported in their role in different ways. We provide a range of perks and benefits to aid folks' development and wellbeing, allowing them to be their best selves and do great work.

A remote-first and flexible work environment. UK-based teams come together in person once per month in our London hub (next to Old Street) and we get together as a company twice per year. Aside from that, you’re welcome to work wherever suits best for you.
Equity. We’re a growing start-up and we want all team to members to share in the success of the company through our EMI share options programme.
Enhanced holiday allowance. Our policy provides Ablyans with 28 days of paid annual leave (27 regular days, plus a day off to enjoy your birthday).
Enhanced parental leave package, so that you can take the time you need to get to know your new family member, rest and recover.
Home workstation budget of £500 on joining (and £150 p/a thereafter), so that your home office is set up to serve you well and that you have everything you need to work comfortably.
Personal learning and development budget of £1000 annually, and 5% L&D time during working hours to focus on improving your skillset.
Private healthcare with BUPA.
Medical cash plan to cover a range medical and dental costs.
Mental wellbeing coaching and counselling from Self Space.
Monthly wellbeing budget via Juno.
Life assurance and income protection.
Access to Tech & Cycle to Work schemes.
Weekly snack allowance for our end-of-week “Need To Know” meeting.
A fully-paid one-month sabbatical after five years with Ably.

Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at Ably

We believe our differences as individuals is what makes us great. Our people are at the heart of what we do, and we encourage everyone to be their most authentic self at Ably: we see inclusivity and openness as fundamental to creating long-term success as an organization. We encourage applications from all backgrounds regardless of age, disability, gender, sexual orientation, parental status, race, religion, educational background or neurodiversity. Ably has an amazing opportunity ahead of us, and we want anyone to be able to contribute to that opportunity.

If you enjoy working as part of a technology company, value open source, and love solving hard problems - then we’d love to hear from you, regardless of whether you fit the job description exactly or not. If in doubt, drop us an email; we’d be more than happy to give you some advice on your application.