How to Write an Effective DevOps Engineer Job Description

A DevOps engineer is a software engineering generalist who’s responsible for the smooth integration and delivery of code. They collaborate with other IT professionals and monitor the software development process to ensure faster delivery and better products.

Beyond this general DevOps engineer role, each client has unique expectations that should reflect in the job description to attract the right candidates. Keep reading to learn how to write an effective DevOps engineer job description.

DevOps engineer job description sample

A DevOps engineer job description should tell potential candidates everything they need to know about their prospective duties and expected skills.

You can view our DevOps engineer sample job description at the end of our discussion, or follow our conversation to better tailor one for your needs.

Job objectives

A job objective is a brief statement describing the specific role you want to fill and the skills and attributes an engineer would need to succeed in that role. Job objectives can help you target candidates who are a good fit for the position and help candidates gauge whether they have the skills and qualifications you need.

When writing job objectives, be clear and concise about your needs. Avoid using general or vague statements.

For example, avoid an objective that simply states, “The ideal candidate will be a hard worker.” Instead, you could write an objective that says, “The ideal candidate must be able to self-start, understand the workings of X and Y, and be willing to take on projects independently.”

Some typical job objectives for DevOps positions include:

• Working with other staff of the IT department in a productive environment
• Willing to work with client managers and other staff to achieve a faster and more efficient development process
• Respecting the beliefs, race, religion, gender, and opinions of other staff members in private or public during work hours
• Communicating with client managers to understand stakeholders’ needs and expectations
• Collaborating with other developers and technical professionals to create a functional schedule and development plan

Responsibilities

DevOps engineers are responsible for smoothly operating a company’s software development and production systems. Working with other developers and IT operations staff, their tasks might involve regular testing, monitoring, automation, continuous integration, and software delivery to ensure the company produces the best possible product.

A DevOps engineer’s responsibilities might be to:

• Plan, implement, and maintain the software development infrastructure.
• Introduce and oversee software development automation across cloud services like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Azure.
• Help develop, manage, and monitor continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) pipelines.
• Collaborate with software developers, QA specialists, and other DevOps team members to ensure timely and successful delivery of new software releases.
• Contribute to software design and development, including code review and feedback.
• Assist with troubleshooting and problem-solving when issues arise.
• Keep up with the latest industry trends and best DevOps practices while ensuring the company meets configuration requirements.
• Participate in team improvement initiatives.
• Help create and maintain internal documentation using Git or other similar version control applications.
• Provide on-call support as needed.

Skills and qualifications

To find the right candidate for a DevOps role, you need to understand what a DevOps engineer is and does. Their job is to bridge the gap between software developers and operations teams by automating and streamlining the software development process. As such, a DevOps engineer should have both soft and technical skills.

Look for the following DevOps engineer skills:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher qualification in computer science
• Ability to code and script in multiple programming languages and automation frameworks like Python, C#, Java, Perl, Ruby, SQL Server, NoSQL, and MySQL
• Understanding of the best security practices and automating security testing and updating in the CI/CD pipelines
• Ability to conveniently deploy monitoring and logging infrastructure using tools like Prometheus, Nagios, and Datadog
• Proficiency in container frameworks like Docker and Kubernetes
• Mastery in the use of infrastructure as code (IaC) tools like Terraform and Ansible and command line interfaces (CLI) for Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, and other cloud infrastructure platforms
• Certification in Cloud Security
• Understanding of various operating systems, especially Linux, as most public clouds operate on Linux or Unix systems
• Strong focus on automation and Agile software development
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and handle multiple projects simultaneously

Preferred qualifications

Since DevOps engineers help optimize performance in software development, hiring a professional with the right skill set is crucial for maintaining a productive work environment among the production team. 

Although these requirements may vary slightly by company, some added qualifications to look for in applicants include:

• Advanced degree in computer science, software development, or related fields
• Certification in Agile programming or Scrum Master speaking to the right candidate’s knowledge of software development processes, methodologies, and project management (popular Agile certifications include the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner and Disciplined Agile Scrum Master Certification)
• DevSecOps certification indicating a specialization in DevOps security processes (a certification like the Certified DevSecOps Engineer issued by the Global Skills Development Council)
• Specific number of years of experience working in various DevOps fields

You can decide how much field experience you want in the candidate depending on their needs and ability to pay. Professionals with more experience will typically earn more.

Tips on writing a DevOps job description

The key to writing an effective job description is to focus on the desired outcome, not specific tasks. Although that may seem counterintuitive, focusing on the outcome will attract professionals who are a better fit for the job or project.

Job description

You’ll want to write a clear and concise description to attract the right candidates for your DevOps project. We offer some tips to help you write a DevOps job description that will attract the right people.

• Define the scope of work. Providing information on the project’s scope can help prospective candidates understand your expectations and determine if they’re a good fit for the job.
• Outline the required skills and experience. With the required skills and experience included in the job description, you can filter the number of applications and focus on job seekers that better fit your expectations.
• Explain the DevOps culture and values. The DevOps culture centers around close collaboration, teamwork, shared responsibility, and customer focus. Highlighting company values gives candidates a sneak peek into the company’s work environment.
• Describe the company’s development process. Software development processes vary from one organization to another. As a result, highlighting the development process peculiar to your company helps applicants know if they can be comfortable with your production process.
• Provide a list of objectives and goals. There are several objectives companies aim at, like maintaining excellent flow and keeping a productive environment. Stating the goal behind the recruitment can help streamline applications.
• Highlight growth potential. Expressing growth potential to job seekers can attract high-quality talent looking for long-term opportunities.
• Indicate compensation and benefits. Stating your compensation plan upfront helps you filter out people who may not align with it.
• Encourage candidates to apply. While it’s important to highlight the factors above, they may seem overwhelming to some applicants. Including a catchy call to action (CTA) encourages people to overcome their initial hesitation. You may also include an overview of the application process to prepare applicants for what they can expect.

Project description

When hiring a new DevOps engineer, make sure your project description is clear, concise, and attractive to the right candidates. After all, a well-written description is one of the key factors in attracting the right professionals for your project. 

Here are some tips for writing an excellent project description.

• Start with a strong title. When writing a title for your DevOps project, make it strong and concise. The title should target specific keywords that accurately describe the specialization and experience you’re seeking. For example, you can include keywords like “Entry-Level AWS DevOps Engineer” if you want a candidate to help maintain cloud app development.
• Include key details about the job. Be as specific as possible about the job’s key responsibilities. What tasks will the DevOps engineer be expected to complete? What projects will they be completing? The more specific you are, the easier it will be for applicants to determine if they’re a good fit for the job.
• Describe the desired skills and qualifications. To attract the right candidates, include a list of desired skills and qualifications you’ll expect for the role. Having such a list in your description will further help applicants determine if they are fit for the project.

Defining your DevOps project needs

Deploying change faster doesn’t have to mean compromising on quality. Successful DevOps projects depend on having the right tools and processes to ensure changes are made efficiently and with minimal risk.

Define your needs when starting a new DevOps project. What type of changes do you need to deploy? Are you starting your DevOps journey from the beginning, or do you need someone to fine-tune and manage an existing process? What are your quality and testing requirements? Once you’ve answered these questions, look for tools and processes that can help you meet your needs.

There are a lot of factors to consider when defining the needs of your DevOps project, such as:

• The project’s scope and size. One of the most important things to consider is your project’s size and scope. What kind of scale do you need to support? What kind of traffic do you expect? What kind of features do you need to include? What is your release process?
• Your budget. As organizations increasingly strive to achieve faster time-to-market goals, it’s essential they don’t lose sight of their budget in the process. However, the cost typically depends on the scope of your project. How many candidates are you aiming to onboard, and what level of experience do you expect from each? Whatever your answer, ensure it fits into the project’s budget.
• The project timeline. DevOps engineers are typically responsible for the entire software development life cycle (SDLC) from conception to launch. As such, they must work at a pace that’s consistent with your project’s timeline. If your project has a tight deadline, you’ll need to hire a DevOps engineer with a proven track record for completing projects on time.
• The necessary platforms and tools. Another important thing to consider is the platform you’ll use. Businesses can run DevOps projects on various on-premise or cloud platforms. Each platform has strengths and weaknesses, so choosing the right one for your project is important.

Project description template

[Name of Company] is seeking a DevOps engineer to fill a full-time position that will help build a customer service AI and automate our customer advocacy experience monitoring system on AWS. The ideal engineer will have at least five years of professional experience in DevOps engineering with proficiency in automation tools.

At [Name of Company], we cherish teamwork and take work relationships seriously. As a result, the ideal candidate must have excellent communication skills and be willing to collaborate with our developers and project managers to create unique software solutions.

Scope and role

Your daily responsibilities will include:

• Developing and maintaining tools for automating the software release process
• Managing code repositories and deployments
• Setting up and maintaining continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipelines
• Monitoring system performance and administering servers
• Providing support to software developers and other teams
• Collaborating with other engineers to troubleshoot and resolve issues

Desired skills and experience

Qualified candidates should have:

• A bachelor’s degree in computer science or engineering and a minimum of two years of experience
• An understanding of system administration in Linux environments
• A solid understanding of configuration management and continuous integration tools like Jenkins and Travis CI
• An in-depth understanding of the software development cycle and machine learning engineering
• Experience working in a hybrid work environment

Having one or more of the following is a plus:

• Master’s degree and five years of experience
• Five years of experience in DevOps engineering or a related field
• Experience with engineering applications for large corporations
• Experience with containerization tools like Kubernetes and Docker basics
• Comfortable with tools like Ansible and Puppet

Work environment and compensation

• Successful candidates will work in a fully remote work environment
• The base payment will be $60 per hour and can increase depending on the candidate’s experience

DevOps engineer FAQ

We answer some common questions people often ask about DevOps engineers.

What does a DevOps engineer do?

A DevOps engineer is responsible for smoothly operating a company’s software development and deployment process. They work closely with developers and operations staff to ensure code is released on time, runs smoothly, and meets quality standards.

DevOps engineers need a strong understanding of both development and operations processes. They must be able to troubleshoot problems and identify bottlenecks in the software development process. They must also be able to create and maintain efficient and effective automated systems.

What tools do DevOps engineers use?

The standard toolkit of a DevOps engineer includes the ability to automate, monitor, and manage the IT infrastructure. This allows DevOps engineers to manage the full life cycle of an application, from development to production. 

Some tools they’ll need include:

• Configuration management tools help manage and automate the configuration of software systems. Examples include Puppet, Chef, and Ansible.
• CI/CD tools help automate the software delivery process. Examples include Jenkins, Travis CI, and CircleCI.
• Monitoring tools help DevOps engineers keep track of the performance of software systems. Examples include Nagios, New Relic, and DataDog.
• Development tools help teams manage code changes, track development progress, and make the software development process more efficient. Vagrant and Cloud9 IDE are some examples.
• Container management tools help create, automate, deploy, and scale applications in containers. Examples include Docker and Kubernetes.
• Infrastructure provisioning tools can automatically configure IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, networking, and other resources, to support the efficient delivery of software applications and services. Examples of infrastructure provisioning tools include Microsoft Azure Automation and VMware vRealize Configuration Manager.
• Source control tools help developers manage changes to their code. These tools allow developers to track changes, revert to previous versions, and work collaboratively on code projects. Examples include Git, GitLab, SubVersion, and Bitbucket.
• Project management tools help businesses plan, execute, and track their work. They help businesses manage resources, track progress, and communicate with teams. Some typical examples include ClickUp and Asana.

What achievements separate a DevOps engineer senior from an associate engineer?

Senior DevOps engineers are responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining the company’s DevOps infrastructure. They collaborate with software developers, system administrators, and other IT professionals to automate tasks, improve workflows, and optimize the SDLC. 

Associate engineers are responsible for supporting the senior engineers in these tasks. They may also be responsible for writing and maintaining code and performing quality assurance testing.

The main difference between senior DevOps engineers and associate engineers is experience. Senior DevOps engineers have more experience managing and configuring the technical infrastructure to support software development and delivery. They also have a deeper understanding of the various tools and processes. Associate engineers are newer to the field and might still be learning the ropes.

The experience and expertise required for a senior DevOps engineer will vary from company to company. However, certain skills and achievements are generally associated with seniority in the field. Some skills and achievements that may make a DevOps engineer senior include:

• Extensive experience with DevOps tools and methodologies
• A deep understanding of the software development life cycle
• The ability to lead and manage a team of DevOps engineers
• A track record of successful projects
• Strong communication and problem-solving skills

Hire a DevOps engineer through Upwork

DevOps engineers play a critical role in modern organizations. They’re responsible for managing and automating the software development and delivery process. This helps organizations speed up the delivery of new features and updates while ensuring the software is stable and reliable.

DevOps engineers also foster a collaboration and communication culture between developers and operations staff. Such a role is crucial for ensuring everyone works toward the same goal and identifies potential problems quickly.

If you’re in the market to hire a new DevOps engineer, visit Upwork to find the right talent for your project. Post your projects or jobs on Upwork so DevOps experts can find you and send you a proposal. Then, review proposals and hire preferred candidates.

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Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this article. These tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation.