Staff Developer Experience Engineer (Developer Experience)

Horizon3; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Growth opportunities

Innovation-driven culture

Inclusive and diverse team

Remote-friendly

Job summary

Horizon3 is seeking a Senior or Staff Developer Experience Engineer to shape how engineers build, test, release, and operate software. You will define the architecture and roadmap for local development, CI/CD, and release workflows, building reusable templates and tooling to reduce friction across teams.

You will mentor engineers, lead cross-team initiatives, and partner with Platform, Security, QA, and Product teams to deliver secure, observable delivery pipelines at scale.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in Developer Experience, Platform Engineering, or related delivery ownership
• Strong design and operating experience with CI/CD and build systems
• Proven ability to lead complex initiatives across multiple teams and drive adoption

Responsibilities

• Define architecture and roadmap for local development, repository tooling, CI/CD, build systems, and release workflows
• Build reusable GitLab CI/CD templates and runner capabilities
• Mentor engineers and raise the engineering bar across Developer Experience
• Partner with Platform, Security, QA, and product teams to improve delivery foundations
• Establish standards and paved paths for developer workflows and release practices

Skills

Go

Python

TypeScript

Shell scripting

CI/CD systems

DevOps

Kubernetes

Mentoring

Tools

GitLab CI/CD

Docker

Kubernetes

ArgoCD

Skaffold

Datadog

OpenTelemetry

Job description

• We are looking for a Senior OR Staff Developer Experience Engineer to help shape how Horizon3 engineers build, test, release, and operate software
• The Developer Experience team owns the foundations connecting local development to production delivery: developer tooling, CI/CD, build systems, container base images, artifact promotion, release gates, and approved agentic-development workflows. You will define technical direction, lead complex initiatives across engineering, and build reusable paths that improve delivery speed, quality, security, and confidence
• This is a hands‑on technical leadership role for an engineer who enjoys solving ambiguous problems, influencing across teams, and making the software lifecycle easier to use and operate
• Define the architecture and roadmap for local development, repository tooling, CI/CD, build systems, and release workflows
• Lead high‑impact initiatives across engineering that reduce manual coordination and standardize the path from code change to production
• Build reusable GitLab CI/CD templates, runner capabilities, developer workflows, test gates, artifact promotion, release manifests, and rollback paths
• Establish sustainable practices for shared container images, build performance, reproducibility, scanning, signing, provenance, and supply‑chain security
• Improve developer workflow and delivery observability through useful measures of setup time, pipeline health, release performance, and adoption
• Partner with Platform, Security, QA, and feature teams to make delivery foundations reliable, secure, and easy to consume
• Establish standards and paved paths for developer workflows, build and release engineering, and approved AI‑assisted development
• Design safe agentic‑development workflows that integrate with code review, testing, scanning, permissions, auditability, and Security requirements
• Turn repeated developer friction into reusable tooling, templates, documentation, migration guidance, and runbooks
• Mentor engineers, develop technical owners, and raise the engineering bar across Developer Experience and Horizon3
• Communicate complex technical decisions clearly and build alignment across Platform, Application Engineering, Data Engineering, Security, QA, Product, and Program Management
• Participate in design reviews, operational reviews, incident response, and continuous improvement
• Our Developer Experience Stack:
• GitLab, GitLab CI/CD, and private runner fleets
• Shared CI/CD templates and pipeline management
• Docker/OCI images, artifact repositories, and shared base images
• Kubernetes, EKS, Helm, Skaffold, and ArgoCD
• AWS and cloud‑native development environments
• Go, Python, TypeScript, shell scripting, and repository tooling
• OpenTelemetry, Datadog, and pipeline/deployment observability
• Approved AI coding tools, including Claude Code for approved engineering use cases
• What Success Looks Like:
• Engineering teams adopt clear, reliable paved paths from local development through production
• Shared CI/CD, build, and release capabilities reduce friction and manual coordination
• The same validated artifact or commit moves predictably through environments
• Base images, build components, and delivery workflows are secure, current, traceable, and easy to consume
• Approved AI‑assisted workflows improve productivity without bypassing review, testing, or security
• Developer Experience has clear standards, strong adoption, measurable outcomes, and multiple technical owners
• You are trusted across Engineering to lead difficult developer‑workflow and delivery decisions

Benefits

• Growth Opportunities: Be part of a dynamic and growing team with numerous career advancement opportunities
• Innovation-Driven Culture: Work in a collaborative environment that encourages creativity and out-of-the-box thinking
• Inclusive and Diverse Team: We value diversity and promote an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive
• Flexible Work Environment: Enjoy the convenience and work-life balance that comes with remote work

Experience with container builds, Docker or OCI images, artifact repositories, and reproducible buildsExperience mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction without relying on formal authorityDeep experience designing and operating CI/CD systems, preferably GitLab CI/CD and self-hosted runnersStrong understanding of software supply-chain security, dependencies, image vulnerabilities, provenance, secrets, and least privilegeStrong understanding of Kubernetes-based development or delivery workflows8+ years of experience in Developer Experience, Developer Productivity, Build/Release Engineering, Platform Engineering, SRE, DevOps, or software engineering with substantial tooling and delivery ownershipProficiency in Go and Python for automation, developer tooling, or platform servicesDemonstrated success leading complex initiatives across multiple teams and driving adoption of shared capabilitiesExcellent written and verbal communication skillsExperience implementing automated tests, security checks, release gates, progressive delivery, and rollbackShared language/runtime base images, image signing, SBOMs, or provenance‑control experienceInternal developer platform, paved‑road, service-template, or developer‑portal experienceLocal Kubernetes, dev containers, Docker Compose, Orbstack, Skaffold, ArgoCD, or GitOps experienceAI‑assisted or agentic engineering workflow experienceGitLab Runner fleets, CI optimization, build caching, or multi‑repository release‑system experienceOpenTelemetry, Datadog, pipeline telemetry, or developer‑productivity metrics experienceSecurity‑sensitive, regulated, or cybersecurity experienceExact tool matches are less important than strong software‑engineering fundamentals, platform judgment, empathy for developers, and a track record of improving delivery systems at scale