What Does a Platform Engineer Do? Job Description, Role & Responsibilities

Platform engineering involves building internal toolchains to support software development teams, consolidated into a self-service internal developer platform (IDP). The role of a platform engineer is to architect, build, and maintain an IDP on behalf of developers. They listen to developers to identify DevOps problems and create solutions. Key responsibilities include developing IDPs, setting up CI/CD pipelines, creating new APIs, CLIs, web apps, and other interfaces for developers to interact with, monitoring deployed environments, writing documentation, cooperating with developers and operators, debugging and resolving reported issues, and assessing the opportunities offered by new tools. The platform engineering role requires a combination of technical ability and soft skills, including coding proficiency in various languages, interest in integrating different tools, product-oriented mindset, ability to coordinate different teams and disciplines, and awareness of emerging trends and best practices.