It will come as no surprise that agile development and DevOps are two of the hottest, most hyped trends in IT. The estimates is projected to reach $20.53 billion in 2026 at present growing at a CAGR of 23.08%. It's easy to understand why. Both strategies center on the principle that companies should shrink development cycles, produce more reliable software and respond with greater agility to meet the constantly changing demands of corporate customers.
Maybe that is why you've decided to hire a DevOps engineer for the first time. We should mention that the major players in the DevOps market are the giants like Amazon, Google, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Microsoft, and so on.
But what is DevOps? What skills should they have? What do they do? Let's take a look at the answers to these questions below.
The Role of DevOps
We will start with DevOps meaning. DevOps is a development methodology that helps developers communicate with other IT professionals. It is a set of processes and tools that enable a company to create and improve products faster than traditional approaches to software development.
DevOps as a culture covers all stages of an application's life. They are building, coding, testing, production, monitoring, and feedback gathering. So, in a nutshell, software development and IT teams take advantage of DevOps to automate and integrate processes.
What is on the everyday agenda of DevOps specialists? They are critical members of any development team. They are responsible for ensuring that applications can be built, deployed, and managed on-premise or in the cloud environment.
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Get a Free ConsultationLikewise, they are responsible for verifying that their company's infrastructure can handle the load. As well as making sure that employees can access their tools from anywhere in the world. That is why by hiring a DevOps engineer you reduce time-to-market and create more flexible and resilient systems.
The DevOps role requires a very specific skill set:
- Knowledge of multiple programming languages and frameworks;
- Experience with cloud computing platforms such as AWS or Azure (or both);
- Familiarity with technologies like Kubernetes, Docker, Mesos/Marathon, and more.
Let’s look closer into it.
What Skills Should You Look for When Hiring a DevOps Engineer?
A good DevOps engineer knows how to automate processes and monitor servers for errors. As well as solid communication skills and problem-solving abilities. Here are some of the specific skills that you should look for when hiring a DevOps engineer.
A keen eye for detail
One of the most important skills for a DevOps engineer is the ability to spot defects in code and problems in a system before they become a problem. This means paying attention to details, which can be especially challenging for beginners.
Good communication skills
The ideal DevOps engineers for hire have a strong background in coding. But he also possesses the skills to communicate with other team members. They need to be able to communicate effectively with different teams. This may include developers, business analysts, and project managers.
DevOps should be able to translate technical jargon into something everyone can understand. The ability to explain complex concepts in a way that does not confuse people is a characteristic of a great specialist.
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment
This means being able to work with multiple teams and projects at once, as well as handle stress and change. DevOps engineers need to be able to learn new technologies quickly. So hiring DevOps who has experience with your specific stack is ideal but it's not required!
Cloud computing experience and monitoring
The ability to deploy applications to the cloud and manage resources is a must for any DevOps specialist. They should be fluent in cloud technologies, like AWS, GCP, DigitalOcean, etc.
Monitoring those resources is equally important. You need someone who can scale up when there's a spike in demand, or scale down when usage drops off. As part of their duties, DevOps specialists must be able to use monitoring tools. There are many on the market but Sentry is Stfalcon’s main choice.
They must have proactive monitoring skills to identify potential problems before they occur. And then take the necessary steps to prevent or mitigate these problems. This requires a thorough understanding of the monitoring tools and the ability to interpret their results.
Configuration management expertise
If your team employs configuration management tools like Ansible or Puppet (and you should), then you'll want someone proficient with them. Or at least willing to learn quickly! This requires a deep understanding of the underlying architecture of the systems and how they interact with each other.
Experience with or knowledge of scripting languages
Scripting languages are utilized for task automation. Python, Ruby, and Bash are examples of scripting languages. In DevOps processes, scripting languages are used to automate continuous integration and continuous delivery.
Understanding of the SLDC (software development life cycle)
Understanding the SLDC, especially test automation and continuous integration/delivery (CI/CD) pipelines is important. These are two processes that help you build, test, and deploy software.
Continuous integration/delivery (CI/CD) pipelines are an approach to automating deployment processes. This way, each commit can be tested immediately by running automated tests before it is deployed into production environments.
They also ensure that any failures occur early enough. Thus, fixes can be made quickly without disrupting other users' ability to access their apps or services.
Version management skills
These skills are also essential for DevOps specialists. They include the ability to track, manage, and deploy changes to software code, as well as set up and maintain version control systems. Professionals should understand how to use version control systems such as Git and Subversion, moreover, they should demonstrate the ability to properly document changes and create backups.
Security skills
Even DevOps engineers need security skills. They include an understanding of basic security principles and knowledge of security protocols and techniques. Familiarity with tools for secure software development and deployment is a must. Additionally, DevOps engineers should have an understanding of common security threats. This includes malware, cyber-attacks, and data breaches.
Time management skills
All IT specialists must be able to work in a fast-paced environment. It means managing their time effectively and prioritizing their tasks accordingly.
Working on multiple teams and projects
DevOps engineers are responsible for automating tasks and improving efficiency. They are working closely with developers, testers, and other members of the team, so they can help them streamline processes across multiple projects.
DevOps developer skills can be used to increase productivity by creating new tools that make it easier for everyone on the team to do their jobs more efficiently. This could include creating scripts or applications that automate repetitive tasks. Or improve quality assurance processes by making data collection easier than ever before.
Creativity
DevOps engineers need to be able to innovate and think outside the box. They need to generate new ideas or approaches that help solve problems in creative ways. This also means not being afraid of failure, learning from mistakes, and trying out new things.
Summing up, a good candidate should have the following skills under his belt:
- Knowledge of philosophy, basic practices, and principles of DevOps.
- CI / CD stack, Gitlab management in Terraform Cloud infrastructure.
- Planning, and administration of Kubernetes, Linux, and Windows.
- Cloud storage, simplifying container handling, features of continuous delivery.
- Programming languages.
- Understanding of database, and specifics of writing infrastructure code.
- Knowledge of Git, Postgresql, Puppet, Redis, and orchestration facilitation.
DevOps Engineer Salaries
If you're looking to hire a DevOps engineer, it's important to know that they make an average base salary of $104 000 per year. This number can vary based on experience and location. The highest-paid DevOps engineers live in cities with high concentrations of DevOps companies like San Francisco or New York City (where the cost of living is higher).
Level of expertise and years of experience are also important. A Nearshore Senior DevOps developer charges between $7.5K and $9K a month. A middle-range engineer may charge $6-7.5K, while a Junior DevOps ask $4-5.5K.
Hiring a DevOps in Ukraine, you can expect to be charged a median salary of $3500, which can reach as much as $5500 for an expert with 10+ years of experience. However, specialists from Ukraine are known to be high-end professionals, as skilled as their colleagues from the USA with a good reputation.
Methods for Hiring DevOps Engineers
The first option to hire DevOps engineers is to grow your own. If your company has been around for more than a few years, and you have your in-house team already involved in software development. Likely, there's already a programmer or two who can do some of the work required by DevOps engineers. From there, all you need is training and mentorship from other experts in the field. And maybe some additional software tools that make their lives easier. However, this way is time and cost-consuming.
If you don't have any internal candidates (or if they're not up to snuff), then your best bet might be to hire a DevOps freelancer. Especially if there isn't time for training within your organization's current workflow structure. Freelancers are often cheaper than hiring through an IT company. It is because they don't have overhead costs associated with payroll or benefits packages. However, this way is riskier because lots of freelancers have bad reputations in terms of quality and deadlines.
The third option is recruiting through IT companies, like Stfalcon. The cost of outsourcing is lower than hiring in-house employees, but the quality is perfect. Taking advantage of IT companies' expertise as individuals or as entire teams is incredibly convenient. Furthermore, when you hire a DevOps team, you get technology-savvy and well-qualified professionals.
The Candidate Selection Process in our Company
Whether you are looking to hire a DevOps developer or a team, Stfalcon is a perfect choice. We continue to provide top-notch solutions to our customers, leveraging the expertise of our reliable team, so you can automate applications, speed up time-to-market, and reduce IT costs.
Having worked on a variety of projects for 13+ years, we built a simple but working system for hiring IT specialists. And it sets us apart from other companies hiring DevOps engineers.
We start with an initial screening of the values, skills, experience, and objectives of the role. After that, we invite potential candidates to a technical interview. It allows us to assess their technical skills and knowledge. Finally, the team lead conducts a code review of the candidate's background and makes an offer.
You can hire an individual specialist or a dedicated team for your project. We already have teams that work in a coordinated fashion and share the same values. To ensure that our employees are comfortable, we provide them with a pleasant working environment.
Final Thoughts
It can be challenging to hire DevOps developers, but it isn't impossible. DevOps engineers have the expertise and technical skills in specific languages, so you must keep this in mind when hiring one. In addition, keep in mind the soft skills of candidates, so they can grow in the position effectively.
You can contact Stfalcon to find the right DevOps engineer for your project now that you know how to select the best DevOps engineers. As a company, we have a large pool of talented and experienced developers and our hiring process is quick and well-established.
If you have any questions about hiring a DevOps engineer or would like help finding one for your business, feel free to contact us. Let’s bring your project to life together.
