Senior Technical Product Manager (IntelliJ Kotlin Plugin)

In this role, you will

• Own the product vision for the Kotlin plugin: fast, correct, and trustworthy IDE support that evolves with the language.
• Use IntelliJ IDEA with the Kotlin plugin daily — dogfooding features, catching regressions, and validating the developer experience first-hand.
• Maintain and develop reference Kotlin projects that serve as showcases for new features, material for conference demos, and a living test bed for DX quality.
• Build prototypes and proofs-of-concept using AI coding agents to explore and validate new capabilities.
• Own and continuously adapt the plugin roadmap across short-term release goals, mid-term initiatives, and longer-term Kotlin ecosystem related projects.
• Align plugin planning with Kotlin compiler releases, IntelliJ IDEA release trains, and Android Studio constraints.
• Make explicit trade-offs and say "no" when cost, risk, or maintenance burden outweighs user value.
• Define problem statements, success criteria, and scope for features — then collaborate with engineers to validate and refine.
• Represent core Kotlin personas — JVM backend developers, library authors, Android and Multiplatform teams — and prioritize recurring pain points: false positives, slow analysis, unreliable refactorings, onboarding pain points, AI agents integrations.
• Run a consistent pipeline of monthly user interviews to ground decisions in real workflows.
• Coordinate with Kotlin language team, Developer Advocates, framework partners, Marketing, and other JetBrains teams.
• Create external visibility through what's-new posts, Kotlin User Groups meetup talks, and feature previews at events like KotlinConf, Spring I/O, Devoxx and others.

We're looking for someone who

• Has professional software development experience in Java or Kotlin (this is a must).
• Has 5+ years of experience in technical product management or a comparable role in a complex technical domain.
• Is a hands-on product person who lives in the product, not someone who operates through reports and meetings alone.
• Has experience with AI coding tools and agents, and curiosity about how they reshape developer workflows.
• Can define clear roadmaps with problem statements, success criteria, and explicit trade-offs.
• Has strong communication skills in English — written and spoken — for both technical peers and executive audiences.
• Is ready to represent the product externally at conferences, in blog posts, and in community interactions.
• Takes developer experience personally — not as an abstract metric, but as something they feel in their own daily workflow.

We'd be especially thrilled if you

• Have experience developing IntelliJ plugins or working with the IntelliJ Platform SDK.
• Have built or contributed to evaluation pipelines, benchmarks, or quality measurement systems.
• Have given technical talks or published content aimed at developer audiences.