Headcount benchmarks for DevProd teams

Engineering leaders often ask how much other organizations are allocating to Developer Productivity (DevProd) teams. To answer this, DX analyzed benchmarking data from companies across industries and sizes. This report reveals how engineering organizations—from startups to enterprises—staff centralized productivity teams, what percentage of headcount they allocate, and the types of teams that drive software engineering productivity.

Benchmarking investment in DevProd headcount

Companies with fewer than 1,000 engineers dedicate an average of 19% of engineering headcount to centralized DevProd teams, with a median of 18%. This translates to a typical ratio of one DevProd team member for every six engineers. As organizations grow larger, the percentage allocated decreases, reflecting a shift from centralized to localized productivity initiatives.

How allocation changes with company size and stage

The data shows that Series C–E companies allocate the highest percentage of headcount to developer productivity teams—over 21% on average. Later-stage companies reduce that allocation to around 15%. Similarly, enterprises with more than 10,000 employees invest a smaller share (around 12%), but still dedicate substantial resources to sustaining team productivity and scale.

The types of teams driving engineering productivity

Developer productivity work spans a range of team types, including:

• Developer tools and platforms (build, test, deploy, and CI/CD systems)
• Enablement teams (codifying best practices and supporting continuous improvement)
• Frontend and backend platform teams (frameworks, authentication, APIs)
• Infrastructure and reliability teams (cloud services, observability, incident management, SRE)
• Data teams (warehousing, pipelines, and access)

Examples from companies like DoorDash, GitHub, and Razorpay highlight how different organizations structure these functions to maximize team productivity.

A data-backed guide for engineering leaders

This report provides engineering executives, platform leaders, and DevEx champions with benchmarks to inform how they size and structure their own DevProd teams. For organizations evaluating how to improve developer productivity through dedicated functions, these insights offer a clear, data-backed reference point.