Devops Jobs - What Are They and How to Get One

By ZipRecruiter Marketplace Research Team

DevOps refers to a combination of philosophies, tools, and practices that help to promote an organization's ability to deliver applications and services quickly while improving products at an increased speed over companies that use traditional software development. The increased speed assists organizations in better serving their clients and customers and therefore compete more effectively in the market. Essentially, this model puts development and operations teams together so that engineers can work through the lifecycle of an application and not feel saddled into a single function or skill set. This helps to ensure quality applications and increase development speeds.

A DevOps engineer’s responsibilities include spending most of their time deploying and configuring builds, troubleshooting failed builds, and communicating with project managers or developers. As an engineer, you do all of this while the more long-term work of automating deployment and configuration tasks may sit untouched on your to-do list. DevOps engineering can be focused on multiple tasks within the DevOps team, including storage, build automation, or deployment automation. Because of the various functions of the job and the fact that not every company employs this position, there isn't a direct path to becoming a DevOps engineer, which may contribute to it being one of the hardest jobs to fill.

Although DevOps is a very technology and coding heavy career, you still need soft skills to enter into this industry. Companies created DevOps as a means of collaboration between development and operations teams, so communication among the different roles on the DevOps team is critical. Other qualifications for an entry-level DevOps position are more technical than those above. For instance, you need to be familiar with infrastructure automation tools, fluent in web languages, and familiar with continuous integration tools. Additionally, coding, programming, database management, and software architecture experience are crucial.

A solid background in network applications and software can help you perform your DevOps duties with greater success. One tool that can help you achieve success in a DevOps job is Jenkins, which is an open source automation server that helps to monitor executions of repeated jobs. Another important tool is PagerDuty, which is an incident management tool that helps to keep the reputation of a brand positive and give customers a great experience. Other tools include Prometheus, an open-source service monitoring system, Snort, a tool for security, and Splunk, a tool used to make machine data usable and accessible to everyone on the team.

Job Summary

We are looking for an experienced DevOps (Development and Operations) professional to join our growing organization. In this position, you will manage infrastructure projects and processes. Keen attention to detail, problem-solving abilities, and a solid knowledge base are essential.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Work directly with the DevOps team and Senior DevOps manager to test system integrity
• Design and implement build, deployment, and configuration management
• Test implemented designs
• Build and test automation tools for infrastructure provisioning
• Handle code deployments in all environments
• Monitor metrics and develop ways to improve
• Provide technical guidance and educate team members and coworkers on development and operations
• Brainstorm for new ideas and ways to improve development delivery
• Consult with peers for feedback during testing stages
• Build, maintain, and monitor configuration standards
• Maintain day-to-day management and administration of projects
• Manage CI and CD tools with team
• Document and design various processes; update existing processes
• Improve infrastructure development and application development
• Follow all best practices and procedures as established by the company

Requirements and Qualifications

• High school degree or equivalent; bachelor's degree in CS, engineering, software engineering, or related field
• Minimum 2 years’ previous experience in development and operations, or related IT, computer, or operations field
• Previous experience with software development, infrastructure development, or development and operations
• Experience with Linux infrastructures, database SQL (MS SQL), CI/CD tools, scripting such as JavaScript, PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby, .NET, Scrum/Kanban/SAFe, Agile workflow methodologies
• Up-to-date on the latest industry trends; able to articulate trends and potential clearly and confidently
• Good interpersonal skills and communication with all levels of management
• Able to multitask, prioritize, and manage time efficiently
• Able to physically stand, bend, squat, and lift equipment up to 30 pounds or more