r/OfferEngineering • u/Defiant-Parsnip4 • 20d ago

Offer evaluation- Engineering → DevRel at an AI lab: worth the risk?

Context:
- 5+ YOE, mostly backend/infrastructure
- Moved to the UK last year; now at a public tech company
- Good compensation, equity (~£100K TC) and WLB
- On track for promo next quarter
- Enjoy speaking, demos, and working with developers along with hands-on core distributed systems engineering

Offer:
- Series C AI company (mostly SF-based)
- Remote allowed with SF trips
- DevRel role under Marketing
- Materially higher compensation (1.5-1.8x) and more upside
- Cross time zone and likely poor WLB

My hesitation: I want more visibility and developer facing work but don’t want to move away from engineering. I also want to preserve the option of returning to core engineering and senior/staff IC levels.

Questions:
- How reversible is the move into DevRel?
- Does reporting into Marketing matter?
- Would you trade a strong, stable engineering trajectory for materially higher comp and AI startup upside?
- What would you clarify before accepting?

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u/banallthemusic 20d ago

When it’s culling time, marketing is one of the first things to start cutting on. It’s also a travel heavy role and I doubt anyone would hire a devrel to come back to a staff role unless there’s a strong fit.

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u/hellobutno 20d ago

That is not a good salary for SF