Hands on Manager - building Internal Developer Portals (IDPs)

Manager, Platform EngineeringSALARY: $180k - $190k - $200k plus 15% bonusLOCATION: CHICAGO, ILHybrid, 3 days onsiteHands on experience with internal developers developing portals such as backstage. The Manager, Platform Engineering - Developer Experience leads a product-focused pod within Platform Engineering, building tooling and workflows on top of the existing internal platform to enable developer experience across the organization. This role combines engineering leadership with product ownership. The ideal candidate has a strong Developer or DevOps background and hands-on experience with IDP portals such as Backstage.Primary Duties and Responsibilities:To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each primary duty satisfactorily.Acts as Product Owner: defines the DevX roadmap, manages the backlog, and leads sprint planning and reviewsEngages engineering teams as internal customers to gather requirements and drive adoption of developer toolingSponsors code reviews and drives continuous improvement effortsParticipates in creation and review of user stories, providing input on effort estimation and architecture/designAdvocates for Agile best practices across the SDLCConducts proofs of concept using emerging developer experience technologiesPerforms risk analyses and recommends quality improvementsOversees onboarding and ongoing team trainingSupervisory Responsibilities:Manage the Developer Experience pod within Platform EngineeringQualifications:The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the primary functions.[Required] Experience with Agile methodologies, including as a Product Owner[Required] Able to treat a platform as a product with roadmaps, backlogs, and user research[Required] Comfortable communicating with both technical and non-technical audiences[Required] Self-starter and team player – collaborative and focused on collective successTechnical Skills:[Required] Hands-on experience with Internal Developer Portals such as Backstage plugin development, service catalog configuration, and software templates[Required] Experience building developer tooling and self-service workflows on top of existing platform infrastructure[Required] Strong GitOps experience managing infrastructure and application delivery through Git-based workflows[Required] Experience in DevOps tooling such as: Terraform, GitHub Actions, Kubernetes, Artifactory and CI/CD pipeline design[Required] Experience with Kubernetes (K8s) and Helm[Required] Experience with AWS foundational services: VPCs, Security Groups, EC2, RDS, S3, KMS, IAM, and AWS CLI[Preferred] Development experience in Node.js, TypeScript, React or Python[Preferred] Familiarity with observability tooling such as SplunkEducation and/or Experience:BS degree in Computer Science, similar technical field, or equivalent experience7+ years in platform engineering, DevOps, or related infrastructure/tooling disciplines3+ years in an engineering leadership or management role