Howdy folks! 🤠

I’m on a quest for my next adventure.

Keep reading to find out what I'm looking for in my next full-time role. In the meantime, I am open to contract or fractional work on a project basis.

👀
Just want the TL;DR — Here's my resume.

I'm a multi-hyphenate developer community advocate.

I am passionate about finding new and innovative ways to communicate, educate, and elevate others.

I am a proven expert at bridging teams and industries from media, product, engineering, design, developer relations/community, and customer success. My nerdy heart is never far behind — I'm a seasoned educator driven by a lifelong love of learning.

  • I am an open source enthusiast. Most recently — this has taken the shape of being active in the open source, machine learning, and larger Python ecosystem. I've delivered lectures and workshops on open source development, APIs, machine learning, and open data.
  • I am a creator. I got my start exploring caches on Geocatching.com and making Sims2 custom content.  Currently, I produce and perform in an AI comedy show that's been featured in the New York Times (twice!), the LA Times, and others.
  • I am a storyteller. My formal educational chops come from the journalism world. I first intended to be a political reporter, but after a semester of court reporting, the monotony got to me.
  • I am a multi-hyphenate. I fueled my creative mind by working as a graphic designer and director of everything at a creative studio. I bounced between product management, user experience, and client relations. This is where I learned how to code; crafting email templates and Shopify sites. I continue to embrace a diverse set of skills across a variety of industries, making the context switching that often comes with developer advocacy and community of roles a breeze.
  • I am an academic. I completed my Master of Arts in media innovation at NYU's Studio 20 program. I spent a year researching fandoms and creators to understand the business models behind both. At NYU, I worked as a project lead with the Financial Times as a UX + product researcher.
  • Pass me the mic, I'm comfortable in front of a crowd. I'm a stand-up comedian, public speaker, ignite talk-giver, adjunct professor, and sketch comedy writer. I've given over 35 professional talks and workshops throughout my career. Engaging audiences small and large is a personal strength.
  • I love working with do-ers. I am passionate about those who create: developers, designers, authors, artists, musicians, and beyond. Empowering folks to embrace their thing and do what they do best is very much my thing.
  • I’m a quick learner, an empathetic builder, and a strategic thinker. I thrive in cross-functional roles where I can flex my skills as an effective communicator. I'm comfortable under pressure, honor a deadline, and am confident in my abilities as a cross-functional communicator.
  • I know that nerdy = fun. I love using pop culture datasets for examples, I build comedic experiences Replicate AI, Docker, Hugging Face, D-ID, and Eleven Labs, and even built a SMS-chatbot for my own wedding planning.

I actively practice sharing what I know through talks, tutorials, and other means of education.

Recent work includes ⤵️

I'm a seasoned, international public speaker ⤵️

Check out my reel on YouTube.

Most recently, I spoke at PyData Berlin on Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback.

Previously I've spoken at How To Web, CodeLand, PyCon, GitHub's Open Source Friday, CFE.dev, Ignite Reno, and more.

Speaking at PyData Berlin with Nikolai Liubimov on reinforcement learning.

What am I looking for in my next role?

While I am looking for the eventual full-time role, I am open to contract work on a project basis until that perfect full-time role comes up. Here is what is essential to me in the organizations that I work with.

  • Kind people doing good things. I value kindness in those around me. I love helping others do what they do best — whatever that may be. I know the talents and value that I bring to the table, and am additionally self-aware of what my weak spots are.
  • Transparency and candor. I look for transparency in process, strategy, and decisions wherever I might land. Let's leave the elephants out of the room so we can focus on what's most important.
  • Embrace learning. As a seasoned educator and lifelong learner, being in an environment where we embrace new skills and growth is important to me. I love being intellectually stimulated through new challenges or opportunities.
  • Autonomy and trust. I'm at a senior level in my career and have had proven successes in the past. I ask for an appropriate amount of autonomy and trust to do what I do best.
  • Flexible and remote work environment. I've worked remotely even before it was "cool." I'm an early riser and like to get a good jump start on the day. I thrive in flexible and remote work environments and am a skilled communicator in asynchronous formats, and would prefer to keep it that way.
  • Opportunity for growth and mentorship.
  • Fair and equitable compensation and healthcare benefits.
"Getting to work with Erin was nothing short of amazing. Her ability to demonstrate her technical knowledge through cross-functional communication was always top-notch. She brought a strong knowledge of product development and was always willing to advocate on my behalf. The key educational programs that Erin created were filled with informative content that showed her true understanding of her audience consuming the information and the environment she creates is always grounded in a safe learning space."

- Christina Monti, Developer Relations Lead @ PayPal

Here are some titles that fit what I'm looking to do next.

I'm looking for a senior+ level role with room to grow. I envision myself working in a cross-functional role alongside developers in a position I can embrace my skills as an educator.

I also understand that the community and developer relations industry is nascent and still growing, so below is not an exhaustive list of titles. If you feel you have a role that may be up my alley — please reach out.

  • Developer/Technical Community Advocate
  • Developer/Community Education
  • Educational Program Manager
  • Developer Community Program Manager
  • Developer Relations
  • Developer Experience
  • Community Moderation + Online Safety
  • Open Source Program Manager
  • Open Source Advocate
  • Product Evangelist
  • Beta Community Manager
  • Product Manager: User Research

It's a bonus but not a requirement if your organization has...

  • Unlimited PTO (and a push by the team or company to use it).
  • Unlimited sick leave.
  • 401K match.
  • A home office setup budget.
  • A professional development budget.
"Erin's contributions have been invaluable in expanding my knowledge of Large Language Models. In my role at GitHub where I was helping developers use GitHub Copilot, gaining insights into the inner workings of these models has significantly enhanced my ability to excel in developer advocacy.

I have greatly benefited from Erin's workshops, webinars, and blog posts. Erin possesses a remarkable talent for simplifying complex concepts, making them accessible and captivating. Without a doubt, any organization would be fortunate to have Erin on their team"
— Rizel Scarlett, Developer Advocate, GitHub

I share things I'm learning in public ⤵️

Scroll through this site to explore them all, or subscribe for updates in your inbox.

Here are just a few recent samples:

I'm an accomplished and skillful educator. ⤵️

I'm passionate about learning and learning from one another. Whether it's in the classroom at NYU, through community, via content, or at a workshop — I'm an expert instructor in a multitude of mediums.

Don't just take my word for it — check out what others have to say:

  • "Thank you - this topic is so so important. You had great suggestions and actions we can take. Also, love that Carl Sagan quote!" (CodeLand 2022)
  • "Sitting down for my 1st episode of #DevRel book club, hosted by @matthewrevell & @hola_soy_milk w/ guest @erinmikail ... I am only 10 minutes in, have already ordered discussed book, and have had my mind blown at least four times!" (Leslie Hawthorn from DevRel BookClub)
  • "An excellent session on community moderation @erinmikail and @brob... thank you so much for hosting it" (Simon Tomes)
  • "@erinmikail was fantastic @how_to_web she is a role model for community builders worldwide. Go, Erin!" (Savian Boroanca)
  • "If you want to learn more about the power of building a community, and how to do it right, you should be following @erinmikail She's often sharing her knowledge on this subject but also, she's such a beautiful person, really." (Karla Fernandez)

There are things for certain I know that I am not.

I've had the chance to wear many hats throughout my career, and for this, I'm fortunate. My multivariate background has allowed me to discover what I'm not interested in as much as what I am interested in.

  • I am not an account manager, sales professional, or marketing lead.
  • I am not a graphic designer or illustrator.
  • I am not a videographer, photographer, or animator.
  • I am not interested in taking on a full-time role at a web3 organization.
  • I am not comfortable with going with the status quo because it's always been so. I expect individuals and organizations to be candid with the why behind what they do.
"Erin created great content and I was really impressed by her technical education skills, the way she was able to manage all of our community contributors, and her ability to manage and foster relationships in the broader Machine Learning ecosystem."
- Elyse Krikorian, Customer Success Manager @ HumanSignal

I believe in celebrating the big wins.

Here are some of mine:

  • Launched education initiatives at HumanSignal and led collaborative workshops on Reinforcement Learning, Zero-Shot Learning, among others.
  • Collaborated as a team to establish and measure target community metrics, and open source metrics for the Label Studio project.
  • Served as a maintainer to help triage and manage open source issues and pull requests for Label Studio. Used working knowledge of our API, Python, and containerized development (Docker) to troubleshoot community issues. Worked cross-functionally to establish how key contributions should be handled.
  • Used activations to drive engagement that led to product adoption. Key Activations include presenting at PyData Berlin, working with Practical AI at ODSC, and delivering relevant, yet comical lightning talks at PyCon.
  • Played a key role in ecosystem projects, including content creation and later activations for the Label Studio Integrations Library.  This library featured target collaborations with Hugging Face, Lightly AI, Pachyderm, Galileo, OpenMMLab, and more.
  • Developed and launched Orbit education strategy, leading 6 education events/month focused on developer & product builders.
  • Scaled the Orbit community from 7K total members to over 30K total members.
  • Experienced content creator across audio, visual, written, and technical content mediums, with consistent brand and press mentions across industries.
  • Subject matter expert backed by NYU + CUNY focused on the creator economy and its viability through user-led research of solopreneurs + fandom communities.
  • Leverage viral moments by executing strategy efficiently, becoming CEO of the Elliot Virtual Mall. Generated partnerships + press mentions with STUDS, Jeff Staple, Morning Brew, Taylor Lorenz, Rally Rd., Emmett Shine, Pattern Brands, + more.

Read about what some of my colleagues and collaborators have said about me ⤵️

Jenifer De Figueiredo, Community @ Iterative.AI
"I've worked with Erin in a partnership capacity in a couple of her roles. She is a collaborative partner who embodies a sincere commitment to community and education. Erin not only brings strategic thinking to the table but also infuses her projects with an infectious energy that elevates every endeavor. Her passion for building community and her ability to foster connections are truly commendable, making her an invaluable asset to any team looking to grow a community. I look forward to working with her more in the future!"

Elyse Krikorian, Customer Success Manager @ HumanSignal
"Erin never passed an opportunity to collaborate and share her knowledge about Open Source. We had a great, mutually beneficial working relationship where we shared best practices and found ways to enhance both our paid and unpaid customer experiences.

Erin created great content and I was really impressed by her technical education skills, the way she was able to manage all of our Community contributors, and her ability to manage and foster relationships in the broader Machine Learning ecosystem.

Erin is eager to learn, whether it's about Machine Learning, Customer Success, or your favorite type of food. It was a pleasure working with her and wherever she goes next will be lucky to have her!"

Ramón Huidobro, Developer Relations @ Suborbital
"I’ve collaborated with Erin in various open source community-oriented events, and her ability to be thoughtful, strategic, as well as highly technical, all with an overall empathic care, is nothing short of inspiring.

She leverages her existing educational and core skill mastery to not only create effective, but inclusive content around communities in a technology-agnostic fashion.

Any team with a focus on education and pedagogy would be lucky to have her."

Kelly Liu, Product Manager @ Orbit
"Erin is such a talented individual and an absolute joy to collaborate with. She draws from her background in media, product, community, and being an internet being and uses all of these skills to effectively connect various teams together at work. She taught me that a community advocate doesn’t hurt communicate with the community, she also voiced community needs, provided product feedback, made sales intros, aided the support team, and taught non-community team members how to be good community participants.

Erin truly brings her all to her work and her energy and work ethic are infectious. I highly recommend Erin for whatever work she does in the future because I know she is adaptable, a fast learner, and will seek out ways to provide more value than you had thought possible."

Patrick Woods, Founder + CEO @ Orbit
"Erin is a deep thinker and strong people connector who’s as great at hosting a live stream or MCing an event as she is writing long-form content. Internally, she’s great at bringing community voice and insight back to the rest of the company. She's awesome at jumpstarting conversations in Discord with incredible energy, and in addition to all that, she always has a pulse of what’s going on with key folks across the community."

Ramón Huidobro, Developer Relations @ Suborbital
"I’ve collaborated with Erin in various open source community-oriented events, and her ability to be thoughtful, strategic, as well as highly technical, all with an overall empathic care, is nothing short of inspiring.

She leverages her existing educational and core skill mastery to not only create effective, but inclusive content around communities in a technology-agnostic fashion.

Any team with a focus on education and pedagogy would be lucky to have her."

Matthew Revell, founder of Hoopy / DevRelCon
"I worked with Erin when Orbit sponsored some of Hoopy's events and content.

Erin offers a great combination of skills and insight that would make her an asset to any developer relations/community team. Her background in journalism, combined with her empathy and experience building technical communities, give Erin a rare ability to be able to communicate across experience levels, functions, and backgrounds. In my own experience working with Erin, I saw how she was able to:

* Build education efforts at Orbit that consistently targeted both developers and product owners
* Understand and empathise with the needs of both developers and other personas in the technology decision process
* Balance the needs of community with the commercial need drive product feature adoption.

I'd love to work with Erin again."

Christina Monti, Developer Relations Lead @ PayPal
"Getting to work with Erin was nothing short of amazing. Her ability to demonstrate her technical knowledge through cross-functional communication was always top-notch. She brought a strong knowledge of product development and was always willing to advocate on my behalf. The key educational programs that Erin created were filled with informative content that showed her true understanding of her audience consuming the information and the environment she creates is always grounded in a safe learning space."

Tony Blank, Community @ Orbit
"Holy shit, I had the privilege of working with Erin for a scant 7 weeks as her leader at Orbit and I wish it was 7 years.

Don't get me started on macroeconomic climate and startup fundraising cycles...
My loss is your gain. Erin worked at Orbit for over a year before I joined, and the amazing work she did here will resonate throughout our community for a long time. Let me explain why:

  • Erin (correctly) understands how community touches all aspects of a business. She'll boost the voice of your customers to the right internal stakeholders, ensuring that you're focused on what is important.
  • Biased to action: Fastest "hey, I wonder if we should blog about BLAH" to "post under review" I've seen. Not just blogs - Erin's amazing at translating high-level directions to tactics. Every community team's fast-paced, and the ability to execute with many moving parts is a rare skill.
  • Empathy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that Erin wouldn't be applying to an org that doesn't GET what makes a community tick, so you know that empathy is important. What you don't know is that I've seen Erin's deep relationships forged in Orbit's community... She's been able to connect with our diverse community and bring everyone together.
  • Technical empathy: Erin knows developers - not just from building dev communities, but she can talk the talk and walk the walk. Erin owned all the community ops plumbing during her time here at Orbit and not just helped get data into our own Orbit instance but helped our community with integrations too. Erin's technical experience directly translates into her ability to connect with a technical audience.

Leia Dudek, Senior Account Executive @ Orbit
"I had the pleasure of working with Erin during our time together at Orbit. She was one of the first teammates to reach out to me directly to offer help as a new hire. She is incredibly kind, patient, thoughtful, and cares deeply about fostering relationships within community. Erin is always willing to offer assistance with any part of the business, whether it's creating developer content for marketing or making a warm introduction for the sales team, she's a true team player.

I'm so thankful our paths crossed professionally; she provided me with the community lens for my sales process. She will be an incredible addition to any company looking to build a meaningful community."

Amanda Quintero, Senior Manager, Business Ops @ Orbit
"Erin is a powerful human connector, strong communicator, and curious explorer. She's not afraid to test the product in all possible ways and listens with empathy to users' needs. She's also gifted with a contagious energy that ignites teamwork and makes her fun to work with."

Malki Davis, Senior Full Stack Engineer @ Orbit
"Erin was a gem at Orbit. She always filled the company with cheer, optimism, and a catchy smile. She has a good word for everyone, no matter what team or department. Erin always comes up with new and creative ideas and is never scared to ask questions on everyone's minds. She works with her heart and soul and genuinely cares for all her teammates."

Cory A. Shrengost, Content Producer @ Dropbox
"As I was developing my skills in the world of strategic communications, I was struggling with complacency for social media and couldn't find my passion for it. I reached out to Erin to get some feedback and mentoring on what I could do to try to shed my "legacy" social media perspective and pivot to find something I could get excited about.

Erin was immediately responsive and helpful. She helped by giving guidance on the world of SM and changing my perspective on how I view SM and how I interact with it professionally. She also gave me some great reading material and resources to be able to access more information. With these tools, I am in the beginning of my fledgling stage of SM love and it's been great! Not only does Erin offer great suggestions, but she is consistently providing feedback, mentorship, and insight every day. I couldn't recommend Erin more!"

Find me online

I'm active on Twitter (X?), Mastodon, and Bluesky, share upcoming events on my luma page, keep a log of professional activities on LinkedIn and Polywork, share pictures of my dog and comedy reels on TikTok and Instagram, build projects in public on GitHub, showcase conference talks and lectures and the DevRelish podcast on YouTube, and live stream on Twitch.

Keep in touch with me, check in on all my sites on my bio page, or learn more about where I'm coming from here.

When can you start?

I'm actively interviewing and ready to start my next role when the fit feels just right.

Where are you located?

I'm based in Brooklyn, NYC.🗽 I currently don't have the desire to relocate, but will travel for work.

Why a for-hire page?

If I'm asking for transparency from my employer and colleagues, it's only fair that I do the same. By setting my expectations and wish lists out there, I can open myself to opportunities and help find what will be the best fit for all parties.

How can I get ahold of you?

Drop me an email at erin@erinmikailstaples.com with what you've got in mind, and I'll be sure to get back to relevant job-related items within 48 hours.

(PS — Special thanks to Maurice Cherry, Julie Pagano, Brenna Flood, and Andy Pressman — their “for hire” pages inspired me to do this for myself. Want to make your own? Check out this blog post here.)

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