DevOps Engineer Job Description - Role & Responsibilities

There are a lot of misconceptions regarding who is a DevOps Engineer? Is he the person who writes code and he 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 sample job description of a DevOps professional.

Before we move ahead, 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 deriving the best outcome by deep analysis of the product. The major benefits of DevOps include –

• A fewer software failures
• The lead time between fixes is shortened

Top 10 DevOps Tools

DevOps is an advantage over 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 – Automation server with a plenty of plugins to develop CI/CD pipelines.
• Ansible - This is a configuration management and deployment tool
• Docker – This is a containerization platform
• Chef – This is a configuration management and deployment tool
• Kubernetes – This 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?

Read: What Is the Difference Between Docker And Vagrant?

Who is a DevOps Engineer?

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 as 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 the deployment process.

DevOps Engineer Job Roles

Let us first understand the different DevOps roles with their brief description.

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

DevOps Engineer Duties and Job Responsibilities

To accomplish the main functions of coding, scripting, process re-engineering, and the deployment, every DevOps engineer has to perform standard responsibilities that may vary based on Company needs and requirements.

• Project Planning: DevOps engineer usually participates in the strategic project planning meetings. In addition to providing their expertize or guidance to the system options like risks, costs vs. benefits, impact, they share their operation operational needs and development forecasts to allow accurate planning of projects in a timely manner.
• Development: He is the guy responsible for building IT solution or code development too. Here, DevOps engineer will install or configure solutions, translating technical requirements, implementing reusable components, assist with all stage of development, developing stubs or simulators, and performing script maintenance or updates etc.
• 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 duty of a DevOps engineer includes he will make all modules ready for the production based on specific procedures and documenting 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 he will recommend advanced solutions too for enhancing performance by gap analysis, identifying the most practical business solution and integration them with current apps.

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

Read: DevOps Engineer Learning Path

Skills needed for 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 a 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 skills that organizations are looking for when hiring DevOps Professionals.

• Linux fundamentals and scripting
• Knowledge on 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 skills needed to become a high paid professional.

• He should have knowledge of cloud platforms like AWS, Azure etc.
• He should have hands-on expertize 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 pipelines.

Sample Job description for DevOps Engineer

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

• Automation experience in at least one configuration management and deployment tools such Chef, Puppet, Ansible, or Google deployment Manager etc.
• He should know how to automate or orchestrating workloads across multiple IT departments and cloud providers.
• Practical experience in at least one of the following programming languages – Python, Node.JS, Ruby, Java, PHP etc.
• Proficiency in scripting and GIT workflows.
• Supporting internal and external customer across multiple platforms.
• Work with team and customers to troubleshoot tough customer environments and increasing customer satisfaction too.
• Proficiency in leveraging CI/CD tools to automate deployment and testing. Experience in agile methodologies and fast-paced DevOps environments.
• Good enough in handling complex customer issues, and providing proper guidance to increase efficiency and reduce customer incidents.
• Developing tools and processes to improve the overall customer experiences and create playbooks too.

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 enough proficient in different DevOps skills and automation tools. I am pretty much sure when you had enough details, you wanted to check DevOps salaries too.

Read: Comparison Of Chef And Puppet- The Configuration Management Tools

DevOps Salaries

DevOps is one of the highest paid job profiles across worldwide. However, the salary of a DevOps engineer depends on multiple factors like Company, geographical area, experience, skills, education etc. Here is an estimate of salary from 18,434 employees as posted on Indeed in the past 3 years.

The Overall Verdict

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 defining the right roles and responsibilities for a DevOps professional within an organization.

So, we must say that person should 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.

Read: What is DevOps Model and What it can do?