Kotlin Backend CSE at JetBrains – $96k–$180k USD in Columbus
Career & Market Insight
Role Positioning: This is a hybrid technical/commercial role sitting at the intersection of software engineering and customer success — a growing niche sometimes called "developer relations" or "technical account management." It's ideal for senior backend engineers who enjoy people interaction over pure coding.
Compensation vs. Market: The $96k–$180k base range is competitive for a CSE role in the US market. Senior Solutions Engineers and Technical CSMs at similarly-sized software companies typically earn $120k–$160k OTE, so the top of this range plus bonuses/commission is strong.
Skills You'll Build:
- Deep Kotlin ecosystem expertise — a skill in high demand as Kotlin adoption accelerates on the backend
- Enterprise customer engagement: discovery, stakeholder management, technical roadmapping
- Architectural consulting skills across monoliths, microservices, and modular designs
- Public speaking and developer community presence (workshops, meetups)
Green Flags: JetBrains is a 25-year-old, profitable, developer-beloved company — no funding pressure or layoff anxiety typical of VC-backed startups. The role offers clear career paths toward Developer Relations, Principal Engineering, or Technical Product Management.
Watch Out For: Customer-facing roles can blur boundaries between sales and engineering. Ensure the team structure keeps you focused on technical success rather than becoming a pure sales support function. The wide salary range ($96k–$180k) suggests significant variance based on experience and negotiation — come prepared with market data.
Headquarters: Foster City, California; Marlton, New Jersey; Remote, United States
At JetBrains, code is our passion. Ever since we started, back in 2000, we have strived to make the strongest, most effective developer tools on earth. By automating routine checks and corrections, our tools speed up production, freeing developers to grow, discover, and create.
We're now looking for a Customer Success Engineer (CSE) to help engineering teams successfully adopt Kotlin on the backend in real-world production environments.
Currently, this role is focused on adoption – helping Java teams introduce Kotlin into existing applications. You'll work directly with organizations to guide migration, integration, troubleshooting, and scaling, ensuring they move from initial experiments to successful production use.
In addition, you'll proactively communicate with prospective users to help them understand the Kotlin adoption process, as well as design and implement the migration path.
Responsibilities
- Track and maintain visibility into organizations and their stage of Kotlin adoption (e.g., not started, evaluating, experimenting, production)
- Proactively engage with organizations across different phases of their Kotlin adoption journey
- Develop and recommend high-level adoption strategies tailored to each organization's context
- Identify and document blockers that hinder progress and propose ways to address them
- Establish and manage feedback loops with development teams to ensure continuous alignment and improvement
We will be happy to have you on our team if you have:
Technical Expertise
- Extensive hands-on experience with Kotlin, Java, and the JVM ecosystem
- Proven experience migrating Java backend codebases to Kotlin
- Experience with the Spring (Boot) ecosystem or similar frameworks (e.g., Quarkus, Micronaut, Ktor)
- Solid understanding of build tools and project structuring, including Maven and Gradle
Communication and Customer Engagement
- Experience in customer-facing technical roles such as Solutions Engineering, Developer Advocacy, or Technical Consulting
- Strong English communication skills, both written and spoken
- Ability to lead workshops, demos, talks, meetups, and other public-facing activities
- Comfort with outbound engagement, including identifying target companies, articulating value propositions, and building relationships with engineering teams
- Ability to effectively communicate with engineers, tech leads, and business stakeholders
System Design and Architecture
- Ability to design and guide Kotlin adoption strategies for backend applications
- Experience designing backend systems using common architectural patterns (e.g., monolith, modulith, microservices)
This range reflects the employer's good-faith estimate of the base salary it reasonably expects to pay for the position at the time of posting. Starting pay within the range will be determined based on job-related factors such as skills, qualifications, experience, and work location.
This position may also be eligible for additional compensation, such as an annual bonus, commission, or other incentive compensation, subject to the terms of the applicable plan or program.
The base salary range (per year) for this position in the posted work location(s) is: $96,000 — $180,000 USD
We are an equal opportunity employer
We know great ideas can come from anyone, anywhere. That's why we do our best to create an open and inclusive workplace – one that welcomes everyone regardless of their background, identity, religion, age, accessibility needs, or orientation.
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To apply: https://weworkremotely.com/remote-jobs/jetbrains-backend-customer-success-engineer-kotlin-ecosystem
Frequently Asked Questions
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