Backstage Developer

Backstage SME / Senior Engineer – Platform Engineering San Ramon, CA Role Overview We are seeking a highly experienced Backstage SME / Senior Engineer – Platform Engineering to lead the design, implementation, and optimization of Internal Developer Platforms (IDP) with deep expertise in Backstage and Harness. The ideal candidate will play a key role in improving developer productivity, enabling self-service engineering workflows, standardizing platform capabilities, and enhancing developer experience across engineering teams. This role requires strong hands-on experience in building scalable developer portals, software templates, service catalogs, platform automation, and engineering workflows using Backstage. Expertise in Harness-based automation and release orchestration is mandatory. Exposure to DevOps, CI/CD, Kubernetes, and cloud-native platforms is considered an added advantage. Key Responsibilities Internal Developer Platform (IDP) Architecture & Design Lead the design, implementation, and evolution of Internal Developer Platforms (IDP) centered around Backstage. Define scalable platform architecture, reusable templates, golden paths, and engineering standards. Collaborate with platform engineering, application development, and infrastructure teams to align platform capabilities with organizational goals. Establish governance, best practices, and platform engineering standards for developer enablement. Backstage Implementation & Engineering Serve as the primary Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Backstage platform engineering initiatives. Develop, customize, and maintain Backstage plugins, software templates, service catalogs, and TechDocs. Implement self-service workflows to improve onboarding, deployment, and engineering productivity. Integrate Backstage with source control systems, cloud platforms, observability tools, CI/CD systems, and deployment environments. Optimize developer portal performance, usability, scalability, and maintainability. Harness Integration & Platform Automation Design and implement Harness-based workflows and integrations for platform automation and release orchestration. Standardize engineering automation patterns using Harness pipelines and platform workflows. Enable self-service deployment, environment provisioning, and workflow automation capabilities. Support platform extensibility for future DevOps and CI/CD enhancements. Kubernetes & Cloud Platform Integration Integrate Backstage with Kubernetes and cloud-native ecosystems to provide engineering visibility and operational insights. Enable service ownership, metadata management, environment visibility, and platform observability. Collaborate with infrastructure teams to improve platform reliability, scalability, and operational efficiency. Developer Experience (DevEx) Improve developer experience by simplifying onboarding, documentation access, service discoverability, and engineering workflows. Promote adoption of standardized engineering practices and reusable platform capabilities. Mentor engineering teams on Backstage implementation patterns, platform governance, and best practices. Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on developer productivity and platform usability. Required Skills & Experience 5+ years of hands-on experience implementing and scaling Backstage-based Internal Developer Platforms. Expert-level experience with Backstage architecture, plugins, software templates, TechDocs, and service catalogs. Expert-level experience with Harness for platform automation, orchestration, and workflow management. Strong experience designing self-service engineering workflows and developer portals. Experience integrating Backstage with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Kubernetes, cloud platforms, observability tools, and deployment systems. Strong understanding of platform engineering principles and developer experience (DevEx). Experience with Kubernetes and cloud-native environments. Familiarity with DevOps methodologies and CI/CD concepts. Strong problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills. Ability to work in cross-functional and distributed engineering teams. Good-to-Have Skills Experience with CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Azure DevOps. Exposure to Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Helm, etc.). Experience with monitoring and observability platforms. Knowledge of cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP. Familiarity with microservices architecture and containerization technologies.