Developer Experience Lead - Developer Experience

Peraton Overview

Peraton is a next-generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world’s leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted, highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land, sea, space, air, and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day, our employees do the can’t be done by solving the most daunting challenges facing our customers. Visit peraton.com to learn how we’re keeping people around the world safe and secure.

Responsibilities

We are seeking an experienced Developer Experience Lead to drive the measurement, improvement, and advocacy of developer experience across a complex software development environment.

This role focuses on understanding how developers interact with platforms, tools, processes, and documentation, then using quantitative and qualitative data to identify friction and drive measurable improvements. The ideal candidate combines strong analytical and research skills with deep developer empathy, persuasive communication, and a product-oriented mindset.

Key Responsibilities

Developer Experience Strategy & Measurement

• Develop and execute a Developer Experience (DevEx) strategy focused on improving developer productivity, satisfaction, and efficiency.
• Establish and track developer productivity and experience metrics using frameworks such as SPACE and DORA.
• Design, administer, and analyze developer satisfaction surveys and other experience assessments.
• Establish baseline measurements and track trends to demonstrate the impact of DevEx improvements.
• Develop feedback loops that continuously incorporate developer needs into platform and tooling decisions.

User Research & Friction Analysis

• Map developer journeys and workflows to identify friction, bottlenecks, and unnecessary toil.
• Conduct usability assessments and qualitative and quantitative research to understand developer pain points.
• Analyze onboarding, development, deployment, and support experiences to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Use data and user feedback to prioritize improvements based on developer impact and organizational value.
• Apply usability testing, experimentation, and other research techniques to validate improvements.

Developer Experience & Platform Optimization

• Partner with platform engineering and development teams to translate developer feedback into actionable platform and tooling improvements.
• Evaluate and optimize developer portal UX, self-service workflows, onboarding processes, and development tools.
• Improve developer documentation, knowledge bases, learning paths, and other enablement resources.
• Identify opportunities to reduce complexity and make development workflows more intuitive and efficient.
• Support accessibility and usability considerations across developer-facing tools and services.

Developer Advocacy & Community

• Serve as a voice for developers in discussions with engineering and technical leadership.
• Facilitate developer communities, feedback sessions, workshops, and other engagement activities.
• Build strong relationships with developers to understand their needs and encourage adoption of improved tools and processes.
• Clearly communicate developer experience findings, recommendations, and measurable outcomes to technical leadership.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement and developer-centered engineering.

Continuous Improvement & Strategy

• Develop and implement initiatives to reduce developer friction and improve productivity.
• Benchmark developer experience against industry practices and comparable engineering organizations.
• Establish measurable goals and success criteria for DevEx initiatives.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of implemented improvements and refine strategies based on results.
• Partner across engineering, platform, security, and other technical teams to drive sustainable improvements.

Location: This role is fully onsite in Chantilly, VA

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 12 years' experience in Developer Experience, Developer Productivity, Developer Advocacy, User Experience, or a closely related technical discipline.
• Experience developing and implementing DevEx strategies, metrics, and measurement programs.
• Strong experience with developer productivity frameworks such as SPACE, DORA, or comparable methodologies.
• Experience designing and analyzing developer satisfaction surveys, usability assessments, and user research.
• Experience with developer journey mapping, friction analysis, and identifying sources of developer toil.
• Understanding of modern software development workflows, developer tooling, and platform engineering concepts.
• Experience translating developer feedback and research findings into actionable technical or process improvements.
• Strong analytical, written, and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with engineering teams and technical leadership.
• Active TS/SCI with CI Poly clearance.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with usability testing, A/B testing, or experimentation involving developer tools.
• Experience with developer advocacy, technical community building, or developer evangelism.
• Experience developing developer documentation, knowledge bases, or technical learning programs.
• Experience with developer portals and self-service platforms.
• Experience with accessibility and usability standards for technical tools.
• Experience benchmarking developer experience across organizations or platforms.
• Experience supporting large-scale or highly secure software development environments.
• Familiarity with modern DevSecOps, CI/CD, cloud, and platform engineering practices.
• Experience working with engineering leadership to influence technical roadmaps and priorities.

Target Salary Range

$135,000 - $216,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position. Salary is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the individual’s experience, education, knowledge, skills, and competencies, as well as geographic location and business and contract considerations. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay.
Benefits Statement

Peraton offers eligible employees a variety of benefits including medical, dental, vision, life, health savings account, short/long term disability, EAP, parental leave, 401(k), paid time off (PTO) for vacation, and company paid holidays. A full listing of available benefits can be viewed at https://www.careers.peraton.com/benefits.

Application Statements


EEO

EEO: Equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veterans, or other characteristics protected by law.