Head of Open Source

Remote (American or European time zones) or Boulder, Colorado

Zed is a next-generation code editor that's engineered from scratch in Rust to be fast, elegant, and collaborative.

We’re looking for a Head of Open Source to be responsible for our open source roadmap, creating focus in our GitHub issues, and making sure our Open Source Engineers are successful. This is a role for someone who thrives at the intersection of engineering, community, and product—someone who can turn feedback into features and organize a team around priorities.

Responsibilities

  • Own the open source roadmap: triage bugs, prioritize features, and escalate critical issues to the core team.
  • Translate recurring community themes into a product development pipeline.
  • Define, track, and continuously improve open source team metrics.
  • Keep GitHub issues organized and the Open Source team focused on the most impactful work.
  • Automate workflows with AI where possible (triage, ticket reproduction, etc.).
  • Improve documentation (zed.dev/docs), issues and contributor guidelines.
  • Collaborate with the Head of Community to increase contributions and lower the barrier to entry for new developers.
  • Lead weekly rituals for the Open Source team: assigning issues, refining priorities, and managing queues.
  • Run the First Responder rotation, ensuring engineers are aligned and responsive.
  • Actively engage on Discord, Reddit, and Twitter to support users and capture feedback.
  • Grow and sustain the Open Source team by designing a repeatable program for the contract-to-hire pipeline, ensuring we can bring in and support Open Source Engineers on a regular cadence.
  • Provide focus and clarity for the Open Source team without direct people managment responsibilities (this is not an engineering management role).

Requirements

  • Deep user empathy and use both qualitative and quantitative data points to inform your strategy and planning.
  • Strong technical background, with fluency in developer tools, GitHub workflows, and issue tracking.
  • Proven ability to triage and prioritize across a high volume of requests.
  • Exceptional organizational skills and the ability to create focus in chaotic environments.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills; you can represent the project with clarity and empathy across docs, GitHub, and community channels.
  • Ability to apply technical expertise to evaluate community issues and support contributors in driving effective solutions.

Join us in revolutionizing the development experience. Your expertise could drive Zed's next game-changing feature!

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