What is a Platform Engineer?

When discussing platform engineering, the focus is often on the platforms themselves, and the benefits they can bring to an organization. However, the people behind the platform are just as important, if not more so. Platform engineers are the ones who design, develop, and maintain the platforms that are used by other teams to build and deploy products and services. But what does it take to be a platform engineer, and how does this role differ from that of a software engineer?

Comparison to Software Engineer

Both platform engineers and software engineers are responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining software, but the main difference lies in their focus. A software engineer is typically focused on building and delivering a specific product or service, while a platform engineer is focused on building and maintaining the underlying platform that the product or service is built on.

Responsibilities of Software Engineer

A software engineer’s primary responsibility is the design, development, and maintenance of a specific product or service. This can include everything from requirements gathering, to software design and development, to testing and deployment. Additionally, software engineers are responsible for collaborating with other teams, such as product managers and designers, to ensure that the product or service meets the needs of its users.

Responsibilities of Platform Engineer

A platform engineer’s primary responsibility is the design, development, and maintenance of the platform that the products and services are built on. Platform engineers also provide support and guidance to other teams that use the platform, and work to ensure that the platform is easy to use, flexible, and extensible. Platform engineers are responsible for writing infrastructure code, working with cloud providers, and creating applications architectures that can be stood up in a self-service manner.

Q: How is platform engineering different from devops?
A: If you want to host a new website, you need devops; if you need a system for hosting websites, you need the platform engineers.

Q: What role does IAC play in platform engineering?
A: Platform engineering teams use IAC to configure infrastructure quickly and accurately, and create an API for application developers to use.

Q: What tasks does a Platform Engineer typically perform?
A: Platform Engineers may write infrastructure code using tools such as Terraform and work with cloud providers to create specific application architectures. They may also use languages such as Python, Bash, Go, and Rust. Automation & tooling are important, but they should come after culture, processes & the way people work. To ensure the success of Platform Engineering, the people affected have to be involved in the process.

Specific Platform Engineer Responsibilities

• Design and development of platform’s infrastructure
• Maintenance and support of platform’s tools and services
• Collaboration with product teams to understand their needs and align them with the platform.
• Creating and maintaining documentation for the platform and its components.
• Continual optimization of the platform, to ensure that it can support the rapidly changing needs of the business.
• Managing and deploying the platform across different environments, including development, testing, and production.
• Ensuring that the platform meets the standards of security, compliance and scalability.

In conclusion, platform engineers play a critical role in building and maintaining the platforms that are used by other teams to build and deploy products and services. While the role shares similarities with that of a software engineer, the key difference is the focus on building and maintaining the underlying platform. A platform engineer must have a balance of software engineering, operation, and product management skills to design, develop, and maintain the platform, and provide support and guidance to other teams using it. Additionally, they must be able to work in agile or devOps oriented environment, and have the ability to continuously optimize the platform to meet the rapidly changing needs of the business.

If you want to go into the details of the skills of the team I managed at ManoMano, I explain it all in this article. If you found this article helpful or interesting, please consider sharing it with your friends or colleagues, or contacting the author to learn more. I would love to hear from you! — Clement Hussenot