Álvaro
Data Scientist
“In a climate this uncertain, Shakers gives you a layer of reassurance and confidence. What I like most, without a doubt, is the flexibility and getting to work on top-tier projects.”
Join ShakersShakers for expert talent
Build your career as a Platform Engineer
Projects where the platform is you: which path gets paved, what goes self-service and who sets the guardrails. Shakers connects you with teams that live on tickets and want an internal product.
What gets read about the craft is either the vendor guide or the eternal debate on whether this is DevOps under another name. Neither tells you how a real team's internal platform gets built project by project, template after template and adoption after adoption. Here is that.
- Higher-paying projects
- More continuity between projects
- Greater recognition for your experience
+3,000
Tech projects published on Shakers
+90
Tech, Product and Data specialisms are part of Shakers
6 months
Average length of a project with Shakers
4.7/5
Our AI Builders' satisfaction on Trustpilot
AI Builder careers powered by Shakers
See how other AI Builders access better projects, build their reputation and grow their careers.
Amelia
AI Agent Developer
“I have been building AI agents for years. Thanks to Shakers I stopped chasing clients and started genuinely choosing which projects I wanted to work on. I work with some of the best companies in Europe, at my own rate, and I focus on what I am good at and what I love: building.”
Join Shakers
Luz
Backend Developer & Data Engineer
“Shakers adds a lot of value because it connects you with sharper projects, already filtered and better defined. It saves you a big part of the upfront work of understanding the client, quoting and weighing up whether it is worth it, and that means that as a contractor you can go far more directly to the opportunities that genuinely fit you.”
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Rubén
Software Developer
“Life as a contractor has a lot going on and it is not always easy. We like to focus on what we are good at, but you also have to manage clients, invoicing and go looking for work. For me, Shakers has been key because it does that prospecting for me, it gives the client confidence from the very first moment, and it lets us be part of a community with real enthusiasm.”
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Alejandro
AI Developer
“Shakers was key to getting my company off the ground: it gave me the flexibility to keep contracting while I built my next chapter. Without Shakers, I would have had to raise funding or push the project back.”
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Toño
Product Designer
“With Shakers I have landed recurring projects that give me peace of mind and room to grow professionally. It is not just about reaching quality clients: it is feeling that you have a network behind you, one that connects you with real opportunities and helps you move forward as a freelancer.”
Join ShakersThe decisions a Platform Engineer owns every week
A Platform Engineer builds and sustains the internal developer platform (IDP): the self-service layer over Kubernetes, Terraform and the cloud with which teams request environments and deploy without opening tickets. Their product is the paved roads (golden paths) that reduce the cognitive load of whoever develops, and their customer is internal: they treat the platform as a product, with adoption that gets measured. Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD and Backstage are their daily workshop; developers, their end user.
You decide which path gets paved first and with which guardrails, what goes self-service and what stays documented, and which template the portal serves. You also decide what the platform refuses: a service without telemetry does not get in. The product belongs to the team; the path that speeds it up, to you.
KubernetesTerraformCI/CDDockerAWSAzureGCPGitHub ActionsPythonGoBackstageAnsibleLinuxPrometheus
Golden pathsSelf-serviceBackstage portalCognitive loadInternal productPlatform for AI
Free to join, no hidden fees
How Shakers works for talent
Create your profile
Tell us who you are, what you can do, the projects you want to work on and what your availability and rate are.
Get your certification
We certify your experience and your use of AI so companies understand and trust what you bring.
Match with projects
We connect you with well-paid projects that fit your expertise and your preferences.
DevOps and Cloud projects that live up to your expectations
Work on real projects, with teams that need your expertise, without wasting time looking for opportunities.
Projects that fit you
Work with companies that need your stack and experience to take their projects to production.
Opportunities that come to you
Our AI matching connects your profile with the projects that fit your preferences.
You build. Shakers handles the rest
Set your own terms based on your seniority. We manage contracts, payments and paperwork.
What a Platform Engineer delivers on a Shakers project
The brief arrives with the ticket
Shakers is hiring infrastructure: the project arrives with the team that lives on tickets, not with a list of technologies.
Paths that actually get used
The first paved path over the most deployed service, with its portal template and its pipeline built in. Adoption measured, not promised.
The platform with a roadmap
You prioritise by teams, measure adoption and document the why of each guardrail. Internal product, not an infrastructure project.
Platforms told, not mocked up
Having built real self-service and knowing how to tell it: which path, which adoption and what you changed so teams used it.
What gets paved and what does not
Choosing what goes self-service and what stays documented by impact, not fashion. Sometimes the honest answer is a simple guide, and defending it.
Where your brief ends
You build the path; you don't run production or design the cloud. If the project needs SRE or architecture, you say so at kickoff.
Frequently asked questions
Any other questions? Write to us and we will reply.
What does a Platform Engineer do each day?
Paves paths other teams use: portal templates, self-service environments and adoption metrics. The ticket that disappeared was your best deliverable.
Which tools do you use daily?
Kubernetes, Terraform and CI/CD almost always; Python or Go as the automation language, and Backstage when there is a portal. The cloud is the client's environment.
How do you move from DevOps to Platform Engineer?
By building internal product: from one application's pipeline to the path of all of them. Certification looks at real platforms you have put into production.
How much do you earn as a Platform Engineer by project?
The market and the scope set it: which paths get paved and how many teams they serve. At Shakers you agree the budget per project before accepting.
Do you need to know how to build portals like Backstage?
It helps, but it is not the door: the platform is self-service with or without a portal. Backstage accelerates once the teams using it are already many.
How do you join Shakers as a certified Platform Engineer?
You create your profile, pass the certification process and enter the collective: only 4 percent make it. Then you choose which platform projects you take on.
The daily shape of the craft
The portal template a team requests today, the path that gets paved tomorrow and Friday's adoption number. Fewer tickets for others, more product that holds itself up.
The tools are the craft
1,040 active tech job ads in Spain mention platform engineer, according to Shakers market analysis (n=31,020, September 2026). Kubernetes, Terraform and CI/CD dominate the stack real job ads ask for, and platform briefs for AI infrastructure already exist.
How people get here
Two frequent doors: the DevOps who already automates pipelines and wants to build product, and the SRE who knows what production costs. Both arrive with half the craft done.
What this role is not
Not the one who administers machines nor designs the cloud. If the problem is the pipeline, the role is DevOps; if it is architecture, Cloud Architect. Your product is the path everyone else uses.
The roles a platform project crosses
Four roles from the collective cross your path as you build an internal platform, from the one who deploys to the one who runs production.
DevOps Engineer
Their pipeline is the first path you pave: the classic boundary of the craft, and the way in for many platform engineers.
Site Reliability Engineer
Keeps alive what your platform delivers: when the live system falls over, the brief passes from your path to their on-call.
Cloud Architect
Designs the cloud your platform rests on: their account and network decisions are the ground of your self-service.
AWS DevOps Engineer
The Amazon ecosystem specialist: when the environment is pure AWS, their pipeline and your platform split the brief.
Boundaries between these roles are agreed per project: the job title doesn't set them.
Take the next step with Shakers
Want to pave the way for other teams?
Pass Shakers certification and choose which platform projects you take on.
