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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Developer Support Engineer

💰 $80,000 - $145,000

Technical SupportDeveloper ExperienceAPI Support

🎯 Role Definition

A Developer Support Engineer serves as the technical liaison between a company’s development platform and its user base of software engineers. This role focuses on assisting developers with integrating APIs, SDKs, and cloud services while troubleshooting complex technical issues. Developer Support Engineers combine coding knowledge with communication skills to resolve incidents efficiently, ensure customer satisfaction, and contribute to product improvement by providing feedback to engineering teams. They are vital to maintaining smooth developer experiences across all technical touchpoints.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Technical Support Specialist
  • Software Engineer
  • API Integration Engineer

Advancement To:

  • Senior Developer Support Engineer
  • Developer Advocate
  • Solutions Architect

Lateral Moves:

  • Customer Success Engineer
  • Technical Account Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  1. Provide advanced technical support to developers integrating APIs, SDKs, and software platforms.
  2. Diagnose, reproduce, and resolve technical issues related to software functionality, performance, or integration.
  3. Collaborate with internal engineering teams to investigate and fix product defects or bugs.
  4. Guide customers through API authentication, error handling, and best practices.
  5. Create and maintain detailed technical documentation, FAQs, and integration guides.
  6. Develop sample applications, scripts, or code snippets to demonstrate integration workflows.
  7. Monitor support tickets and respond within SLA to ensure timely issue resolution.
  8. Escalate complex issues to product engineering while providing detailed debugging insights.
  9. Use tools such as Postman, cURL, or command-line utilities to test APIs and endpoints.
  10. Support SDKs and client libraries across languages like Python, JavaScript, Java, and C#.
  11. Analyze logs, stack traces, and system metrics to identify root causes of technical failures.
  12. Participate in post-mortems and contribute to continuous improvement of support processes.
  13. Communicate technical information clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
  14. Collaborate with product managers to relay developer feedback and influence product direction.
  15. Contribute to internal knowledge bases and training materials for new support engineers.
  16. Assist with API versioning, migration, and backward compatibility testing.
  17. Participate in beta testing and validation of new features before public release.
  18. Develop scripts and automation tools to streamline troubleshooting and diagnostics.
  19. Support developer onboarding through webinars, workshops, and technical Q&A sessions.
  20. Maintain high customer satisfaction scores by resolving issues efficiently and professionally.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the support engineering or product development team.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Proficiency in at least one programming language (Python, JavaScript, Java, C#, or Go)
  • Strong understanding of RESTful APIs, JSON, and HTTP protocols
  • Familiarity with SDKs, API gateways, and cloud integrations
  • Experience with API testing tools (Postman, Swagger, or cURL)
  • Working knowledge of databases (SQL, NoSQL) and data query tools
  • Understanding of CI/CD pipelines and software deployment processes
  • Knowledge of cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud
  • Experience using ticketing systems (Zendesk, Jira, ServiceNow)
  • Familiarity with monitoring and logging tools (Datadog, Splunk, Grafana)
  • Basic networking and authentication knowledge (OAuth, SSL, DNS)

Soft Skills

  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills for diagnosing technical issues
  • Excellent written and verbal communication abilities
  • Customer-centric mindset with empathy and patience
  • Collaboration skills for cross-functional teamwork with engineering and product teams
  • Ability to manage multiple tickets and priorities in fast-paced environments
  • Detail-oriented approach to debugging and documentation
  • Confidence in presenting technical solutions and explaining complex topics
  • Adaptability to new technologies and evolving API ecosystems
  • Ownership mindset and accountability for customer outcomes
  • Positive attitude and resilience under pressure

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related technical discipline

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Software Engineering or Information Systems

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Software Engineering
  • Information Technology
  • Systems Analysis

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–6 years in software development, API support, or technical customer support

Preferred:

  • Proven experience supporting developer-facing products, APIs, or SDKs
  • Hands-on experience with debugging and code-level troubleshooting
  • Track record of improving developer experience and documentation quality
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