Have a read of this post by Mike Rowehl on the subject (“ Why Mobile Developer Programs Arent Working “). Mike knows a thing or two about mobile developers being one himself.

His post is critical reading for anyone involved in mobile developer outreach. Mike points out that:

• You can’t have marketing people talking to engineers/developers. You need to have real, live, proper engineers conversing with engineers.
• You can’t fake it by sticking up a ‘community site’ and assuming everyone will pop along — see Mike’s excellent real life example of Vodafone’s Betavine not working very well at all for him
• Holding a hackathon just because you’ve got a platform launch coming up is a total waste of time

Nice post Mike!

By the way, Mike is a regular organiser of Mobile Monday Silicon Valley — I interviewed him inone of the very first Mobile Developer TV episodes.

I just heard in from Jason over at location experts, WaveMarket. They’re hunting for a Smartphone Developer Community Manager. The role comes with a super salary and is a super opportunity for someone looking to get stuck into the developer relations industry.

Here are the details:

Background

WaveMarket is the hottest startup in location based services. We are growing rapidly and are seeking a technically-oriented Smartphone Developer Community Manager to join our team.

Our newest and most cutting edge product is an SDK and client library for iPhone and Android developers that helps them better monetize the location data they’re collecting from end users of their apps. Developers can use this data to gain deeper insight into who is using their apps and to improve their in-app experience.

We have a growing community of smartphone app developers, and we need a charismatic evangelist to engage and cultivate this community.

The Job

You love getting into technical debates. You post frequently on tech boards. You are an effective communicator, are very comfortable engaging with engineers, and are effective at building trust and making connections. At the same time, you have deep technical chops, can write sample code and demo apps, and speak intelligently about the nuances of technology to engineers.

What will you need to do?

Own the voice of the community. Communicate regularly with the developer community, who is the customer, to gain a deep understanding of their needs and help prioritize our feature investments. We help developers make more $ from their apps with free tools. Your job is to know the developer.

Market and evangelize, grow the community. Actively monitor the trends and pulse of the market around location technologies, including major announcements and activities of competition. Figure out where the market is going and filter the hype from the substance while at the same time evangelizing the platform to both existing and new developers, media and press. Own outbound communications including blogs, tweets, conferences, postings on various online communities, etc.

Source, close, and manage deals. Work closely with the WaveMarket business team to proactively engage with and onboard new developers, manage existing developers, and work with developers to advance them through the funnel from initial connection to launch.

Sound exciting? We want to meet you, particularly if you have:
A technical bachelors or masters degree (CS, EE) from a top university
3 years of professional work experience minimum
Experience writing code for smartphone apps, strong preference for iPhone and Android (even if you’re no longer doing it.
Strong writing and communication skills
High level of comfort speaking in front of others
Marketing and/or Product Experience, particularly of software products
Experience marketing to / interacting with software developers
A passion for cutting edge technologies

To get the ball rolling, whack your resume/CV to: pmjobs at wavemarket.com

I know there’s a lot of developers reading — and in this rather challenging market, I thought I’d make use of the medium to see if we can help anyone out.

Reader Dan emailed me earlier today to say that he’s on the hunt for a PHP Developer thus:

I’m looking for a decent PHP developer with Postgresql knowledge and at least a passing knowledge of the mobile and telecoms space. Salary is good and will currently be based in Southwark (next door to the Symbian HQ).

If you’d like to chat to Dan, drop me a note and I’ll forward on your email to him directly.