DevOps.com

  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Features
    • Most Read
    • News
    • News Releases
  • Topics
    • AI
    • Continuous Delivery
    • Continuous Testing
    • Cloud
    • Culture
    • DevSecOps
    • Enterprise DevOps
    • Leadership Suite
    • DevOps Practice
    • ROELBOB
    • DevOps Toolbox
    • IT as Code
  • Videos/Podcasts
    • DevOps Chats
    • DevOps Unbound
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming
    • On-Demand Webinars
  • Library
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • On-Demand Events
  • Sponsored Communities
    • AWS Community Hub
    • CloudBees
    • IT as Code
    • Rocket on DevOps.com
    • Traceable on DevOps.com
    • Quali on DevOps.com
  • Related Sites
    • Techstrong Group
    • Container Journal
    • Security Boulevard
    • Techstrong Research
    • DevOps Chat
    • DevOps Dozen
    • DevOps TV
    • Digital Anarchist
  • Media Kit
  • About
  • AI
  • Cloud
  • Continuous Delivery
  • Continuous Testing
  • DevSecOps
  • Leadership Suite
  • Practices
  • ROELBOB
  • Low-Code/No-Code
  • IT as Code
  • More
    • Application Performance Management/Monitoring
    • Culture
    • Enterprise DevOps

Home » Blogs » Leadership Suite » The Value of ‘DevOps Engineer’ as a Title

Value of 'DevOps Engineer' as a Title

The Value of ‘DevOps Engineer’ as a Title

By: Jonathan Fries on December 12, 2018 1 Comment

Now that DevOps is proliferating in the enterprise (many companies including Disney, Nike and Walmart, for example, are all on the adoption train) the term is starting to creep up more and more in job titles. This is challenging organizations to consider the significance of DevOps Engineer as a role and the value of having someone with “DevOps” in their title on their team. There are steps you can take to ensure that DevOps candidates are the right fit for your company.

Recent Posts By Jonathan Fries
  • Untapping the Potential of DevOps, Part 4: Tips for Launching a DevOps Team
  • Untapping the Potential of DevOps, Part 3: Keys to Success
  • Untapping the Potential of DevOps, Part 2: Common Mistakes
More from Jonathan Fries
Related Posts
  • The Value of ‘DevOps Engineer’ as a Title
  • Buzzword abuse: The anatomy of a DevOps Engineer
  • How to Become a DevSecOps Engineer
    Related Categories
  • Blogs
  • Leadership Suite
    Related Topics
  • devops engineer
  • hiring
  • job titles
  • skill set
Show more
Show less

When you are looking for someone with “DevOps Engineer” as their title, you are seeking someone who not only has the skills you need to complete technical work but also embodies the DevOps values and mindset. Part of the interview process needs to get at the DevOps culture you are seeking to create. You should ensure that you ask questions such as:

DevOps Connect:DevSecOps @ RSAC 2022
  1. What’s the most important business outcome for a DevOps team to deliver?
  2. Have you been able to achieve continuous delivery on the projects that you’ve worked on?  What were the keys to ensuring that you could deliver that value to the business?
  3. What’s the most important character trait for DevOps engineers to have to make sure that the team is successful?
  4. How do you ensure that the DevOps team communicates effectively across team boundaries?
  5. What’s the most important operational requirements to ensure that you understand early in the process?

The goal of these and other questions is to dig into a candidate’s ability to work across teams, communicate effectively and understand of the full spectrum of DevOps capabilities. Communication skills are core to what we do as a consulting and digital software engineering services firm, so we may have an easier time and more background assessing the communication skills of engineers. But, we’ve seen clients also be successful by combining their typical technical interview process with some additional behavior-based communication questions.

It is also important to understand that being a true DevOps Engineer entails technical capabilities and there are specific tools that need to be mastered if someone claims to be an experienced DevOps Engineer. So, in addition to soft skills and values, it’s important to understand the technology and deployment environment specifics to effectively assess a candidate for such a position. There are big differences in technologies depending on what development technology (Java, Node.js, C#, React, or some combination of all those things) and what deployment environment (Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, etc.) you are working with. These differences are critical and must be understood. You should look for candidates who have experience with the tools your organization uses.

It also can be helpful to look for someone who has skills that matches your clients’ needs or the needs of a particular project. In some cases, you may be looking for a pure AWS DevOps Engineer who will work completely in the cloud deploying Node.js applications. In other cases, you may be looking for an engineer who might be skilled with Microsoft technologies for a hybrid deployment (on some cloud, some on-prem) of a .Net core application.

While progress is being made to try and abstract the platform differences, those technologies still require DevOps engineers have a good understanding of the underlying tools and infrastructure that will support the software.

Bottom line: Candidates who seek DevOps positions and self-identify as DevOps Engineers are good candidates for the general set of skills you are looking for, but be sure you have solid technical evaluation in place to ensure that your hard skill requirements are also met.

— Jonathan Fries

Filed Under: Blogs, Leadership Suite Tagged With: devops engineer, hiring, job titles, skill set

Sponsored Content
Featured eBook
The Automated Enterprise

The Automated Enterprise

“The Automated Enterprise” e-book shows the important role IT automation plays in business today. Optimize resources and speed development with Red Hat® management solutions, powered by Red Hat Ansible® Automation. IT automation helps your business better serve your customers, so you can be successful as you: Optimize resources by automating ... Read More
« Remembrance of Things Past
Fintech: A Profitable and Growing Developer Career Path »

TechStrong TV – Live

Click full-screen to enable volume control
Watch latest episodes and shows

Upcoming Webinars

Boost Your Java/JavaScript Skills With a Multi-Experience Platform
Wednesday, June 29, 2022 - 3:30 pm EDT
Closing the Gap: Reducing Enterprise AppSec Risks Without Disrupting Deadlines
Thursday, June 30, 2022 - 11:00 am EDT
Automating the Observer: Lessons From 1,000+ Incidents
Thursday, June 30, 2022 - 1:00 pm EDT

Latest from DevOps.com

Chip-to-Cloud IoT: A Step Toward Web3
June 28, 2022 | Nahla Davies
DevOps Connect: DevSecOps — Building a Modern Cybersecurity Practice
June 27, 2022 | Veronica Haggar
What Is User Acceptance Testing and Why Is it so Important?
June 27, 2022 | Ron Stefanski
Developer’s Guide to Web Application Security
June 24, 2022 | Anas Baig
Cloudflare Outage Outrage | Yet More FAA 5G Stupidity
June 23, 2022 | Richi Jennings

Get The Top Stories of the Week

  • View DevOps.com Privacy Policy
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Download Free eBook

DevOps: Mastering the Human Element
DevOps: Mastering the Human Element

Most Read on DevOps.com

Four Steps to Avoiding a Cloud Cost Incident
June 22, 2022 | Asim Razzaq
The Age of Software Supply Chain Disruption
June 23, 2022 | Bill Doerrfeld
At Some Point, We’ve Shifted Too Far Left
June 22, 2022 | Don Macvittie
Cloudflare Outage Outrage | Yet More FAA 5G Stupidity
June 23, 2022 | Richi Jennings
Developer’s Guide to Web Application Security
June 24, 2022 | Anas Baig

On-Demand Webinars

DevOps.com Webinar ReplaysDevOps.com Webinar Replays
  • Home
  • About DevOps.com
  • Meet our Authors
  • Write for DevOps.com
  • Media Kit
  • Sponsor Info
  • Copyright
  • TOS
  • Privacy Policy

Powered by Techstrong Group, Inc.

© 2022 ·Techstrong Group, Inc.All rights reserved.