DevOps Engineer
When it comes to the topic of DevOps Engineers, there is often a lot of misunderstanding involved. Do they write code? Are they also responsible for the System Engineering tasks?
Seeing as this is still a fairly new role within software development teams (late 90’s/early 2000’s) this confusion is only natural. So why are so many IT companies choosing to hire DevOps engineers as they scale?
Allow us to bring you some clarity in the roles and responsibilities of a DevOps Engineer!
What is a DevOps Engineer?
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.
Roles & Responsibilities
While the role of a DevOps engineer may vary from company to company, one thing is sure. It will include a combination of release engineering, infrastructure provisioning and management, system administration, security, and DevOps advocacy.
To break it down into key functions will help us understand this better. A DevOps engineer is expected to be:
DevOps Evangelist — responsible for implementing DevOps
Release Manager — responsible for new features & ensuring post-release product stability
Automation Expert — responsible for achieving automation & orchestration of tools
Software Developer/ Tester — responsible for developing the code and testing it
Quality Assurance — ensuring the quality of the product conforms to its requirements
Security Engineer — monitoring the product’s security & health
As you can see, the job of a DevOps engineer is anything but simple. While they are expected to be IT generalists, some key skills every DevOps engineer needs are:
Experience with at least one cloud platform (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Solid practical knowledge of Configuration Management and Deployment tools like — Puppet, Ansible, Chef, Terraform etc.
Proficiency in scripting, and Git and Git workflows
Experience in developing Continuous Integration/ Continuous Delivery pipelines (CI/ CD)
Curious about which specific skills you should look for in a DevOps engineer?
Why SHORE teams?
At SHORE teams, we aim to help you find the absolute best developers through our network of partners. We’ve vetted each of these partners thoroughly. They’ve gone through an extensive onboarding process. During this time we extensively researched their development processes, technology stacks and specialties, online reviews and testimonials.
With our worldwide pool of 15,000+ technical talents, we’ll provide you with the best DevOps Engineer for your scaling needs. We’ll connect you with the right development partner and advise your decision-making process when needed. We function as a broker during the whole process and manage to keep this service free of charge.
Still have questions?
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