Role of a DevOps Engineer: Responsibilities and Key Skills

The saying, “Don’t work hard, work smart,” has become the new work mantra of the twenty-first century and has been adopted by small businesses as well as large corporations. Businesses can now break down the antiquated barrier of operational silos and streamline the software application processes thanks to the most recent technological development, namely DevOps.

DevOps, a buzzword in the IT sector for some time, has enabled the successful integration of the development and operational phases of the software development lifecycle processes (SDLC), as well as its implementation. As a result, it has become the go-to method in the modern era for meeting the users’ increasing demands for quick delivery of goods and services. To successfully implement the DevOps work philosophy, which occasionally necessitates a significant organizational reorganization, it requires a team of the proper people, tools, and strategy in an organization with a strong foundation in the traditional structure. The DevOps engineer is one of the primary players in putting DevOps ideas into practice inside a business.

DevOps is one of the most in-demand skills today, and according to a CIO article on “the most in-demand tech jobs for 2023,” DevOps engineering is placed among the top three jobs. If you want to pursue a career as a DevOps engineer and want to learn how to become a DevOps engineer, then keep reading because this article will provide you with a fast overview of what a DevOps career path looks like as well as the vital skills and responsibilities you must undertake.

What is DevOps?

DevOps, the union of the words “development” and “operations,” refers to the strategic adoption of a work ethic that includes a collection of processes, tools, and procedures that aid in the planning, development, monitoring, and deployment of software applications and programs. Adopting a DevOps philosophy entails embracing a work culture in which software developers, IT operations, and quality engineering professionals involved in the software delivery lifecycle communicate and collaborate effectively in order to deliver applications in a streamlined, efficient, and timely manner through continuous feedback.

What is a DevOps engineer?

A DevOps engineer is someone who understands the software development lifecycle and can successfully implement a DevOps work culture in a company. They act as a liaison between the development and operations teams of a software application development process, drawing on their knowledge of the operating system, cloud infrastructure, automation tools, administration skills, and strategy planning to develop code and carry out the various stages of the software development process.

Because DevOps aims to improve the total work culture and software delivery process, a DevOps engineer must have strong technical coding experience and outstanding communication abilities. They typically collaborate with other software engineers and system administrators to establish a collaborative environment that breaks through organizational silos and hence must be interpersonally skilled.

A DevOps engineer must have a strong understanding of system architecture, scripting and coding, provisioning, deployment, automation, version control management, and agile principles.

How to Become a DevOps Engineer

A strong technical aptitude, particularly knowledge of coding and operating systems, is required to become a DevOps engineer. As a result, a bachelor’s degree in computer science or a similar discipline, as well as practical experience working in the IT sector, can greatly benefit your DevOps career path. Most organizations require a DevOps certification to prove your technical abilities. To advance your career as a DevOps engineer, you must first understand the DevOps work culture, as well as the fundamental abilities, basic obligations, and responsibilities that come with the job role.

Roles and responsibilities of a DevOps engineer

Although a DevOps engineer’s function varies by company, as typical responsibilities include generating and deploying code, task automation, infrastructure provisioning and administration, ensuring network security, testing software applications, and troubleshooting difficulties. The following are the daily tasks performed by a DevOps engineer:

• Project planning, development, and deployment of application code, as well as management of the software development and deployment process
• Configuring and managing the servers, storage, and networking resources required to host applications.
• Supervising the use of DevOps tools and technologies in system development and maintenance.
• Ability to maintain CI/CD processes using Jenkins, Maven, Git, and other tools, as well as automate test and deployment
• Application testing and quality control monitoring • Collaborate closely with the development and operations teams to ensure that the application fulfills the client’s performance expectations.

The other DevOps job roles and responsibilities

1. DevOps Evangelist – a DevOps specialist who is in charge of adopting DevOps methods in an organization and has a strong technical background with an emphasis on process improvement and interpersonal relationships.
2. Release Manager – The person in charge of delivering new features and verifying that the delivered program meets quality and security criteria.
3. Automation Expert – The person in charge of managing the CI/CD tool and achieving automation.
4. Software Developer/ Tester – The person who creates and tests front-end or back-end code.
5. Quality Assurance – The person responsible for ensuring the quality of new application code before it is released into production.
6. Security Engineer – The person in charge of constantly checking the product’s security

The top skills needed for a DevOps engineer

To charter a successful career as a DevOps engineer, you should have an eclectic mix of technical hard skills and soft skills.

1. Proficiency in Programming languages

A DevOps engineer should be knowledgeable in programming languages like Ruby, Node.js, and Python because they are operating system independent.

2. Familiarity with scripting and coding

A DevOps engineer must be comfortable with scripting and coding as well as how to apply agile development methods such as code reviews and using source control because they will be working closely with developers and system administrators to automate development and operations procedures.

4. Networking and security basics

A DevOps engineer needs to be familiar with firewalls, proxy servers, load balancers, IP addresses, DNS troubleshooting principles and tools, and fundamental networking.

5. Cloud providers and services

DevOps engineers must have practical experience creating, implementing, and managing cloud-based systems; as a result, they must be familiar with at least one of the major cloud service providers like Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure.

6. Knowledge of DevOps tools

To enable the successful implementation of DevOps, each level uses a unique set of technologies. A DevOps engineer needs to be knowledgeable with the technologies and tools used for application development, testing, deployment, and monitoring. It is necessary to have knowledge of configuration management technologies like Ansible, Puppet, CHEF, and Salt stack, as well as build tools like Maven and Gradle, automation tools like Selenium and Junit, and monitoring tools like Nagios, Zabbix, and Splunk.

8. Containers

Most enterprises run their servers’ programs in containers. Because of this, a DevOps engineer needs to be familiar with virtualization and container ideas as well as tools like Kubernetes, Docker, etc.

9. Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD)

Continuous integration and continuous delivery, commonly referred to as a CI/CD pipeline, are the foundation of DevOps.CI/CD pipelines are used to automate the development, testing, and deployment of software. As a result, DevOps engineers typically need experience setting up and implementing CI/CD systems using tools like Jenkins, Gitlab, and Travis CI.

10. Soft skills

DevOps success is heavily reliant on effective communication and coordination across the various teams engaged in the software delivery cycle. Organizations are always looking for DevOps engineers who have a diverse set of soft skills, such as adaptability, people skills, and communication abilities. A DevOps engineer must also be an exceptional leader to manage his or her team.