Platform Team Operations & Maturity
Building a Platform Team
12 min read
Platform teams enable developer productivity at scale. This lesson covers team structure, essential roles, hiring strategies, and organizational positioning for platform engineering success.
Platform Team Purpose
Platform teams build and maintain the Internal Developer Platform (IDP). Their mission is to reduce cognitive load on development teams by providing self-service capabilities, golden paths, and automated infrastructure.
Platform Team vs DevOps Team
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Team Model Comparison │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ Traditional DevOps Team Platform Team │
│ ───────────────────── ────────────── │
│ │
│ • Ticket-based requests • Self-service products │
│ • Reactive support • Proactive enablement │
│ • Direct deployments • Golden path templates │
│ • Per-team engagement • Platform-as-Product mindset │
│ • Infrastructure ownership • Developer experience focus │
│ │
│ Developer asks: Developer uses: │
│ "Can you create a DB?" → Portal to provision DB │
│ "Deploy my service" → GitOps pipeline (automatic) │
│ "Configure monitoring" → Built-in observability │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Team Structure and Size
Platform team size depends on organization scale. Industry research suggests a ratio of 1 platform engineer per 20-50 developers.
Recommended Team Structure
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Platform Team Structure │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ ┌──────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Platform Engineering │ │
│ │ Manager │ │
│ └──────────┬───────────┘ │
│ │ │
│ ┌──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┐ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ ┌─────▼─────┐ ┌──────▼──────┐ ┌──────▼──────┐ │
│ │ Platform │ │ Developer │ │ Platform │ │
│ │ Engineers │ │ Advocates │ │ SREs │ │
│ └───────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ │
│ │
│ Responsibilities: │
│ ───────────────── │
│ Platform Engineers: Build IDP components, integrations, APIs │
│ Developer Advocates: Onboarding, docs, feedback, training │
│ Platform SREs: Reliability, monitoring, incident response │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Team Size Guidelines
| Organization Size | Developers | Platform Team Size | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Startup | 10-30 | 1-2 | 1:15 |
| Scale-up | 50-150 | 3-5 | 1:30 |
| Enterprise | 500+ | 10-20+ | 1:40 |
Essential Roles
Platform Engineering Manager
Leads the platform team, sets strategy, and manages stakeholder relationships.
# role-platform-engineering-manager.yaml
role: Platform Engineering Manager
level: Senior/Staff
reporting_to: VP of Engineering or CTO
responsibilities:
strategic:
- Define platform vision and roadmap
- Align platform priorities with business goals
- Manage platform budget and resources
- Build relationships with development team leads
operational:
- Lead sprint planning and prioritization
- Remove blockers for platform team
- Track platform adoption metrics
- Report on platform ROI to leadership
people:
- Hire and develop platform engineers
- Conduct performance reviews
- Foster platform engineering culture
- Coordinate with other engineering managers
required_skills:
technical:
- Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure
- CI/CD and GitOps practices
- Developer tooling experience
- System design and architecture
leadership:
- Product management mindset
- Stakeholder management
- Technical communication
- Team building and mentorship
experience:
years: 7+
background:
- Senior platform or infrastructure engineer
- DevOps or SRE team lead
- Engineering manager with platform experience
Platform Engineer
Builds and maintains platform components, integrations, and developer tools.
# role-platform-engineer.yaml
role: Platform Engineer
levels:
- Junior Platform Engineer (0-2 years)
- Platform Engineer (2-5 years)
- Senior Platform Engineer (5+ years)
- Staff Platform Engineer (8+ years)
responsibilities:
core:
- Build and maintain IDP components
- Create self-service infrastructure APIs
- Develop software templates and golden paths
- Integrate tools (Backstage, Crossplane, ArgoCD)
collaboration:
- Work with development teams on platform needs
- Review and improve developer workflows
- Contribute to platform documentation
- Participate in incident response
improvement:
- Identify automation opportunities
- Propose and implement platform enhancements
- Evaluate new tools and technologies
- Measure and optimize platform performance
required_skills:
infrastructure:
- Kubernetes (CKA/CKAD preferred)
- Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)
- Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Crossplane)
- GitOps (ArgoCD, Flux)
development:
- Programming (Go, Python, TypeScript)
- API design and development
- Database management
- Observability tools
soft_skills:
- Developer empathy
- Clear technical communication
- Problem-solving mindset
- Continuous learning attitude
Developer Advocate (Platform)
Bridges the gap between platform team and development teams.
# role-developer-advocate.yaml
role: Developer Advocate (Platform)
level: Mid to Senior
responsibilities:
enablement:
- Create platform onboarding materials
- Develop tutorials and guides
- Run platform training sessions
- Maintain platform documentation
feedback:
- Gather developer feedback
- Identify platform pain points
- Advocate for developer needs
- Track platform satisfaction scores
community:
- Host platform office hours
- Create internal platform newsletters
- Organize platform demos and showcases
- Build platform champions network
required_skills:
- Strong technical background
- Excellent written and verbal communication
- Teaching and presentation abilities
- Empathy for developer experience
- Content creation skills
Platform SRE
Ensures platform reliability, availability, and performance.
# role-platform-sre.yaml
role: Platform SRE
level: Mid to Senior
responsibilities:
reliability:
- Define and monitor platform SLOs
- Manage error budgets
- Conduct capacity planning
- Implement reliability improvements
operations:
- On-call rotation for platform incidents
- Incident response and post-mortems
- Change management
- Disaster recovery testing
automation:
- Reduce toil through automation
- Build self-healing systems
- Automate incident response
- Develop runbooks and playbooks
required_skills:
- Production systems experience
- Monitoring and alerting (Prometheus, Grafana)
- Incident management
- Performance optimization
- Chaos engineering
Organizational Positioning
Where the platform team sits in the organization affects its effectiveness.
Reporting Structure Options
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Organizational Models │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ Option 1: Reports to CTO │
│ ───────────────────────── │
│ ┌─────┐ │
│ │ CTO │ │
│ └──┬──┘ │
│ ┌────────────┼────────────┐ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ ┌─────▼────┐ ┌─────▼────┐ ┌─────▼────┐ │
│ │ Product │ │ Platform │ │ Security │ │
│ │ Eng │ │ Eng │ │ Eng │ │
│ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ │
│ │
│ ✓ High visibility and authority │
│ ✓ Direct access to technical strategy │
│ ✗ May be distant from product teams │
│ │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ Option 2: Reports to VP Engineering │
│ ────────────────────────────────── │
│ ┌─────────────┐ │
│ │VP Engineering│ │
│ └──────┬──────┘ │
│ ┌─────────────────┼─────────────────┐ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ ┌─────▼────┐ ┌──────▼─────┐ ┌──────▼─────┐ │
│ │ Product │ │ Platform │ │ QA/Test │ │
│ │ Teams │ │ Team │ │ Team │ │
│ └──────────┘ └────────────┘ └────────────┘ │
│ │
│ ✓ Close to development teams │
│ ✓ Easier collaboration │
│ ✗ May compete for resources with product work │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Recommended: Centralized with Embedded Support
# team-topology.yaml
model: Centralized Platform with Embedded Support
structure:
central_platform_team:
size: 8-12 engineers
focus:
- Core IDP development
- Platform reliability
- Tool integrations
- Golden path creation
embedded_platform_advocates:
ratio: 1 per 3-4 product teams
focus:
- Platform adoption support
- Feedback collection
- Custom integration help
- Training and onboarding
interaction_modes:
- X-as-a-Service: Platform provides self-service capabilities
- Collaboration: Joint work on complex integrations
- Facilitation: Platform helps teams adopt best practices
benefits:
- Consistent platform direction
- Close developer relationships
- Faster feedback loops
- Scalable support model
Hiring Strategy
Interview Process
# interview-process.yaml
platform_engineer_interviews:
stage_1_screening:
duration: 30 minutes
format: Phone/Video call
interviewer: Recruiter or hiring manager
focus:
- Background and experience review
- Role expectations alignment
- Salary and availability
stage_2_technical_screen:
duration: 60 minutes
format: Video call with shared screen
interviewer: Senior platform engineer
topics:
- Kubernetes concepts and troubleshooting
- Infrastructure as Code experience
- CI/CD pipeline design
- Problem-solving approach
stage_3_system_design:
duration: 90 minutes
format: Whiteboard/virtual design session
interviewers: 2 platform engineers
exercise: |
"Design a self-service database provisioning system
that integrates with our developer portal.
Consider: multi-tenancy, security, observability."
evaluation:
- Requirements gathering
- Architecture decisions
- Trade-off analysis
- Communication clarity
stage_4_cultural_fit:
duration: 45 minutes
format: Behavioral interview
interviewer: Engineering manager
questions:
- "Describe a time you simplified a complex workflow"
- "How do you handle conflicting priorities from teams?"
- "Tell me about a platform feature that failed"
- "How do you gather and act on user feedback?"
stage_5_team_meet:
duration: 60 minutes
format: Team lunch or virtual coffee
purpose: Culture fit assessment, candidate questions
Technical Assessment Example
# take-home-exercise.yaml
title: Platform Engineering Take-Home Exercise
duration: 4-6 hours (over 1 week)
problem: |
Build a simple self-service application deployment system.
requirements:
- Create a Backstage software template that scaffolds a basic web app
- The template should create:
- Application source code (simple Express.js or similar)
- Dockerfile
- Kubernetes manifests (Deployment, Service)
- ArgoCD Application manifest
- Document how a developer would use this template
- Bonus: Add a Crossplane claim for a database
deliverables:
- Git repository with all code
- README with setup instructions
- Architecture decision document (brief)
evaluation_criteria:
- Working solution (40%)
- Code quality and organization (20%)
- Documentation clarity (20%)
- Architecture decisions (20%)
Building Team Culture
Platform Team Values
# team-values.yaml
platform_team_values:
developer_empathy:
description: "We feel our users' pain"
practices:
- Regular developer interviews
- Dogfooding our own platform
- Fast response to feedback
- User research before features
product_mindset:
description: "We build products, not projects"
practices:
- Treat platform as a product
- Measure adoption and satisfaction
- Iterate based on feedback
- Focus on outcomes over outputs
continuous_improvement:
description: "We never stop getting better"
practices:
- Blameless post-mortems
- Regular retrospectives
- Experimentation time (20%)
- Learning and development budget
transparent_communication:
description: "We share openly"
practices:
- Public roadmap
- Weekly platform updates
- Open office hours
- Visible metrics dashboard
Summary
Building an effective platform team requires:
| Element | Key Considerations |
|---|---|
| Structure | 1:20-50 developer ratio, cross-functional roles |
| Roles | Engineers, SREs, Developer Advocates, Manager |
| Positioning | Central team with embedded support model |
| Hiring | Technical depth + product mindset + empathy |
| Culture | Developer-centric, product-focused, transparent |
Start small, prove value, and grow based on demand. A platform team of 2-3 can serve 50-100 developers effectively if focused on high-impact capabilities.
Next Lesson: Platform Adoption Strategy covers the 8-week MVP program and techniques for driving platform adoption across your organization.
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