Is a DevOps Career Right for You in 2024: Skills, Responsibilities & More

1. Rising Demand for DevOps Talent 

Many of you in the technical field or the IT industry are aware of how DevOps is revolutionizing software development and deployment in companies by eliminating the conflicts between development and operations teams – one of the main challenges that businesses faced for a long time. 

Companies incorporating DevOps practices are simply getting more done at a faster pace. Implementing a successful DevOps approach helps organizations to provide software solutions rapidly. In turn, this helps prevent and resolve production issues, and that results in better customer experience, feedback, and communication.

In a nutshell, companies implementing DevOps tools in their processes are deriving the following technical benefits:

• Problems get broken down into smaller steps that are easily resolved
• Integrated and continuous software delivery 

And business benefits:

• Faster delivery of software features 
• Increased stability in operating environments 
• More time to add value

No wonder then that businesses across the globe are fast switching over to DevOps-related technologies and practices for continuous integration and delivery of software-based products and services.   As companies seek to stay ahead of their competition through DevOps-related technologies, demand for DevOps experts is surging. Leading job search portals like indeed.com have witnessed a 75% rise in listings of DevOps jobs, and social media sites like LinkedIn have recorded a 50% increase in mention of DevOps as a skill.

DevOps engineers are successfully enabling companies to maximize productivity through automation. Organizations that have implemented the DevOps philosophy are experiencing high performance and rapid growth (30 times faster deployment than competitors). And they are willing to pay high salaries to hire skilled DevOps experts.   According to the latest edition of Dice’s “2019 Tech Salary Report,” DevOps Engineer ranks in the top five of all tech salaries, commanding an average pay of $111,683.

What started as a buzzword – DevOps – has now become a legitimate course for developing and running software-based and software-enabled businesses.  DevOps is not going to vanish any time soon in the ever-changing world of emerging technologies. 

Wondering why begin a DevOps career? Read on!

2. DevOps Offers a Definite Career Path that Promises Steady Growth 

As a DevOps engineer, you need to possess extensive knowledge of the software development life cycle (SDLC). You also must be an expert in implementing various DevOps automation tools and processes to resolve complex operations problems. A successful DevOps engineer must learn to juggle between different tasks like coding, integrating, and testing.

If you set out to build a career in DevOps, your career path in DevOps can see you start as a Release Manager, then move up to DevOps Test Engineer, DevOps Cloud Engineer, and finally, a DevOps Architect.  

The average salaries for these roles are $81,000 for Release Manager, $115,000 for DevOps Test Engineer, and over $130,000 for a DevOps Cloud Engineer or DevOps Architect. In India, a DevOps engineer can earn Rs.6.5 lakhs on an average according to PayScale and Glassdoor salary statistics. 

Tech giants like Accenture, Barclays, and Facebook are always on the lookout for proficient DevOps professionals, and skilled DevOps engineers are among the highest-paid IT professionals in the industry today. But the remuneration is usually higher for those with a greater number of DevOps skills and who have advanced DevOps certifications.  

However, there is a lack of skilled talent because though a career in DevOps is rewarding, it is also challenging. At the most basic level, it requires full ownership of one’s roles and responsibilities and one’s capability to innovate as a technical solution provider.

Meeting this challenge requires sound, industry-recognized training in DevOps for anybody looking to build a career in that growing world.   Simplilearn, as one of the world’s leading providers of online training in DevOps, offers full-stack online DevOps courses that can effectively help you to realize your big IT dreams and jump-start your career in DevOps. A DevOps certification training course from Simplilearn can get you started in a new DevOps role, while their DevOps Engineer master’s program, which includes a series of courses, will take you all the way to the role of a DevOps architect or DevOps cloud engineer. 

Before beginning a DevOps career, know your KRA.

3. Your Key Responsibility Areas (KRA) as DevOps Expert

With rapid advancements in DevOps methodologies, roles and responsibilities and new designations in the domain are emerging quickly. Though the skills and duties of DevOps experts overlap frequently, companies tend to list these roles separately. 

As a highly effective DevOps engineer, you should have the following DevOps skills, which embody the DevOps mindset: 

• Knowledge and application of a wide range of tools and technologies in software development
• Comfortable with higher testing and deployment frequencies 
• Experience with operation in the production environment 
• Knowledge of IT systems 
• Experience with data management 
• Determination to achieve business outcomes 
• Ability to identify and eliminate organizational silos by embracing team collaboration and communication
• Need for efficiency and the ability to use automation tools toward this end
• Understanding of process reengineering 
• Knowledge of the production environment
• Project management skills

Next, let us look at the skills required to begin a DevOps career.

4. Technical Skills Needed to Build a DevOps Career

If you seek to take the DevOps online training course, you must be from a technical background with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Information Technology. You will also need the following technical skills to be a DevOps engineer:

• A thorough understanding of Linux fundamentals, Web Development fundamentals, and Java fundamentals.  As most DevOps projects are Linux-based, it is essential to know the Linux environment and the relevant scripting languages like Python, Pearl, or Ruby.  (If you have a technical background but not the specific skills in Linux, Web development, and Java, you can take our courses to learn those skills to prepare for a DevOps career.)
• Knowledge of DevOps automation tools like:
• Continuous management (Puppet, Chef, and Ansible)
• Continuous integration (Travis CI, Jenkins, and Bamboo) 
• Continuous testing (Test Complete, Docker, and Tricentis Tosca)
• Continuous monitoring (Nagios, Sensu, and Splunk)
• Understanding of CI/CD process
• Understand IAS (infrastructure as code) models to solve deployment problems

Simplilearn’s basic and advanced online training courses in DevOps provide adequate knowledge and skills to excel in and lay the foundation of a great DevOps career.

5. Where Can You Start Your Journey in DevOps? 

You can start on your learning path with the DevOps basics. This course is designed to offer a real-world, practical understanding of continuous development and deployment, automation of configuration management, inter-team collaboration, & IT service agility.  Best of all, you can begin from your home or office, since Simplilearn’s programs are entirely online.

Rafael Andres Canelon was able to land a new job as a GIS developer and kickstart his programming career after taking our Post Graduate Program in DevOps. Read his inspiring story in our Simplilearn PGP DevOps Review here.

6. How Far Would You Like to Go in DevOps?

By choosing a DevOps training course that offers a complete learning path, you can take your DevOps career as high as your ambition goes. You can enroll in the DevOps Engineer Master’s Program that adds six more courses beyond the DevOps Certification Training Course and several in-depth Capstone projects.

You’ll also want to make sure you have a certification that will take you all the way in your career.  DevOps certificates vary in status in the industry. DevOps certifications that have been accredited by important tech giants or relevant bodies will demonstrate to employers that you’ve achieved an expert level of skills and knowledge for continuous integration and development. Simplilearn provides industry-recognized DevOps course completion certificates that have lifelong validity and are recognized by tech giants like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

Conclusion 

People working in the following roles will benefit the most from DevOps certification:

• IT Team Leaders and technical project managers
• Systems Administrators and IT Managers
• Architects
• Software Developers
• Cloud Engineers
• Deployment engineers
• Operations support

As businesses are embracing DevOps for the speedy delivery of software features and security updates, your career as a DevOps engineer has excellent prospects for growth. As one of the world’s leading e-learning platforms, Simplilearn offers certified and industry-recognized courses in DevOps to make you industry-ready from the word ‘go.’ Our Post Graduate Program In DevOps in partnership with Caltech CTME will teach you a complete set of DevOps skills and concepts through a combination of academic excellence from Caltech CTME and Simplilearn Blended Learning technology.

FAQs

1. Will DevOps be replaced by AI?

While AI can augment certain aspects of DevOps, it’s unlikely to replace it entirely. DevOps is a cultural and organizational shift that emphasizes collaboration, automation, and continuous improvement across development and operations teams. AI can enhance DevOps practices by automating repetitive tasks, optimizing processes, and providing insights for decision-making. However, human intervention and expertise remain essential for interpreting data, making strategic decisions, and fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation within DevOps teams.

2. Will DevOps survive?

DevOps has already proven its value in improving software delivery processes, enhancing collaboration between teams, and accelerating time-to-market for applications. As organizations continue to prioritize agility, scalability, and innovation, DevOps will likely remain a crucial framework for achieving these objectives. While the specific tools, technologies, and practices associated with DevOps may evolve over time, the core principles of collaboration, automation, and continuous improvement are likely to endure.

3. Do DevOps need coding?

While coding skills are not strictly required for all DevOps roles, they can be highly beneficial. DevOps professionals often work with infrastructure-as-code tools, configuration management systems, and automation frameworks, all of which require scripting or programming knowledge. Proficiency in languages such as Python, Ruby, or Shell scripting can facilitate tasks such as automating deployments, configuring infrastructure, and orchestrating workflows. Additionally, understanding code repositories, version control systems, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines is essential for implementing DevOps practices effectively.

4. What is the next big thing in DevOps?

The next evolution in DevOps is likely to involve further integration of AI and machine learning (ML) technologies to enhance automation, predictive analytics, and decision-making processes. AI-powered tools and algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data, identify patterns, and provide actionable insights to optimize software delivery pipelines, improve system reliability, and mitigate risks. Additionally, advancements in areas such as GitOps (Git-based operations), infrastructure as code (IaC), and cloud-native technologies are expected to play a significant role in shaping the future of DevOps by enabling greater scalability, resilience, and agility in software development and operations.