A Comprehensive Guide to Building a Successful DevOps Career

DevOps is an approach developed and scaled across years from the best principles and knowledge gained through development management, testing, and support functions/operations throughout the software development project life cycle.

Companies can integrate product design and development, integrated testing, configuration management, tool deployment, real-time software products monitoring, and support with these approaches to enhance productivity and efficiency.

DevOps also offers several technical advantages, including consistent delivery, problem identification, rectification in advance, and smoother project management.

According to statistics, the worldwide DevOps market is expected to grow to $57.90 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 24.2%.

Due to the constant need for organizations to evolve their operating models, DevOps is in great demand. Such a strong market growth and demand acts as a driving force for talented individuals to upskill themselves and build a lucrative DevOps career. 

Today, engineers can explore several top-quality DevOps course options to serve as DevOps engineers for businesses ranging from growth startups to established multi-national companies (MNCs).

Let’s delve deeper and explore the several career tracks, jobs and responsibilities, and prominent technical skills you must work on to open several doors of opportunities in the rapidly-growing DevOps landscape. 

Why does upskilling yourself with a DevOps certification credential make sense in 2024?

Here are some of the most imperative reasons why you should consider acquiring DevOps skills and competencies in 2024.

1. The DevOps talent market is hot right now

Businesses globally are quickly transitioning to DevOps-backed tools and technology for the seamless integration and deployment of software-based products and solutions.

It is the fundamental rationale why 38% of IT employers are looking to recruit individuals with DevOps skills. Organizations are effectively leveraging automation to increase productivity thanks to DevOps developers. 

Companies that have embraced the DevOps paradigm are witnessing quick expansion and great performance, giving them a competitive edge in cut-throat market competition dynamics.

Moreover, they are even ready to pay top dollar to acquire qualified DevOps professionals that have gained the requisite technical skills through an accredited DevOps course. 

2. DevOps promises a steady career growth 

A DevOps career at its most basic level necessitates complete ownership of one’s obligations and responsibilities, along with the ability to experiment as a technical solutions provider.

While working in the domain, you get the opportunity to learn how to coordinate various responsibilities like programming, integration, and testing.

Acquiring such skills right from the early stages of your career and further building on them sets you on a successful and lucrative career trajectory for years to come. 

The roles and responsibilities associated with a DevOps engineer combine both managerial and technical tasks. The following are some of the key responsibilities that come with a DevOps Engineer role:

• Comprehending project KPIs and client requirements.
• Managing the team’s composition, activity, and participation in project management tasks.
• Deploying various IT infrastructure, automation, development, and testing tools and technologies.
• Possessing the technical expertise necessary to analyze, evaluate, and validate the software code produced for the project.
• Suggesting and implementing approaches for troubleshooting and eliminating issues in the code.
• Establishing and defining development, testing, release, update, and supporting procedures for DevOps tasks.
• Managing and tracking the operations for compliance throughout the whole lifecycle and updating or developing new procedures for optimization and waste minimization.
• Identification and implementation of cybersecurity solutions through consistent vulnerability evaluation and risk mitigation.
• Choosing and implementing the right CI/CD tools.
• Communicating regular updates on the project status to stakeholders and clients.
• Conducting root-cause analysis and incidence management.
• Developing a continuous integration and continuous delivery/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline.

What are the top technical skills required before starting a DevOps career?

The role of a DevOps Engineer calls for technical expertise during the development cycle and operational competence during the support and maintenance phases.

A graduation degree in Computer Science or IT may offer some of the technical skills required to work as a DevOps engineer. However, you should opt for DevOps online training to acquire the requisite technical skills in a structured manner.

Some of the essential technical skills included in a DevOps job description are:

1. A solid grasp of Java, Linux, and Website Development concepts. It is crucial to be familiar with the Linux environment and the pertinent programming languages, such as Python, Ruby, or Pearl, as most DevOps projects are built on Linux.

2. Familiarity with DevOps automation tools, such as:

• Continuous management (Chef, Puppet, and Ansible)
• Continuous integration (Jenkins, Travis CI, and Bamboo) 
• Continuous testing (Docker, Test Complete, and Tricentis Tosca)
• Continuous monitoring (Sensu, Nagios, and Splunk).

3. In-depth knowledge of the CI/CD process.

• Comprehensive understanding of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) models to overcome deployment issues.
• Hands-on experience with database management tools like Mongo and MySQL.
• Having practical experience with a variety of tools, open-source platforms, and cloud solutions.
• Understanding important DevOps and Agile concepts.

Top 7 job roles and titles associated with DevOps you must know about

1. DevOps Engineer

The DevOps Engineer, also known as a Platform Engineer, is in charge of managing and maintaining the infrastructure that is utilized for DevOps processes.

An individual with expertise in DevOps tasks, knowledge of the supported platforms, how to link them into current business processes, and management experience qualifies for the role of DevOps Engineer.

2. DevOps Automation Architect

The Automation Architect is a specialist position since a significant chunk of DevOps depends on automated workflows and systems that optimize teams and reduce the necessity for interference.

Researching and putting into practice automation solutions is only part of the Automation Architect’s job; they must also be integrated with other contemporary technical systems.

3. DevOps Build Engineer

A Build Engineer oversees the build, designing, and development processes and ensures that the build objectives and deadlines are met in a rapid-paced, hectic setting.

They look after code management, the upkeep and development of builds, the deployment and management of automation solutions, and provide validation that builds adhere to predetermined configuration specifications.

The role has a lot of flexibility and can be used to meet numerous potential needs within a company.

4. DevOps Release Manager 

A Release Manager’s role in DevOps entails creating quality standards for software versions and efficiently managing the CI/CD pipeline.

It is a supervisory and management role that involves monitoring the comprehensive development pipeline and directing both individual releases and overarching release plans.

Essentially, they seek to handle product management and synchronization all the way from development through the production phase. 

5. DevOps Security Engineer

The primary role of a DevOps Security Engineer is designing, administering, and maintaining infrastructure security while collaborating with internal operations and development teams.

The security engineer’s key responsibilities include dealing with issues, developing and implementing detection systems, managing security and compliance requirements, and testing new security features leveraging tools like log management and configuration management. 

6. Product Manager

The Product Manager’s role originates directly from the DevOps operational perspective and carries with it the organizational and management abilities required for a project to be successful.

They must have strong teamwork skills that enable them to collaborate closely with the development teams, security engineers, build and release managers, and data analysts to maintain a bird’s-eye view of the product development. 

7. DevOps Test Engineer  

A DevOps Test Engineer can integrate business analytics and testing expertise to address product issues and provide a solution.

The individual is responsible for establishing the test to examine and validate code in accordance with the quality criteria specified by the release manager.

If you aspire to take up one of the following positions in the DevOps domain, the Hero Vired DevOps certification is all you need to get started on the journey.

How much does a DevOps Engineer earn?

A career in DevOps paves the way for talented and skilled engineers to command handsome salaries as companies all across the globe don’t hesitate to offer salary packages above the industry average to acquire and retain top minds.

In fact, according to a report, DevOps Engineers fetch an average salary of $111,683, placing them in the top five in the tech domain. Here is a list of salary ranges and averages paid at several prominent DevOps positions in India:

• DevOps Engineer– The expected salary ranges from INR 4.2 Lakhs to INR 12.1 Lakhs, with an average annual salary of INR 6.0 Lakhs.
• DevOps Manager– The expected salary ranges from INR 14.4 Lakhs to INR 47.1 Lakhs, with an average annual salary of INR 25.7 Lakhs.
• DevOps Architect– The expected salary ranges from INR 9.0 Lakhs to INR 35.0 Lakhs, with an average annual salary of INR 20.3 Lakhs.
• DevOps and Build Release Engineer– The expected salary ranges from INR 4.0 Lakhs to INR 30.7 Lakhs, with an average annual salary of INR 10.0 Lakhs.

The bottom line

Much like any other career track, a DevOps one begins with a junior position where developers gain experience performing various responsibilities associated with each operation in the DevOps environment.

Nonetheless, developers must administer software releases from beginning to end as their careers advance and devise plans to outperform competitors. DevOps is thus a professional path that is both challenging and fulfilling. 

For anyone wishing to pursue a career in this booming industry, leveling and skilling up to this challenge necessitates receiving solid, industry-recognized DevOps online training. 

The Hero Vired Certificate Program in DevOps & Cloud Engineering is undoubtedly the top-tier DevOps online course that will impart you with the requisite knowledge and skills for automating the application development life cycle on a secure and robust cloud infrastructure.

The seven-month program comes with mentorship from global and Indian industry experts. Its industry-oriented curriculum is just what you need to gain fundamental skills and knowledge of automating the code assembly, testing, and deployment using AWS.

Moreover, to deliver extensive hands-on DevOps online training, the certification program consists of 11+ industry projects, scenario deployments, and case studies. 

So what are you waiting for? Visit Hero Vired now and start your DevOps upskilling journey today.