Developer Relations Engineer at Smallpdf

ABOUT US Pdftools is on a mission to empower people and businesses to share documents with trust and confidence, today and in the future! In over 70 countries, more than 650 customers trust our PDF technology to power their mission-critical business processes. As a pioneer in the PDF industry since 1994, we have been instrumental in shaping the PDF standard as it is known today. We enable our customers to do their business effectively with a wide range of software solutions and developer components that define the PDF solution they can trust. Built with precision and passion in Switzerland. We are proud to say that we have an inclusive, supportive, and fun culture, yet ambitious in helping you grow your career. Our team is made up of PDF technology veterans. We are an extremely customer-focused, fun, and hardworking team of members across product, engineering, marketing, sales, and more! We share a common set of values that we look for in every new hire: - We Get A Kick Out Of Solving Problems - We Before I - Always Learn, Always Improve - We Take Ownership - We Focus On What Matters Come join us on our mission to empower people and businesses to share documents with trust and confidence, today and in the future! ABOUT THE ROLE Developers building automated document pipelines in regulated industries know the problem: processing PDFs at scale, reliably, with the compliance and accuracy the business demands is genuinely hard. AI tools promise to simplify it. In practice, they expose how complex the document layer really is. Pdftools has spent 30 years solving exactly those problems. We have some of the most robust PDF processing technology in the industry used by software companies embedding it into their own products, systems integrators building tailored document solutions, and enterprises where accuracy and compliance are non-negotiable. Most developers who need what we have built do not know we exist yet. The ones who find us frequently tell us they wish they had found us sooner. This role exists to change that. Not through campaigns or content calendars, but through genuine technical work: building real examples, running experiments at the intersection of AI and document engineering, and showing up with honest opinions in the communities where developers are working through these problems. Marketing will amplify what you create. The direction comes from you. If you find the hard version of a problem more interesting than the demo version, this is the right place.   RESPONSIBILITIES BUILD THINGS DEVELOPERS LEARN FROM - Create hands-on samples and working demos that demonstrate how to solve real document workflow problems with Pdftools technology - Go beyond samples to build small applications and prototypes that make our technology tangible before installation - Document your work through technical blog posts, walkthroughs, and architecture deep dives - Compare approaches through real experiments (e.g. OCR vs vision models vs structured extraction) and publish what you find EXPERIMENT AT THE INTERSECTION OF AI AND DOCUMENT ENGINEERING - Test LLMs, vision-language models, and agentic systems applied to documents - Develop clear technical perspectives on when AI improves document workflows and where deterministic processing still wins, and publish those opinions publicly - Use AI coding tools (e.g. coding agents, LLM-assisted prototyping) to build and iterate quickly ENGAGE WHERE DEVELOPERS WORK THROUGH PROBLEMS - Contribute meaningfully in spaces like GitHub, Reddit, Hacker News, and developer forums - Run webinars, live coding sessions, and architecture deep dives - Attend and speak at relevant developer events - Be helpful in the conversations developers are having, not just the ones we create SURFACE WHAT THE MARKET TELLS US - Observe how developers approach document workflows problems, what breaks, and where expectations are shifting - Share regular insights with product, marketing, and documentation strategy - Act as an early signal system for where developer needs are heading   ABOUT YOU You build things because you want to know how they work, where they break, and what becomes possible when you push them further than the documentation suggests. Side projects, experimental repos, and published findings matter more here than polished production systems. Your discovery agenda is driven by deep curiosity about the technical problems your audience encounters. You bring to this role: - 3–5 years of software development experience - Genuine curiosity about the problems your audience is trying to solve. You follow developer conversations, notice recurring patterns, and find ways to be useful before anyone asks. - Satisfaction from pulling apart an SDK, finding its edges, and building something unexpected with it. Demos are a byproduct of that curiosity, not the starting point. - Hands-on experience with AI systems including LLMs, vision-language models, RAG pipelines, or document AI workflows. You have real opinions about where they work and where they fall short. - Strong prototyping ability across: - Python (data workflows, backend logic) - JavaScript/TypeScript (frontend or SDK integrations) - Established workflows with AI coding tools and agents - The ability to articulate clear technical opinions based on the experiments you run and comfort publishing those opinions publicly - The communications chops to explain complex ideas in a way that feels peer-to-peer, not instructional NICE TO HAVE’S - Prior experience with document processing, PDF libraries, or OCR systems; you already understand the domain this role operates in - Familiarity with compliance-driven industries such as insurance, banking, or government; you understand why accuracy and reliability are non-negotiable in these workflows - Experience contributing to or maintaining open source projects - Background in developer tools, API-first companies, or SDK-focused products WHY YOU’LL LOVE WORKING AT PDFTOOLS Pdftools is a place where people genuinely care about doing things well. We believe in precision, empathy, collaboration and continuous improvement - and we live those values every day. You’ll be supported by deep technical expertise, surrounded by kind people and given the space to build something meaningful. With a strong, trusted product behind you and a team committed to solving real problems together, your work will matter far beyond your scope. Because our technology touches essential workflows around the world, your impact will reach people and organizations who rely on us when trust and integrity matter most. If you want to help shape the way the world shares information with trust and integrity - we’d love to meet you. OUR BENEFITS 🌍 Influence the way over 1,000’s world leading organizations handle PDF workflows every day. 🚀 Push boundaries and dare to fail—that’s how we learn! 💻 Enjoy the flexibility a remote work environment with the option to meet in one of our offices occasionally to work together and strengthen the team bond. 🏝️ 30 vacation days—yep, you read that right—that you can take whenever you need them. 🧳 Need a long break? We offer sabbatical leave to employees who’ve been with us for over 2 years. 👶 16 weeks parental leave—100% of your salary—for all new parents 🥧 Possibility of a Phantom stock option plan - PSOP (Conditions apply). 📚 A well-being budget of up to 2,000 CHF every year that can be used for training and development (plus days off for courses or training) and for physical and mental well-being purposes. 🤓 Internal knowledge sharing & external coaching to further develop your professional and social skills. 👩‍💻 Hack days to challenge you and your team, plus build amazing things. HOW TO APPLY Please apply using the form below and upload your CV - in English, as it’s the standard working language at Pdftools. A PDF format is preferred. COMPENSATION PHILOSOPHY At Pdftools, we believe compensation should be fair, transparent and thoughtfully aligned with the value each person brings to our team. Our approach balances several key factors - current market trends, role expectations, seniority, experience, and geographic location - to ensure every offer is both competitive and equitable. We review our salary ranges regularly to stay in step with the evolving market, and we make decisions based on skills, impact, and responsibility rather than negotiation strength. Our goal is simple: to recognize and reward great work, support long-term growth and create a compensation structure that feels fair, consistent and grounded in integrity. We want everyone at Pdftools to feel valued, supported and empowered to do their best work - and our compensation philosophy is designed to reflect exactly that. HIRING POLICY Pdftools is an equal-opportunity employer, and we believe our strength comes from a team that reflects a wide range of backgrounds, identities, perspectives, and lived experiences. We welcome applicants of all genders, ethnicities, ages, abilities, orientations, and life paths. You’ll also have the option to share your pronouns and answer an anonymous demographic questionnaire when you apply. This information is completely voluntary, but it helps us stay accountable in building an inclusive and equitable hiring process. We use AI thoughtfully in our day-to-day work, but we value human curiosity, creativity, and integrity above all. We’re excited to meet candidates who bring genuine expertise, real stories, and authentic experience to the table.