Developer Engineer

Position: Developer Experience Engineer )

Environment

One of South Africa's leading insurance providers is looking for a Developer Experience Engineer to join their team. They are building a Platform Engineering practice, and developer experience is central to that effort. They are implementing Backstage as their internal developer portal, creating templates for new services, and building the self-service capabilities that let developers focus on building rather than fighting infrastructure.

This role is about making the platform so good that teams actually want to use it. Responsibilities • Implement and maintain Backstage as their internal developer portal • Build the service catalogue so developers can discover what exists and who owns it • Create golden path templates: "start a new API service" should take 5 minutes, not 5 days • Design software templates that enforce their standards while staying flexible • Write documentation that developers actually read (yes, it's possible) • Build self-service capabilities: environment provisioning, secrets management, config updates • Implement Tech Docs so documentation lives with code and stays current • Create developer productivity dashboards and track metrics that matter • Gather feedback from developers and turn complaints into improvements • Run enablement sessions and training when they roll out new capabilities • Contribute to software development and platform engineering tasks, including coding, debugging, and optimisation where it improves developer experience outcomes. • Build and maintain internal tools, scripts, and services that enhance developer productivity and reduce friction. • Collaborate with engineering teams to write and review production-quality code aligned to platform standards and best practices. • Support integration and automation efforts across the platform, contributing code where required to enable self-service capabilities. • Assist with refactoring and improving existing systems and tooling to align with modern engineering practices. • Participate in code reviews, testing, and continuous improvement initiatives within the platform engineering team. Requirements What You Bring • You've worked on internal developer tools or platforms before. You understand the unique challenges • 3+ years software development experience • Backstage experience or similar developer portal platforms (Port, Cortex, Ops Level) • Strong Type Script and React skills (Backstage frontend is React) • You understand developer workflows because you've been a developer • Technical writing skills. You can explain complex things simply • Empathy for developer experience. You notice friction that others accept as normal Education • Degree or Diploma in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field. • Relevant certifications in cloud platforms, Dev Ops, or developer tooling (Azure preferred) will be advantageous. • Equivalent practical experience improving developer workflows, tooling, and platform adoption will also be considered. Nice to Have • Experience building CLI tools or VS Code extensions • Knowledge of the Backstage plugin ecosystem • Experience measuring developer productivity (DORA metrics, developer surveys) • Training or facilitation experience • You've evangelised platform adoption to sceptical teams #J-18808-Ljbffr