Perhaps an even better question to start with is “what is DevOps?”
DevOps is a software development strategy meant to bridge the gap between developers and IT staff. The goal of this is to shorten the systems development lifecycle and provide continuous delivery of software at high quality.
As a strategy it is complementary to and even partially derived from the Agile methodology.
A DevOps engineer introduces processes, tools, and methodologies to balance needs throughout the software development life cycle, from coding and deployment, to maintenance and updates. Besides an understanding of both development and operations, strong interpersonal skills will be necessary.
This is key because the role requires driving collaboration between company departments that might be isolated from each other. This can often lead to info not being shared that might create value for the user. A DevOps engineer therefore doesn’t just change processes, but culture as well.