What Does a Platform Engineer Do? Role, Skills & Responsibilities
By
Liz Fujiwara
•
Aug 20, 2025
If you are looking for the platform engineering definition, it is the practice of building and maintaining internal platforms that streamline software development processes. Its primary goal is to make development more efficient by providing standardized tools, workflows, and environments that developers can use without constantly relying on operations teams. By improving consistency and collaboration within development teams, platform engineering reduces repetitive tasks, minimizes errors, and allows developers to focus on writing high-quality code and delivering applications faster. This approach not only enhances productivity but also fosters a more organized and scalable development process, making it a cornerstone of modern software engineering practices.
Key Takeaways
Platform engineering increases developer productivity by streamlining workflows and automating infrastructure management.
Key responsibilities of platform engineers include building internal developer platforms, managing infrastructure, and implementing security best practices.
Essential skills for platform engineers include programming, cloud services, containerization, and strong communication abilities to facilitate collaboration.
What Is Platform Engineering?
Platform engineering is a specialized role that aims to improve consistency, efficiency, and collaboration within software development teams. At its core, platform engineering combines principles from DevOps with a focus on security, compliance, and enhancing the developer experience. The overarching goal is to identify and mitigate pain points that impact development teams, creating a more productive workflow.
One of the primary functions of platform engineers is to build and maintain internal developer platforms (IDPs). These platforms streamline development paths and improve the safety and speed of coding practices. Self-service capabilities within a governed framework simplify development processes, making them less complex. The role of the platform engineer is crucial in ensuring that development teams have the resources they need to operate efficiently.
Standardized tools and consistent practices are also integral to platform engineering. The use of these tools reduces cognitive load for development teams and fosters a more cohesive and productive environment. In essence, while DevOps aims for integration and collaboration throughout the software development lifecycle, platform engineering focuses on optimizing the developer experience through tailored tools.
The Evolution of Platform Engineering
The journey of platform engineering began around 2019, during a meetup in Berlin, where industry professionals gathered to address frustrations with DevOps implementation. The publication of the book Team Topologies in the same year further highlighted the significance of platform teams and clarified the relationships within engineering organizations. This marked the beginning of a more structured approach to managing the complexities of software development and infrastructure management.
The pandemic played a critical role in the expansion of the platform engineering community as an emerging discipline. Local chapters formed globally, fostering collaboration among practitioners to share specialized knowledge and best practices.
By 2026, projections indicate that 80% of enterprises will have dedicated platform engineering teams. This growth shows the increasing recognition of platform engineering as a vital component of the digital transformation of organizations.
Core Responsibilities of Platform Engineers
Platform engineers are tasked with:
Designing, building, and supporting the foundational infrastructure that developers rely on.
Monitoring and provisioning infrastructure resources, which are critical for maintaining the efficiency of internal developer platforms.
Keeping the infrastructure updated with patches and security updates to handle vulnerabilities and ensure smooth operations. This highlights the platform engineer’s role in managing infrastructure and maintaining operational integrity. Additionally, they must manage infrastructure effectively to support ongoing development needs.
Automation is a cornerstone of platform engineering. Automating routine tasks frees up valuable time, enabling development teams to concentrate on more complex and innovative work. When existing solutions do not meet the specific needs of developers, platform engineers create solutions by developing customized internal tools to bridge the gap. This adaptability is key to supporting software developers by simplifying the development process and abstracting infrastructure complexities through automated workflows and scripts, including various software applications.
In addition to these tasks, platform engineers are responsible for deploying, monitoring, and managing applications and services on cloud platforms.
Essential Skills for Platform Engineers
Proficiency in the following areas is key for excelling as a platform engineer:
Programming languages such as Python, Golang, JavaScript, and TypeScript.
Cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform for managing cloud-based infrastructure, showcasing cloud computing expertise.
Containerization tools such as Docker.
Orchestration systems like Kubernetes to handle modern development environments.
Soft skills are equally important, including:
Strong communication skills, vital for collaborating with multiple teams, especially when dealing with non-technical stakeholders.
Problem-solving skills and an aptitude for creating and managing APIs, ensuring seamless integration between various services.
Understanding and implementing security best practices, crucial to safeguarding platform infrastructure.
Continuous learning is a hallmark of a successful platform engineer. Keeping up with evolving technologies and industry trends is vital to maintaining and enhancing development process efficiency. This commitment to growth ensures that platform engineers can adapt to new challenges and continuously improve their contributions to their teams, fostering a deep understanding of their roles.
Platform Engineering vs. DevOps
While both platform engineering and DevOps aim to improve software development processes, their approaches and focuses differ significantly:
Platform engineering specializes in enhancing developer productivity by creating stable self-service platforms.
DevOps is more of a cultural approach focused on collaboration to improve software delivery.
Platform engineers build and maintain IDPs that streamline workflows and reduce the cognitive load on developers. One key difference is that DevOps can sometimes increase administrative overhead for developers, whereas platform engineering aims to alleviate these challenges through smoother workflows and automation. Platform engineers automate testing, deployment, and configuration management within the DevOps lifecycle, supporting developers more effectively.
This allows development teams to concentrate on innovation and code quality rather than being bogged down by infrastructure complexities.
Tools and Technologies in Platform Engineering
Platform engineers leverage a variety of tools and technologies to enhance developer productivity and streamline software development processes. Knowledge of CI/CD tools like Jenkins is crucial for automating build and deployment processes. Harness, a cloud-native continuous delivery platform, supports script-free deployments and integrates with GitOps for seamless delivery, including CI/CD pipelines.
Container technologies and orchestration tools essential for managing modern development environments include:
Docker: container technology.
Kubernetes: orchestration tool.
Octopus Deploy: provides comprehensive release orchestration capabilities.
Terrateam: offers GitOps-first management of Terraform workflows.
Eclipse Che: provides Kubernetes-based cloud development environments, allowing teams to run their preferred IDEs on Kubernetes.
Monitoring and performance optimization tools like Prometheus are also vital for platform engineers. Skills in performance profiling and data analysis help optimize resource usage and ensure the platform operates efficiently.
Benefits of Platform Engineering for Development Teams
Platform engineering significantly improves developer productivity by:
Providing developers with automated processes and self-service infrastructure.
Allowing developers to focus on software development rather than managing complex infrastructure, leading to an improved overall developer experience.
Enabling developers to autonomously create test environments, which accelerates the verification of new features within an internal developer platform using platform engineering tools.
Adopting internal developer platforms helps organizations streamline governance and reduce tool fragmentation across development teams. This consolidation ensures that key practices are consistently applied in deployment pipelines, improving speed to market. Reliability and adherence to best practices for security, compliance, and cost management are critical drivers for organizations adopting platform engineering.
Moreover, platform engineering prevents redundant efforts by enabling teams to build on existing solutions rather than reinventing them. Maintaining systems and continuously evolving tools and processes ensures that platforms adapt to new requirements as products grow, ultimately enhancing job satisfaction among developers.
How to Become a Platform Engineer
Becoming a platform engineer typically requires:
A mix of formal education and practical experience
A commitment to ongoing learning
A solid understanding of cloud computing and infrastructure as code (a master’s degree is not mandatory)
Practical skills gained by shadowing other platform engineers
Experience as a developer or DevOps expert
A solid DevOps background is often required, as platform engineers need to design, build, and maintain software development platforms. This role demands a combination of technical expertise and soft skills, including strong communication and problem-solving abilities. Continuous learning is essential to stay current with evolving technologies and industry trends.
Aspiring platform engineers should focus on gaining practical experience through internships, personal projects, and contributions to open-source communities. These experiences provide the skills and knowledge needed to excel in this dynamic field.
Real-World Applications of Platform Engineering
In real-world scenarios, platform engineering plays a crucial role in simplifying complexity and improving development workflows. For example, Dynatrace is an observability platform that provides automated analytics for tasks like scaling and deployment validation, helping to streamline the development process. Similarly, New Relic offers a cloud-based observability solution that gives engineers full visibility into software and infrastructure performance.
Gathering continuous feedback from developers is essential for refining the platform and ensuring it meets user needs. This iterative approach allows platform engineers to enable development teams to make necessary adjustments and improvements, enhancing productivity and satisfaction while addressing development challenges.
Allowing teams to deploy changes in small batches not only increases developer satisfaction but also improves workflow efficiency.
Using Fonzi in Platform Engineering Hiring
Fonzi is transforming the hiring process for platform engineers by providing fair and structured evaluations. The platform uses an objective scoring system to reduce bias in candidate assessments, promoting diversity within teams. This ensures that hiring practices are not only equitable but also focused on identifying the best talent for the role.
Fonzi enhances the candidate experience by offering personalized job recommendations and timely communication. This human-centered approach reassures candidates that artificial intelligence is used to support recruiters in focusing on people, not replacing them.
Fonzi’s Match Day offers a high-signal, efficient way to connect with top-tier companies. It helps job-seeking artificial intelligence engineers, machine learning researchers, infrastructure engineers, and large language model specialists find the right opportunities quickly and effectively. This curated talent marketplace is tailored specifically to these professionals, making the hiring process clear and straightforward.
Preparing for a Platform Engineering Interview
Preparing for a platform engineering interview involves several key steps. Practicing mock interviews can help candidates articulate their thoughts and manage anxiety during real interviews. Using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) can structure responses to behavioral questions effectively, making it easier to convey relevant experiences.
Researching the company and understanding its technology stack provides valuable insights that can enhance interview performance. Highlighting personal projects or contributions to open-source work strengthens a candidate’s portfolio and demonstrates practical skills. Post-interview follow-ups, such as thank-you emails, can reinforce interest in the position and help build professional relationships.
Fonzi supports interview preparation by providing data-driven insights and personalized job recommendations. This allows candidates to focus on showcasing their skills and succeeding in a competitive job market.
Summary
Platform engineering is an evolving field that plays a crucial role in modern software development. By understanding its core principles, key responsibilities, and essential skills, aspiring platform engineers can better prepare for this dynamic career. With tools like Fonzi, the hiring process becomes more streamlined and equitable, helping the best talent find the right opportunities. Adopting platform engineering practices can lead to substantial improvements in developer productivity, efficiency, and overall satisfaction.
