What is a DevOps Engineer? Responsibilities & Roles in 2025

What is a DevOps engineer

In her conference presentation at DevOpsDays London, Abby Bangser used cooking as a metaphor to describe the role of platform engineering in DevOps. If you are “cooking” software (the meal) and need a tool (pan) or ingredient (parsley), you can put in a request but you may not get precisely what you need. The folks in charge of provisioning may not be able to provide the exact ingredient you had in mind or may not have access to what you requested.

Dig Deeper on DevOps

Red Hat Developer Hub is an enterprise internal developer portal based on the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) project, Backstage. Red Hat Developer Hub helps organizations consolidate technology choices, increase self-service and onboarding, coding jobs and boost productivity. With Red Hat Developer Hub, organizations can use an internal developer portal to consolidate development process elements, streamline workflows, and foster internal collaboration.

What is a DevOps engineer

Platform engineering vs. DevOps

  • At its core, DevOps is both a cultural shift and a set of practices and tools that enable organizations to deliver applications and services rapidly.
  • IaC tools like Terraform and CloudFormation treat infrastructure as code, allowing you to define and manage infrastructure resources (servers, networks, and storage) using configuration files.
  • Traditionally, IT roles have been siloed, with software developers and IT operations teams working in separate, often isolated departments.
  • It’s a role that helps development and IT operations teams work together better to release code more quickly, efficiently, and reliably.
  • SRE practitioners and platform engineers share goals but while SRE focuses on software performance, reliability, and scale, platform engineering focuses on systems targeted at enhancing the developer experience.

Here is a sample template of a Middle+ DevOps Engineer job DevOps Engineer job description with all the key sections discussed above. The benefits and perks section highlights extras beyond compensation that make your company an attractive place to work. Succinctly list additional benefits offered by your organization like health/dental insurance, retirement plans, etc. This section appeals to candidates seeking growth, work-life balance, and a good work environment. Discover the average super app development cost, key factors influencing pricing, and monetization strategies in this comprehensive budgeting guide. Through investigating various specializations, never-ending education, and expanding your network, you can steer towards a career path that perfectly suits your interests and goals.

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  • Imagine this as an apprenticeship in the kitchen, learning the basics of food preparation and service.
  • Automation is a critical part of an efficient DevOps lifecycle, decreasing hands-on work, and speeding testing, documentation and deployment.
  • However, professionals with IT-related skills will find it easier to transition to this role.
  • Once done, this ensures that tests are automatically executed whenever new code is pushed.
  • By shifting tasks left, teams can identify and address issues earlier in the development process, reducing the cost and effort required to fix them.
  • We are seeking an accomplished DevOps Engineer to join our innovative team and transform how we build, deploy, and scale our systems.

Automated testing frameworks run checks consistently, maintaining code quality across multiple iterations. While DevOps engineers often work on a mix of operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux), Linux is the most used OS in the servers world. This means a majority of employers will probably require Linux skills in their DevOps engineer job descriptions.

SKILLS

You’ll partner with our international teams to ensure the platform is constantly running at the highest level. The job responsibilities section provides critical details about the day-to-day duties and core functions the DevOps Engineer will perform. It should outline the key responsibilities and technical capabilities, including the actual tools and technologies used.

Benefits of DevOps

Choosing between becoming a DevOps engineer or a software developer really depends on what suits your interests. DevOps tend to focus more on system-level challenges, while software developers mainly work on writing and optimizing code. If you picture yourself enjoying coding, building software, and focusing on application development, software development may be the right path for you. But if you’re more keen on streamlining workflows, automating processes, and managing IT systems, going for a career in DevOps may be a better choice. Since cross-team collaboration is a fundamental component of DevOps, DevOps engineers should understand concepts, techniques, and tools that help enable collaboration on complex projects. Familiarity with project management tools like Jira and Trello, which are widely used to help manage software development projects, is also useful.

What is a DevOps engineer

Most Common Skills for DevOps Engineer

  • They work as mediators between the development and IT teams, ensuring smooth coordination for effective planning, creating, testing, and releasing products.
  • Think of them as the head chef, overseeing all aspects of the kitchen, from recipe creation (code) to ensuring smooth service (deployment).
  • Continuous testing is a core principle of DevOps, ensuring that bugs and vulnerabilities are identified and resolved early in the development lifecycle.
  • The candidate should have a fundamental knowledge of operating systems, programming languages, Cloud, automation, security management, and storage management.
  • With distinct teams for development, testing, and operations, traditional IT roles frequently function in silos.
  • Hiring a full-time DevOps engineer may be excessive if your company only requires a few deployments per year.

They can be used together to create a more efficient software development process. Agile emphasizes iterative development and customer satisfaction, while DevOps emphasizes automating processes and integrating development and operations teams. When used together, Agile and DevOps can improve software development and delivery by streamlining processes and enhancing collaboration. At its core, DevOps is both a cultural shift and a set of practices and tools that enable organizations to deliver applications and services rapidly. Unlike traditional methods where development and operations operate independently, DevOps integrates these functions to ensure smooth and efficient software lifecycles. This integration enhances collaboration, reduces time-to-market, and improves product quality.