What is a DevOps Engineer? Responsibilities & Roles in 2024

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Are you a developer monitoring recent changes in the ecosystem, looking to change careers or pick up new skills in 2024? If your choice is DevOps, you might be wondering what it entails, what it will take to become one in 2024, and how it is affected by the recent changes in the tech ecosystem.

In recent years, the technology ecosystem has experienced a constant shift in the way hiring managers reach out, companies hire, and the roles and responsibilities described in job postings. Particularly, 2023 proved to be a challenging year as layoffs in the technology sector grew significantly, with more than 262,000 employees laid off across 1,180 firms.

Despite this change, DevOps, a field within the same ecosystem, has experienced continuous growth. In fact, the DevOps market size is expected to grow to 25.5 billion USD by 2028. This indicates that the roles and responsibilities of a DevOps engineer in the modern technology environment will evolve alongside this increasing demand.

In this guide, we’ll discuss the roles and responsibilities of a DevOps engineer, the importance of DevOps in teams, common roles within a DevOps team, and best practices for DevOps teams. Finally, the guide will offer roadmaps for your DevOps journey.

A DevOps engineer’s roles and responsibilities include:

• Following best practices and utilizing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools to design, implement, and manage infrastructure.

• Implementing and managing Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines to automate software and code releases.

• Facilitating and promoting interpersonal skills between the development teams, operations teams, and other stakeholders to establish productivity and continuous improvement.

• Implementing monitoring, logging, alerts, and dashboards to track the performance and health of applications and infrastructure.

• Writing and maintaining scripts to automate tasks and DevOps processes.

• Providing support and troubleshooting issues related to applications, systems, and infrastructure.

• Efficiently manage and monitor cloud resources by implementing autoscaling and other cloud management techniques to maintain optimal performance.

Let’s look at the DevOps ecosystem in detail.

What is a DevOps engineer?

A DevOps engineer is a professional whose primary purpose is to work at the intersection of software development and IT operations. Their main goal is to continuously deliver high-quality software, improve collaboration between teams, and shorten the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

DevOps engineers are responsible for maintaining the culture and practices that bridge the gap between the software development process (Dev) and IT operations (Ops). They promote the use of tools and other automation mechanisms to shorten the software delivery processes while maintaining high quality.

DevOps engineers use various tools to automate and enhance their workflow, such as:

• Docker
• Kubernetes
• Jenkins
• Version control systems
• Grafana
• Ansible
• Prometheus

Docker

Docker is a containerization platform that allows developers to package applications and their dependencies into a lightweight and portable container that can run consistently in any environment. Docker streamlines the development process by making it easy to manage and scale applications

You can learn more details by exploring the Docker roadmap.

Kubernetes

Kubernetes is a container orchestration platform for automating, deploying, and scaling containerized applications. It offers numerous benefits, including cluster management, high availability, load balancing, and resource management.

You can learn more details by exploring the Kubernetes roadmap.

Jenkins

Jenkins is an open-source automation tool for automating CI/CD processes. It gives developers the flexibility to build, test, and deploy applications. Jenkins’ ecosystem and seamless integration with various tools make it ideal for automating DevOps workflow.

Version control systems

Version control systems allow developers to track, revise, manage branches, and merge codes seamlessly. Examples include Git, Mercurial, and Subversion, with popular platforms like GitHub and Bitbucket providing integration support.

Grafana

Grafana is an analytic and monitoring platform for visualizing metrics, logs, and other critical data. It helps DevOps engineers monitor the real-time health and performance of applications and systems.

Ansible

Ansible is an automation tool for configuring application management, deployment, and other automation tasks. It uses a YAML syntax to define automation workflow, reducing the time required for repetitive tasks.

Prometheus

Prometheus is a monitoring and alerting tool that collects metrics from applications and infrastructure. It stores these metrics in a time-series database, allowing for querying and visualization to detect potential issues.

What are the responsibilities of a DevOps engineer?

DevOps engineers wear multiple hats to perform their day-to-day tasks. They possess technical skills in the software development lifecycle and operations skills for maintenance, and they are responsible for bridging the gap and fostering collaboration between development and other stakeholders.

DevOps engineer responsibilities include:

• Infrastructure management
• Setting up and maintaining CI/CD pipelines
• Working closely with others and keeping communication flowing
• Keeping an eye on things by monitoring and logging
• Automating toil
• Handling deployments and managing cloud services
• Optimizing performance
• Software development and scripting
• Managing resources efficiently
• Supporting developers and troubleshooting issues
• Ensuring security across the infrastructure

Now, let’s look at these points in detail.

Infrastructure management

A key responsibility of a DevOps engineer is to ensure the design, implementation, and management of a robust and scalable infrastructure. They use Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform or Ansible to automate infrastructure provisioning and configuration management.

CI/CD pipelines

In the SDLC, new features, patches, and fixes are frequently deployed to meet customers’ needs. To facilitate this, a DevOps engineer must set up a CI/CD pipeline to automate the testing environment and software releases, ensuring seamless integration and a smooth deployment process.

Collaboration and communication

DevOps engineer skills are essential for fostering an efficient and collaborative work environment. DevOps engineers champion clear communication (both oral and written) between project stakeholders. They believe in active communication and collaboration between the development team and other project stakeholders to ensure productivity, shared responsibilities, and continuous improvement.

Automation

One of the essential DevOps principles is automating manual and repetitive tasks. A DevOps engineer uses DevOps automation tools like Puppet or SaltStack to improve efficiency and reduce human error during deployment processes, scaling, and other operational tasks.

Deployment and cloud management

DevOps engineers use containers and orchestration platforms like Docker and Kubernetes to facilitate efficient deployment, scaling, and management, whether in on-premise environments or cloud services like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.

Performance optimization

A key responsibility of a DevOps engineer is to set up mechanisms to constantly audit systems, analyze performance, and implement load and stress testing. This guarantees that applications can handle high demand and spikes in traffic.

Software development and scripting

While the DevOps ecosystem offers both paid and open-source tools to help streamline responsibilities, there are times when custom-made tools or extensions of existing tools are required. A good understanding of software development processes and scripting languages like Python, Go, or JavaScript (Node.js) helps a DevOps engineer build solutions for such specific business edge cases.

Resource management

In a DevOps engineer role, engineers ensure that the resources allocated to a system can perform effectively during both slow and peak periods. This involves implementing autoscaling, monitoring resource usage, considering future capacity needs, and utilizing other resource configuration management tools.

Developer support and troubleshooting

An integral part of DevOps methodology is ensuring that development and operational teams are supported by troubleshooting issues related to applications, infrastructures, and other systems. Additionally, DevOps professionals create documentation, guides, and other helpful resources to enhance the knowledge base. This guarantees that both experienced team members and new joiners can leverage these resources for debugging, troubleshooting, or research purposes.

Security

A growing part of the DevOps ecosystem is Development, Security, and Operations (DevSecOps). This practice involves automating security and best practices into every phase of the SDLC to ensure compliance with industry standards, effective resource identity and access management, and more. A good understanding of DevSecOps is an essential skill for experienced DevOps engineers.

What is the importance of DevOps in an organization?

DevOps is gaining massive adoption because organizations are shifting away from traditional software development and resource provisioning approaches that are slow, prone to human error, and siloed. They want to deliver fast, reliable, and scalable applications, which the traditional approach lacks.

Some of the ways DevOps can benefit an organization include:

• Improving collaboration and shared responsibilities among project stakeholders.
• Enhancing software quality with automated testing and continuous feedback loops.
• Speeding up software delivery by promoting communication and collaboration between cross-functional teams.
• Supporting career development through a DevOps culture of experimentation and learning new DevOps skills.
• Providing a better customer experience because applications are thoroughly tested before going live.
• Reducing risk associated with software development and deployment using CI/CD principles.
• Encouraging knowledge sharing and flexibility to experiment, helping teams learn a wide range of skills and technologies.

Organizations practicing or willing to adopt DevOps must be prepared for a cultural shift, continuous improvement, and investment in automation tools. Although it may be a lot at times, the benefits are worth the investment.

Common roles within the DevOps ecosystem

The recent growth in the DevOps ecosystem has led to newer DevOps roles. While most jobs categorize these roles under the umbrella term “DevOps Engineer,” which may work for small organizations, it becomes an issue in medium to larger organizations with diverse project goals and other factors. While these roles share similarities and sometimes overlap in responsibilities, it is important to understand the different aspects they tackle. The diagram below shows the crucial roles in the DevOps lifecycle.

Site Reliability engineers (SRE)

SRE focuses on system reliability, scalability, and performance. Their skills involve combining software engineering and systems administration.

Key Responsibilities

• Implements monitoring and alerting systems.
• Ensures the system is reliable, performant, and scalable.
• Analyze incidents to detect them and implement preventive measures.

Required skills

• Proficiency in using automation and infrastructure as code tools.
• Problem-solving and troubleshooting skills.
• Experience with alerting and monitoring tools like Prometheus and Grafana.

Cloud engineers

Cloud engineers are responsible for designing and implementing cloud-native solutions. They also manage cloud technologies and infrastructure like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud to guarantee efficient resource usage and cost-effectiveness.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and manage cloud infrastructure.
• Monitor and optimize cloud resources and associated costs.
• Ensure compliance and security of cloud resources.

Required skills

• Expertise in using popular cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and GCP.
• Proficiency in using automation tools like Terraform and CloudFormation.
• Knowledge of cloud security and compliance

Automation engineers

Automation engineers are responsible for identifying tasks that can be automated across development and operations. They develop scripts and DevOps tools to automate repetitive tasks and integrate them into CI/CD pipelines.

Key Responsibilities

• Review, design, and implement automation strategies across the software development lifecycle.
• Ensures consistency and reliability of automated processes.
• Stay up-to-date with the latest automation tools and technologies.

Required skills

• Proficiency in scripting and programming languages.
• Expertise in automation tools and frameworks like Jenkins and GitHub Action.

Build engineers

Build engineers are responsible for managing build systems and tools, troubleshooting build failures, optimizing build performance, and integrating builds into the CI/CD pipelines.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage and maintain build systems and tools.
• Ensures builds are consistent and replicable across environments.
• Automate the build process.

Required skills

• Knowledge of CI/CD tools and version control systems.
• Proficiency in build tools.
• Strong problem-solving and debugging skills.

Release engineers

Release engineers are responsible for planning, scheduling, and coordinating the software release process for testing, sandbox, or production environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Plan and manage the release of new software, software updates, and new features.
• Maintain release schedules and project release timelines.

Required skills

• Knowledge of CI/CD tools and version control systems.
• Project management and organization skills.
• Strong communication and coordination skills

Security engineers

Security engineers are responsible for integrating security and best practices into the DevOps pipeline. Additionally, they collaborate with development and operations teams to conduct security assessments, vulnerability scans, and compliance checks.

Key Responsibilities

• Implement and manage security tools and technologies.
• Integrate DevSecOps into the software development lifecycle.
• Document security best practices and ensure compliance with policies and regulations.

Required skills

• Knowledge of security best practices and frameworks
• Familiarity with identity and access management systems

Best practices for DevOps teams

To achieve success as a team practicing or intending to adopt DevOps practices, you need a combination of the right tools, best practices, and a cultural shift. Here are some tips and best DevOps practices for teams:

• Encourage Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) by having software developers commit code frequently, automating builds, and providing timely feedback between teams.
• Embrace IaC to maintain consistency across testing, production, and other environments.
• Implement logging, alerts, and monitoring across systems.
• Ensure unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests to validate the quality of software.
• Promote soft skills, feedback loops, post-mortem audits, retrospectives, and a continuous learning culture.
• Set clear metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to easily identify areas needing improvement.
• Ensure effective collaboration and shared responsibilities between development, operations, QAs, and other teams.

In summary, DevOps is growing and will continue to expand, bringing about even more DevOps roles and responsibilities for engineers in the ecosystem. The roadmap.sh’s DevOps roadmap is a valuable resource that can help you stay updated on these changes. Additionally, you can track your learning path and connect with a vibrant community by signing up on the roadmap.sh platform.