Senior Engineer, Internal Developer Platform

American Family Insurance; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 99,000 - 167,000; Full time

Job summary

American Family Insurance seeks an experienced DevOps/Platform Engineer to design, build, and operate cloud platform and DevOps capabilities across AWS and GCP. You will enable reliable, secure, and scalable delivery by developing Kubernetes and Infrastructure-as-Code foundations, and by building CI/CD pipelines with strong automation and observability.

Key responsibilities include Backstage-based developer experience, custom plugins, and unified service catalogs, plus strong scripting in

Qualifications

• Proven experience designing and managing an internal developer portal, preferably Backstage.io.
• Desire to improve developer experience with self-service tools and streamlined workflows.
• Experience building custom Backstage plugins using TypeScript, Node.js, and React.
• Experience configuring Backstage Software Catalog for unified service view.
• Ability to create software templates with Backstage Scaffolder.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate cloud platform and DevOps capabilities across AWS and GCP.
• Develop and maintain Kubernetes and Infrastructure-as-Code foundations.
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines and automate deployments.
• Drive observability, reliability, and operational best practices across teams.
• Implement and manage security, IAM, and networking best practices.

Skills

DevX mindset

Backstage development

Automation

Python

TypeScript

JavaScript

SRE fundamentals

Observability

Tools

Backstage.io

Terraform

Crossplane

Kubernetes

Docker

GitLab CI/CD

JFrog Artifactory

Datadog

REST/GraphQL APIs

Job description

This role is responsible for designing, building, and operating cloud platform and DevOps capabilities across AWS and GCP. The engineer will enable reliable, secure, and scalable delivery by developing Kubernetes and Infrastructure-as-Code foundations, building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines, and driving automation, observability, and operational best practices across engineering teams.

Position Compensation Range:

$99,000.00 - $167,000.00

Pay Rate Type:

Salary

Compensation may vary based on the job level and your geographic work location. Relocation support is offered for eligible candidates.

This role has been not approved for sponsorship now or in the future. This also includes current Candidates that have an approved F1 / OPT/ STEM qualification.

Core Qualifications & Responsibilities:

Developer Experience (DevX) & Backstage Development:

• Proven experience in designing, implementing, and managing an internal developer portal, preferably withBackstage.io.

• A strong desire to improve the developer experience by creating self-service tools and streamlining workflows.

• Expertise in developing custom Backstage plugins and customizing the platform using TypeScript, Node.js, and React to meet the unique needs of our developers.

• Experience configuring and managing the Backstage Software Catalog to provide a unified view of services, documentation, and tooling.

• Ability to create and maintain software templates using Backstage's Scaffolder to standardize project creation and enforce best practices.

Cloud and Infrastructure Management:

• Extensive experience with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, GCP) and familiarity with the other. This includes expertise in core services like VPC, IAM, S3, and managed Kubernetes (EKS, GKE).

• Proficiency in Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles and hands-on experience with tools like Terraform to automate the provisioning and management of cloud resources.

• Experience withCrossplane.ioto manage cloud services and infrastructure through a unified, Kubernetes-native API. This includes creating and managing composite resources to abstract away the complexity of the underlying infrastructure.

• Strong understanding of containerization technologies, including Docker and Kubernetes, and their ecosystems.

CI/CD & DevOps Mindset:

• Solid experience with CI/CD principles and proficiency in building and maintaining pipelines using GitLab CI/CD.

• Experience integrating various tools into CI/CD pipelines to automate builds, testing, and deployments.

• Proficiency in managing software artifacts and dependencies using JFrog Artifactory. This includes creating and managing repositories and integrating Artifactory with our CI/CD pipelines.

• A strong scripting and automation skill set using languages like Python, Go, or Bash.

Observability & Site Reliability Engineering (SRE):

• A solid understanding of SRE principles, including Service Level Objectives (SLOs), error budgets, and a focus on reliability, scalability, and performance.

• Hands-on experience with Datadog for full-stack observability, including setting up monitors, creating dashboards, and using APM for distributed tracing.

• A proactive approach to identifying and resolving platform issues before they impact developers.

• Experience in troubleshooting complex, distributed systems and a methodical approach to problem-solving.

Software Development Fundamentals:

• Strong programming skills in languages such as Python, TypeScript, and JavaScript.

• Experience with web development fundamentals and API design (REST, GraphQL).

• A solid understanding of software development lifecycle (SDLC) best practices, including version control with Git.