DevOps Engineer Role and Responsibilities: Let’s Guide You Here!

Introduction to DevOps Engineer Roles and Responsibilities

There are a lot of misconceptions regarding who is a DevOps Engineer? Is he the person who writes code and is responsible for the work for a system engineer too? Well, Not exactly! Here, we will clear your doubts regarding who is a DevOps Engineer, what are the roles and responsibilities of a DevOps engineer, and the DevOps Engineer Job Description Sample Template.

Before we move ahead to the DevOps job description, DevOps engineer roles, and responsibilities, let us first discuss what is DevOps and its important tools.

What is DevOps?

DevOps is a software development strategy that bridges the gap between IT staff and developers. It makes the deployment easy and faster for organizations. It incorporates the feedback quickly and derives the best outcome by deep analysis of the product. The major benefits of DevOps include –

• Fewer software failures
• The lead time between fixes is shortened

The Top 10 DevOps Tools that you Need to Master for Pursuing the Career Path are:

Before knowing about DevOps engineer roles and responsibilities, let’s know about a few tools. DevOps is an advantage over the traditional waterfall model and involves a lot of development, testing, and deployment technologies to build automated CI/CD pipelines. Here is the list of important DevOps tools that you must know.

• Git and GitHub – Source code management and version control systems. If you wanted to know the difference between these two important tools then check our blog Git vs GitHub.
• Selenium – This is an automation testing tool
• Jenkins – Jenkins is an automation server with plenty of plugins to develop CI/CD pipelines.
• Ansible - This is a configuration management and deployment tool
• Docker – Docker is a containerization platform
• Chef – Chef is a configuration management and deployment tool
• Kubernetes – Kubernetes is a Container Orchestration tool
• Puppet - This is a configuration management and deployment tool
• Nagios – This tool is good for Continuous Monitoring

Check out our other blogs in the series by clicking over the tools name as given above and understand each of the tools deeply one by one. Now, let us check out who is a DevOps Engineer?

Who is a DevOps Engineer?

Here, gradually we will get an idea about DevOps engineer roles and responsibilities. Starting with, a DevOps engineer is the person who understands SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) and has a deep understanding of various DevOps tools for developing digital pipelines CI/CD pipelines. He will work with developers and other IT staff for faster code deployment.

They can be called developers who are interested in network operations and deployment work. They can be system admins who have a passion for scripting and coding into the development aide where they could improve the planning, testing, and deployment process.

You may also like to go through this DevOps tutorial to know what you learn, how to learn, and much more!

Now, what is the DevOps engineer role? The following section briefs about DevOps developer roles and responsibilities

DevOps Engineer Roles and Responsibilities - Know the Job Roles

Let us understand the different DevOps engineer roles and responsibilities with their brief description.

• DevOps Security Expert – A DevOps security expert is a person who will monitor the security and health of a software product.
• DevOps Quality Engineers – Quality Engineer is a person who will check the quality of a product based on client needs and requirements.
• DevOps Developer / Tester – They are people who will develop the code and test the same rigorously.
• DevOps Automation Engineer – Automation Engineers are those professionals who are responsible for achieving orchestration and automation of tools.
• Release Manager – Release Manager is a person who will release new features and ensure the post-release stability of a product too.
• DevOps Evangelist – DevOps Evangelist is the person responsible for the overall implementation of DevOps principles and tools.

We assume that we could help you understand “what is DevOps engineer role.”

Now, you may wonder what is the learning path of a DevOps engineer. Just click on this DevOps engineer learning path thread to learn more.

DevOps Engineer Roles and Responsibilities: Tasks that You Need to Perform

Besides knowing about DevOps engineer roles and responsibilities, it's important to know tasks to perform, skills required, and others. 

So, let’s dive in to know further about the subject at hand!

To accomplish the main functions of coding, scripting, process re-engineering, and deployment, every DevOps engineer has to perform standard DevOps engineer responsibilities that may vary based on Company needs and requirements. Here is the CI-CD engineer job description discussed for your reference.

• Project Planning: DevOps engineer usually participates in strategic project planning meetings. In addition to providing their expertise or guidance to the system options like risks, costs vs. benefits, impact, they share their operational needs and development forecasts to allow accurate planning of projects in a timely manner.
• Development: DevOps engineer roles and responsibilities include building IT solutions or code development too. Here, DevOps engineers will install or configure solutions, translate technical requirements, implement reusable components, assist with all stages of development, develop stubs or simulators, and performing script maintenance or updates, etc. This activity is an important part of DevOps engineer responsibilities.  
• Deployment: A DevOps Engineer accelerates deployments with continuous monitoring and configuration management tools. They can deploy new modules or upgrades and complete fixes within the production environment. Another important DevOps engineer role and responsibility is to make the modules ready for production based on specific procedures and document knowledge transfer too.
• Maintenance and Troubleshooting: Routine application maintenance is an ongoing responsibility of a DevOps engineer. For this purpose, he will create requirements and procedures for implementing routine maintenance. Troubleshooting existing details for errors and resolving those errors is also the main responsibility of the DevOps Engineer.
• Performance Management: DevOps engineers will not only evaluate existing apps or platforms but will recommend advanced solutions too for enhancing performance by gap analysis, identifying the most practical business solution, and integrating them with current apps.

Till then, we have discussed deeply, what is DevOps, who is a DevOps Engineer, what are the roles and responsibilities of a DevOps Engineer. Let us see further what it takes to become a DevOps Engineer. Also, we will understand the job description to see what industries actually needed from a DevOps Engineer.

DevOps Developer Roles and Responsibilities: Skills Needed to Become a DevOps Engineer

In this section, we will discuss the important skills needed to become a DevOps Engineer. He is a liaison bridging the gap among software developers and other IT team members. Skills are taken important for the overall success of a DevOps role because finding common ground between different IT teams is not always an easy task.

DevOps is a buzzword in industries these days. Every organization is using the best DevOps practices and they need DevOps professionals to implement those practices. Here are the top six DevOps engineer skills that organizations are looking for when hiring DevOps Professionals.

• Linux fundamentals and scripting
• Knowledge of various DevOps Tools and Technologies
• Continuous Integration and continuous delivery
• Infrastructure as code
• DevOps Key Concepts
• Soft Skills

Further, the DevOps role always demands constant communication. They had a lot of stuff to communicate across different parts of an organization when it comes to educating people on security and scalability. He must be able to anticipate needs and understand how people work together to fill the gaps in technology with expert care. Here is a list of DevOps engineer skills needed to become a high-paid professional.

• He should have knowledge of cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, etc.
• He should have hands-on expertise in configuration management and deployment tools like Puppet, Chef, Ansible, etc.
• He should be proficient in GIT workflows and scripting.
• He should have experience in continuous delivery and continuous integration of CI/CD

Essential Soft Skills for a DevOps Engineer

Apart from technical proficiency, DevOps engineer needs to have some non-technical skills like:

Teamwork - Not all the time do engineers work on stand-alone mode. There may be times that they need to communicate and work with other developers. So, it is a proven fact that teamwork is a DevOps engineer skill that ensures a coherent product.  

So, if you are a DevOps engineer, make it a habit of interacting with other colleagues or developers frequently. Even you can use team communication tools like Trello, Zoom, or Slack if an in-person meeting is not feasible. With these communication tools, you can conduct training for the new developers.

Empathy - Be it a technical role or not, empathy is a quality that helps you comprehend other members' perspectives. As DevOps engineer roles have team and client interactions, it is essential to possess this trait. These DevOps engineer skills can reflect in the products or services that you develop. When you prioritize clients' needs and customer expectations, it delivers a better click-through rate. 

Accountability - As a team leader, you ought to accept your mistakes. Else, your team members are more likely to follow in your footsteps and commit the same mistakes. Well, it is not an easy job to accept your flaws. But in the long run, it can positively influence your team. Thus, accountability is a mandatory leadership skill for DevOps engineers. Take the courage to accept your mistakes as it encourages your team members to do the same.

Adaptability - What does adaptability mean here? As a techie, you know that technologies evolve. So to keep pace with it, you must update yourself with knowledge of new tools, frameworks, and coding languages. So, adaptability skills for DevOps engineers become crucial.

Time Management - When you have excellent time management skills, it helps you prioritize significant tasks. Tech nerds require these DevOps engineer skills to survive. Few time management skills you can utilize are:

• Fix periods for a specific task with regular breaks
• Avoid doing multi-tasking as it might affect your productivity
• Plan your activities beforehand
• Limit your distractions
• Find out your productive time of the day and schedule the most significant tasks for that period
• Delegate the work you cannot handle to another better person

By now you must be completely aware of DevOps engineer roles and responsibilities. 

If not? Then, check the DevOps engineer JD and other details!

DevOps Engineer Job Description With Top Companies

When you are looking for a challenging career in a reputed IT company, you should be skilled enough to work across different IT teams and identify the best business solution as needed. Here is the sample job description for a DevOps engineer that is usually asked to have in the resume to make you a more deserving candidate for the post.

Also, you should take look at this DevOps engineer resume to get a better understanding of your job roles.

Wondering, if you wanted to apply for this type of job profile and need essential DevOps skills then what would be the next step? You should join our DevOps training course to make you proficient in different DevOps skills and automation tools. We are pretty much sure when you had enough details, you wanted to check DevOps salaries too.

Read: How can Convergence Impact and Accelerate the DevOps Operations?

Highly Competitive DevOps Salaries

DevOps is one of the highest-paid job profiles worldwide. However, the salary of a DevOps engineer depends on multiple factors like Company, geographical area, experience, skills, education, etc. 

As per the CodinGame Developer Survey in 2021, DevOps engineer emerged as one of the most popular job roles. Nearly 64% of the companies surveyed, stated that they want to plan to recruit more such developers in times to come. This survey was based on the responses from nearly 15,000 HR professionals and developers across the globe. What, not convinced?

Let’s put more facts!

According to Glassdoor's Top 50 Jobs in the US for the year 2022, DevOps engineers rank 4th in popularity.  The median base salary for such developers in teh US is $120,095 per annum with an average vacancy of 8,548. As per Talent.com, senior DevOps engineers can earn $72.50 on an average per hour in the US.

Here is an estimate of the DevOps engineer salary range in the US as per Payscale.

More facts to follow………….

As per Talent.com, a DevOps engineer in the UK can earn an average salary of £60,000 per year (as of Jan 2022). The hourly pay rate is £30.25.

According to Payscale, in Australia, the average pay is AU$100,000 per year (as of Jan 2022). Plus, you are eligible for bonuses and profits.

According to Payscale, the DevOps engineer average salary in India is Rs. 700,000 per annum, according to glassdoor (as of Jan 2022)

We are sure that by now you understand the demand and career scope for this profession!

The salaries might differ with DevOps engineer roles and responsibilities and experience level also. Next, to sum up, we shall look at ways to become a DevOps Engineer.

How to Become a DevOps Engineer

Mentioned below are the points that you must consider and take a conscious effort to learn.

Proficiency in Scripting or Programming Languages is Must!

Whether you are required to debug a code or integrate changes in the database or deployment process & automation of development, as a DevOps Engineer, you must possess skills with various scripting or programming languages. Gain proficiency in programming or scripting languages like Python, Perl, Ruby. Also, before choosing any programming language to learn DevOps, you must consider various features like their efficiency, modularity, scalability, applications, etc. 

Do care to give a read on this DevOps engineer certification guide to know what to learn and how to become such an engineer.

Familiarize yourself with Linux and Operating Systems concepts

Indeed, to be a DevOps Engineer, you need to have all the knowledge about Linux and other operating systems. Please remember that knowledge of Linux is extremely crucial. You must be aware of I/O Management, Process Management, Threads and Concurrency, and Memory Management.

Must be Strong with Software Deployment and Configuration

As a DevOps professional, you must know how to configure software or application and the deployment process. Additionally, a DevOps engineer must have knowledge about any cluster management software and containerization to perform deployment effectively.

Learn to Work with Tools like Puppet or Docker

To become a DevOps engineer, you need knowledge of various tools like Docker or Puppet to be able to deploy various applications.

Become familiar with Infrastructure as Code

Through Infrastructure as Code, you can deploy applications easily in an environment as per requirements. It lets you to use configuration files to manage your IT infrastructure. Hence, you must be familiar with Infrastructure as Code.

Understand CI or CD Pipelines

CI or CD stands for Continuous Integration or Continuous Delivery. This process is very critical in the job role of a DevOps engineer. You must be familiar with this process which is a part of the delivery pipeline process.

Become Familiar with Various Networking Concepts

Update yourself with the latest networking concepts as you need to deal with a lot of connections, servers, and data transfer. Knowledge about networking concepts will help you to manage the IT workflow. Also, you must be able to ensure a secure environment for development, testing, and deployment. Understanding networking concepts will help you to implement various security policies.

Familiarize yourself with Cloud Providers & Services

How can we forget this? Most businesses use Cloud services these days. Hence, as a DevOps engineer, make sure to learn about Cloud Service Models, Architecture, and Computing. You must gain knowledge on various other topics like Cloud Formation, Deployment Models, Virtualization, etc. 

Get Certified

Apply for DevOps certification courses like Certified Associate, Docker Certified Associate, Puppet Professional Certification. You can also check the details about our DevOps certification training to validate your skills for employment.

Get a Cool CV!

Your CV should be a reflection of your skills. Prepare your resume in a way that mentions your skillsets, work experience, project experience, extra-curricular, certifications, and any other talent related to DevOps. You can also subscribe to professional services to write your resume. But we feel that you are smart enough to do it yourself!

So, by now, you are completely aware of roles and responsibilities of devops engineer.

Now, its time to conclude!

Ohh…wait we have a bonus here - 

Check this: DevOps engineer interview questions and answers to study for yourself!

The Overall Verdict on DevOps Engineer Roles and Responsibilities

Converting to DevOps has a positive impact on IT organizations especially when it comes to team management, deployment frequency, lead time, and delivery time, etc. Employing DevOps throughout an organization is not easy and it needs constant efforts and monitoring. One of the most important attributes that have a direct impact on its process is Company culture.

DevOps is more than just an IT function. For a few people, it is defined as the philosophy that impacts how employees interact with top management and entry-level positions. 

Still, it may be difficult sometimes to define the right roles and responsibilities of DevOps Engineer within an organization. By now, you must be through with DevOps engineer roles and responsibilities. 

So, we must say that a person should be well-versed in deployment automation, infrastructure automation, and version control too. With the right approach and education programs, you can always acquire the right set of skills and start applying for top IT Companies right away.

Do you want to know more about DevOps roles and responsibilities, work process, certification programs, future scope? Check out this link-> Devops Tutorial for Beginners

Till then, share your comments about this blog. Feel free to share suggestions, happy reading!

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