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What is DevOps?
There is no uniform, universally accepted DevOps definition.
But here is what you need to know about DevOps jobs:
On a fundamental level, DevOps is about collaboration between the developer and operations teams.
“Dev” stands for developers but it also covers everybody involved in the software development process – QAs, product managers, etc.
“Ops” refers to information technology operations. These are the teams that manage the software after it comes out.
It used to be that developers would write the code, and pass it on to testing once it was finished. From there, it was the operations team’s responsibility. Each step of the process happening separately meant slower deployments and more problems because devs and the ops team weren’t communicating efficiently.
DevOps brings the two together. The overall collaborative approach means a shorter system development life cycle without compromising quality.
DevOps engineering is not a defined career track. Some engineers come from development and get interested in deployment and operations. Others are sysadmins with coding skills. What brings them all together isn’t a sick desire to automate IT operations to the point where you can just take out the human element.
DevOps enthusiasts recognize that collaboration between operations and development is just as important as the one between clients, product managers, and devs (a.k.a. the Agile approach).
DevOps Jobs: Fascinating Facts
DevOps is revolutionizing the relationship between development and delivery. Is it the right career path for you? Maybe these facts will convince you:
91% of software development companies have adopted DevOps principles or are planning on it.
44% of companies were already implementing DevOps in 2019.
DevOps is changing the industry – the number of low performers is dropping, while elite performers (high deployment frequency, low lead time for changes, quick restoring of service, and low change failure rate) are on the rise!
The average DevOps engineer salary is $93,359 per year.
DevOps professionals also make between $1000 and $15,000 per year in bonuses.
There couldn’t be a better time to get into the field!
In this article, we cover everything you need to know about DevOps jobs:
Getting started in the field
Education & Certifications
Day-to-day responsibilities
Comprehensive DevOps job description
… and more!
DevOps Engineer Jobs in a Nutshell
Most job postings just say “DevOps engineer” but depending on the company and how much they have embraced the culture, your role could vary. Here is a breakdown of DevOps-related positions in IT – ordered by seniority:
DevOps Lead
DevOps leads work on software development projects, overseeing the implementation of DevOps principles and practices. They sit on top of the CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery) pipeline and make decisions about the relevant tools and technologies.
Their yearly salary is higher than the average for the DevOps engineers – $129,007. This is understandable, since it is a more senior position.
DevOps Automation Expert
Automation is a key concept in the DevOps methodology. Depending on the size of the company, some DevOps engineers are exclusively concerned with that aspect. An automation expert knows the ins and outs of their arsenal of tools. They can be involved in any step of the software lifecycle – automation can be applied to virtually all processes.
DevOps Testing Professional
Continuous development means that updated versions of the software are repeatedly being released on a production environment. For this to happen, the code needs to be easy to build, test and deploy. This is achievable through automation and standardization – and QA testing is not exempt from these efforts.
DevOps testing professionals design and set up these processes, so they can run as soon as deployment is complete. They configure continuous testing as a part of the pipeline. They align all their tasks (including pre-testing, cleanup, post-testing tasks, etc.) with the DevOps principles.
DevOps Engineer
This is the umbrella term for (almost) all DevOps positions. In larger companies, you will have different people doing DevOps security from the ones in testing, for instance. They might all have the same job title, so look closely in the DevOps job description to find clues.
Then again, DevOps is all about collaboration so all professionals take ownership of the end result. It’s normal that there is a job name overlap between positions.
DevOps Jobs for Freshers
Getting started in DevOps isn’t always a clear career path. However, for most people, there are two main entry points:
Development background – you start as a software development expert. Then you become interested (and specialized) in operations.
Operations core – you are an IT operations professional. Then, you build software development and management skills.
Both of these are valid pathways because:
DevOps is at the intersection of Dev and Ops (big surprise)!
By the way… If you prefer to stick to one field – check out our articles on system administrator jobs! It will give you a bunch of helpful tips.
But DevOps isn’t exactly a beginner-friendly field. As the Reddit saying goes:
“There are no junior DevOps Engineers?”
Sadly, there is truth to that. You don’t become a DevOps engineer right out of college for several (very solid) reasons:
Experience – you can’t squeeze in three years of experience in a brief internship. To be successful at DevOps, you need to be familiar with the principles, processes, and tools in-depth. Only then can you hope to improve and automate them.
No degree – you can’t learn DevOps in college. Most people come from programming or computer networks (Dev or Ops) and then they were self-taught/put in a DevOps position by their management.
High responsibility – DevOps decisions affect solutions quality and the timeliness of releases. This is a lot to expect from someone in an entry-level position.
As a result, you could be looking at ‘junior DevOps engineer jobs’ and the professionals in them will already be accomplished experts in another field.
Getting Your Foot Through The Door
DevOps is a career switchers path.
As a beginner, here are your steps:
Get a tech degree – You can’t work in DevOps without a very solid core in either development, or operations. Some of the most popular degrees include Software Development, Programming, Computer Networks, and System Administration.
Work in your field – gain experience in a position, relevant to your skills. Any position in a software engineering team will teach you about the processes, tools, and challenges you will face as a DevOps engineer.
Fill in the gaps – if you are a dev person, learn about ops and vice-versa.
Apply for assistant/lower-level positions – either within your company or outside of it, start branching out into the DevOps team.
Develop DevOps Jobs Skills
The foundational knowledge you need for DevOps positions includes:
Linux OS – nearly everything runs on Linux. While it’s possible to become a good DevOps engineer with experience in only Windows, in practice most jobs involve working with a Linux environment. Learning its ins and outs will give you a solid system administration base to build on.
Check out our article on Linux jobs to learn more!
Amazon Web Services (AWS) – the public cloud is growing and AWS is the biggest player (they are so much bigger than any of their competitors!). For DevOps, AWS knowledge is just as indispensable as carrying a toolbox for construction workers. Speaking of toolboxes, you don’t have to know all their tools and functions – start with VPC, EC2, IAM, S3, CloudWatch, ELB, and Security Groups and take it from there.
Python – programming skills are needed almost everywhere in the DevOps world. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, learn Python. It is the most sought-after backend language in the world.
But it goes beyond that!
A (somewhat comprehensive) list of skills that you will be using on a day-to-day basis includes:
Programming/scripting languages – Python, Java, Perl, Bash, Powershell, etc.
Linux OS
CI/CD pipeline design, building, and maintenance.
CI/CD tools like Jenkins, Docker, etc.
Public cloud – AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform
And this is just one side of the job. Soft skills like leadership, mentorship, and innovative thinking are highly desirable and ultimately even lead to higher pay. Additional specializations, such as DevSecOps (with data breaches becoming a daily problem of a worrying scale) will also benefit your career.
Certifications
What if you have skills, but not the degree? This is where certs come in. It’s no wonder they are practically replacing formal degrees in some parts of the tech world.
The most popular options include AWS Certified DevOps Engineer (Associate or Professional), Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert, and the DevOps Institute Certifications.
We will cover these more thoroughly later in the article.
DevOps Job Description
Disclaimer: This is a general job description for this position. Every employer will have different criteria for hiring.
A DevOps engineer job description is pretty simple:
Solving operations challenges with software engineering tools.
Or, in other words:
Configure, package, deploy, run, and monitor software (updates, new features, even new applications) in a fully automated way!
But what does this mean on a daily basis? You go to the office, make coffee, sit at your desk and do… what?
What does a DevOps engineer do?
Build infrastructure – design, create, and monitor infrastructure on a public (AWS, Azure) or private cloud.
Set up and maintain CI/CD pipeline – participate during every step of the implementation (setting up from scratch, monitoring, problem-solving, improving), create tool sets for operational tasks.
Take charge of automation – work with different teams to facilitate automation of processes and smoothless integration into the CI/CD process.
Coach and mentor on DevOps practices – train teams on the best use of DevOps, onboard them to the Agile, provide continuous support for best collaboration.
With that in mind, here are the DevOps jobs requirements you will have to complete.
Key Areas of Expertise
DevOps jobs skills required for success include:
Configuring the infrastructure to run code – infrastructure-as-code experience, Terraform and CloudFormation, Ansible
Versioning production artifacts – distributed source code control (git)
Packaging code for deployment – virtualization skills, especially OS-level virtualization like Docker
Automated testing – setting up tests to catch known bugs, building separate test suites (i.e. integration tests, functional testing)
Deploying code to work without errors – immutable deployment, deployment automation servers like Jenkins or Jenkins alternatives (such as AWS’s CodeDeploy)
Running the code – Kubernetes
Monitoring the running software – analyze, isolate, and quickly resolve escalated issues, prevention and data security. Interested in that aspect of the process? Also consider SaaS jobs!
Additionally, DevOps engineers need solid interpersonal skills, since they are working at the intersection of several fields and in a position that comes with multiple unique challenges.
DevOps Engineer Jobs: Now What?
DevOps is not for beginners. In itself, it’s a career upgrade (or at least a career switch). But if you want to go even further up the corporate ladder… Can you?
Sure enough, managerial positions are available to DevOps specialists.
Working your way up to DevOps lead of the project/company is one of the options in your future. Another one would be to graduate to higher level management, where your transformational leadership skills will come in handy.
As more and more companies make progress in adopting DevOps principles, job openings and higher-level opportunities increase. This is the time to make the switch to DevOps!
Azure DevOps Jobs
Azure DevOps specialists are a sub-type of DevOps engineer positions that manage environments in the Azure DevOps server.
Formerly known as Azure VSTS (Visual Studio Team Services), Azure DevOps services features:
Agile tools for collaborating across teams to deliver value to the customer.
CI/CD pipelines to be continuously deployed with any git provider.
Git repos – unlimited and hosted on the Azure cloud. Testing tools
Artifacts hosted on the cloud (and shareable with a single click).
Multiple extensions – there are over a thousand of them, or you can build your own.
Consider the Azure DevOps certification for demonstrating your skills to future employers.
The Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert certifies your ability to design and execute a DevOps strategy. To access it, you need either the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate, or the Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate certifications. The price of the exam depends on the country in which it is taken, but it runs around $165 for first-time sitting.
DevOps Salary Range
According to PayScale, the DevOps jobs salary range is between $64k and $144k. This is the total pay (including additional cash compensation like bonuses and profit sharing).
The average national base pay for DevOps engineers is $93,359 per year or $48.47 per hour. Bonuses range between $1,464 and $15,415, while profit sharing can reach $15,690.
But it gets better:
Top-paying companies like Amazon, Capital One Financial Corp and Trimble Navigation all pay a six-figure average to their DevOps engineers. The average base pay at Amazon is nearly $120k!
Your DevOps Engineer Salary Will Be Highest in.. A DevOps engineer salary in San Francisco, California is 33.5% higher than the national average. New York DevOps specialists also enjoy much higher pay – up to 17.7% above the average for the country.
DevOps jobs in Seattle come with an 18.3% higher paycheck. Other high-paying locations include Denver, Colorado (5%), Boston, Massachusetts (2%), and Austin, Texas (1%).
Of course, you also have to take into account for cost of living and taxes.
With tax rates ranging between 0% and 13% in different locations, your take-home salary will differ significantly. Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming are the states where no income tax is imposed. In California, on the other hand, you will be charged some of the highest tax rates in the country.
Looking to up your pay? How about…
DevOps Jobs Skills that Lead to Higher Salary
Employees with certain skills enjoy a statistically higher pay. What are these skills when it comes to DevOps? According to PayScale:
Kubernetes – the preferred automated application deployment system
Cloud computing – AWS tools in particular
Puppet – the infrastructure and application workflow automation tool
Python – the world’s most popular back-end programming language
The DevOps institute argues that transformational leaderships, DevSecOps (DevOps security skills), and testing automation are also among the salary-raising skills. They also believe that Agile and Scrum certifications will help you get paid more (and land higher-level jobs).
Speaking of certifications, AWS has three of the ten highest-paying certifications in North America. Considering they are the leader in public cloud computing, this is no surprise so it’s worth investing your time (and money) into getting AWS-certified. These certifications are useful for any cloud architect jobs (check out the dedicated article we did on those here!)
Remote DevOps Jobs
DevOps is a hot new field, so surely employers wouldn’t care in which time zone you are?
Yes and no.
Most DevOps positions are full-time office jobs with certain hours set aside for home office. The reason for this is very simple – physically being in the office has its perks. Not only are you more productive this way (not working from your bed does help efficiency), but communication and collaboration also become easier.
As a DevOps engineer, a huge part of your role will be to integrate different teams into one smooth-running machine of software development and deployment. Most employers still believe that this is best done by physically being in the office.
This was the ‘bad news’. The good news? There are still DevOps jobs available for freelance/remote work/telework. On UpWork alone you will find 192 postings and this is just one site.
By the way (shameless self-promotion time), our directory can also help a lot!
Education & Certification
First things first:
Do I need a degree?
No, you don’t need it but it will help a lot. In most job postings, however, post-secondary education is not a clear requirement.
Why should you still get one?
Because university education will give you a broad and solid foundation for your future career. Granted, you can’t pursue DevOps itself (since it’s a fairly new concept) but it’s smart to use college to get familiar with dev and ops. Or at least one of the two.
Ideally, out of college you will be comfortable with concepts related to:
Software development using Agile methods
The system development life cycle
Doing continuous testing to ensure software quality
Information technology operations – deployments, running, and monitoring new software
An in-depth understanding of either dev or ops is a must to get into DevOps. Some of the popular degrees to achieve that include Software Development, Programming, Computer Networks, and System Administration. Computer Science, of course, is also a solid core for your DevOps future.
How Can I Learn DevOps for Free?
If you are already in IT, you can make the switch to DevOps for virtually $0. Here are your options:
Self-study – explore resources like the AWS site, the LinkedIn Learning course on DevOps, the DevOps training by Microsoft on edX, etc. If you come from a development background, brush up on IT operations skills and build automation knowledge. If you come from operations, bone up on your programming and scripting skills, starting with Python (because it is the most popular language for DevOps professionals now).
Tell your company – if you’d like to make a switch within the company, or just to upskill yourself and gain a certificate or two, tell your management. Hiring for DevOps jobs is hard work. Most companies would love to be able to fill the opening with one of their own. Not to mention that any certs you gain will be an asset to the firm.
Igor Kantor’s blog series on Medium offers a useful roadmap to DevOps success and they’re funny and engaging to read. While he links to some paid resources, the advice is solid and it’s a great place to start.
Popular DevOps Certifications
Even when they’re not a requirement, DevOps certifications set you apart as a serious candidate and give you access to better paid (and more exciting) opportunities. Here are the ones that you want to consider:
AWS DevOps Certification – these virtually guarantee a higher pay; they are divided in three levels – foundational, associate, and professional. The path to AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional certification starts with either SysOps Administrator or the Developer associate-level certification. Either of the associate certs can be also useful when applying to AWS DevOps engineer jobs. (That’s a lot of jobs, by the way.)
Microsoft Certified – the Azure DevOps certification exams come in various shapes and forms (figure out the best one for you here) but the most popular for Azure DevOps professionals is the Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert which costs $165 to sit but has prerequisite exams that give you access.
DevOps Institute Certifications – they offer seven competency-based certifications and the training to prepare. The DevOps Leader (DOL)® and the DevSecOps Engineering (DSOE)℠ are among the most common for DevOps success.
DevOps Jobs Technical Skills
There are three core skills before you start making CI/CD pipelines and then additional tools and DevOps practices to master. Here are the essentials:
Operation systems – your best bet is Linux OS, which is much more common than Windows or Mac for enterprise computing.
Programming – invest time in learning Python or Java, both of which are popular and very useful in the DevOps field
Cloud computing – the highest-yield skill to learn is AWS tools, since the Amazon cloud service is much bigger than any of its competitors. Microsoft Azure is also on the rise, though, so keep an eye on it.
From there, each step of automating the software lifecycle comes with its own set of skills and requirements. Here are the technologies and capabilities to master:
Terraform and/or CloudFormation, Ansible
Git for distributed source code control
Virtualization using Docker
Automated testing
Immutable deployment, Jenkins and/or Jenkins alternatives (AWS CodeDeploy for example)
Kubernetes
Monitoring systems at work – i.e. with tools like Prometheus
DevOps Jobs Non-Technical Requirements
DevOps is above all a culture and a set of principles, not just a bunch of tools for you to use. Here are some of the non-technical skills to develop for success in the field:
Data Security Compliance
With cyber attackers getting smarter and more daring by the minute, compliance with security best practices is essential. While there is a technical aspect to it, knowing the legal sides of the problem will also help you (and your company) immensely.
Creating with the End in Mind
DevOps principles are all about goal-oriented work. Focus and practicality come before ‘this is how we have always done things’. In some cases, this could clash with colleagues that are set in their ways so conflict resolution skills are also indispensable.
Collaboration and Responsibility
In DevOps, all the people working on a project take ownership of the end result This means celebrating together when things go great… but it also means pushing together to overcome road bumps. DevOps jobs require a solid teamwork mentality and excellent interpersonal skills.
In Conclusion… What Is DevOps?
As hard as it may be to define DevOps:
The DevOps methodology allows for faster, higher quality software deployments. It means all employees are involved and engaged in the process, rather than having developers just write code and operations deal with it after.
It is, above all, a culture of working together. Automation and DevOps tools come second.
With a rising number of companies embracing DevOps principles and practices, there couldn’t be a better time to get into the field. Follow our guide, build your skills, and start applying to DevOps jobs soon!
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is a DevOps Engineer?
DevOps brings development (designing and writing software) and operations (testing, deploying, and monitoring the code) together. DevOps engineers are in charge of facilitating a smooth DevOps adoption, as well as improving existing pipelines. This not only makes the process run faster, it also ensures consistently better software is delivered.
What’s the DevOps Engineer Salary?
According to PayScale, the average yearly base pay for DevOps jobs is $93,359. Your total pay will range between $64k and $144k. Salaries are much higher in San Francisco, California, New York City, and Seattle, Washington.
What Are DevOps Skills?
The core DevOps jobs skills are operating system administration, programming and scripting, as well as navigating a cloud computing environment. For DevOps, AWS is virtually indispensable so opt for that cloud computing platform when you first get into the field. On top of that, engineers should be familiar with tools like Terraform, Ansible, Git, Docker, Jenkins, Kubernetes, Prometheus, etc. Strong interpersonal and leadership skills are a must in DevOps jobs.
How to Become a DevOps Engineer?
Start by getting a relevant college degree – anything related to Computer Science, Information Technology, or Programming will help. Follow that up by getting work experience in either development, or operations. Fill in the gaps with self-study and consider certification (AWS and Microsoft Azure are great options) to prove your skills.
What Is the Use of Azure DevOps?
Azure DevOps services are among the most common tools used in DevOps jobs. They include:
Agile tools
CI/CD pipelines
Git repos
Testing tools
Artifacts hosting
Installing and/or building extensions
The Azure services help with virtually all steps of a DevOps pipeline – from building to managing applications and everything in-between.
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