Citizen Developer
Noun · Hacker Culture
Definitions
A nontraditional developer, often outside formal engineering, who builds apps, automations, or workflows using low-code, no-code, or lightweight scripting tools. The phrase is common in enterprise culture around empowering business users while raising governance questions.
In plain English: A non-engineer who builds useful software or automation with accessible tools.
Example: "The operations team had several citizen developers building internal automation, which was useful until nobody could explain how the workflows were secured."