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The concept of DevOps started to spread in 2009 due to a desire to make software development more efficient. However, this efficiency measure quickly evolved into a feedback-oriented system that modified every aspect of software development. Managers want to hire DevOps engineers because DevOps provides:
- Faster problem resolution and product delivery
- Automated and easily scaled-up operations
- More stable operating environments
- More efficient use of resources
In the following sections, you’ll learn about DevOps languages and tools, what engineering skills and soft skills to look for, where to find the best candidates, and finally, how much DevOps engineers make.
DevOps Languages and Tools
What keeps DevOps languages and tools relevant to programmers and managers alike? Languages and tools that help keep code scalable, modular, and efficient are all DevOps virtues.
DevOps developers are always a good investment. They can help accelerate development cycles, reduce deployment failures, rollbacks, and recovery times, and improve communication and collaboration.
Programming Languages, Scripting Languages, and Tools
Successful DevOps developers are experienced and comfortable with multiple popular languages and tools. The widely used DevOps programming languages include:
- Golang (aka Go): Google’s open-source, easy-to-learn programming language is built for those with the need for speed. DevOps engineers can use Go to do what they used to accomplish with C++, only with much faster compilation times.
- Python: Many DevOps development teams use Python to develop custom utilities, web applications for custom data visualization, and more. Python is popular because it’s easy to learn and enables developers to build utilities in days (rather than weeks or months). Developers also favor Python because Ansible, and other monitoring and deployment tools, are built with Python.
- Ruby: Although Ruby’s popularity has faded a bit, it is still a useful language that is easy to learn. Many popular automation tools are written in Ruby, an object-oriented, compiled, full-featured programming language whose syntax resembles that of Python or Perl.
- Scala: Equipped with a strong static type system, Scala supports functional programming. Designed to be concise, Scala was developed to address some of the problems caused by Java’s size.
- C++: The C language might be old, but it hasn’t lost its relevance. Many developers use it as needed to manipulate hardware directly. However, its size and slower compilation times might be limiting factors for some projects.
These flexible, general-purpose languages are scalable, modular, and familiar to experienced developers. These qualities make them a good fit for high-performance programming across various platforms and the essence of DevOps capabilities.
Popular DevOps Scripting Languages
DevOps projects use different programming languages to automate deployment and develop software. So, DevOps mastery requires a working knowledge of several scripting languages to keep communications between programming languages open. Some of the most popular ones include:
- Powershell: This open-source, cross-platform scripting language is necessary if your IT infrastructure includes Microsoft Windows apps. This powerful language supports object-oriented, functional, and procedural programming.
- Puppet: This configuration management tool has its own declarative language to describe system configurations. It runs on Linux, Unix-like, and Windows software.
- Ruby: Also an excellent scripting language, Ruby supports cross-platform programming and is available under GPL and BSD licenses. It supports functional, object-oriented, and imperative programming.
These powerful scripting languages help DevOps developers navigate the maze of devices, software, and servers used in various IT operations.
DevOps Development Tools
Ideally, DevOps is a continuous process with continuous delivery that uses different languages and tools at each stage. Here are some popular DevOps tools:
- Git and SVN for continuous development: With these tools, DevOps teams can write code in any language and maintain it with version control tools.
- Selenium and TestNG for continuous testing: Selenium is a portable testing framework used in web applications. TestNG is a Java testing framework dear to the heart of automation testers.
- Jenkins for continuous integration: Written in Java, this open-source automation tool tests and reports on isolated changes in a larger code base in real-time. Jenkins enables developers to find and solve defects in code quickly and automate their test builds.
- Puppet and Docker: Puppet is a powerful configuration management tool used to deploy, configure, manage, and maintain servers. Docker is an open-source container management service used in Agile-based projects that require continuous software delivery.
- Splunk for continuous monitoring: The Splunk data analytics tool enables developers to monitor, search, analyze, visualize, and act on high-volume streams of real-time machine data. Splunk is usually put to work in security information management, event, and business intelligence use cases.
These are some of the most relevant tools and languages that DevOps developers use on the job. But, which DevOps engineer roles and responsibilities should be highlighted, and which DevOps engineer skills should job candidates bring to the hiring process?
Hiring the Best DevOps Engineers
Every job post presents a different situation that requires unique knowledge, skills, and experience. These general domain knowledge and skills trends are relevant to today’s DevOps job opportunities.
Technical Abilities
Technical knowledge and skills are the basis of what DevOps developers need to know. Because DevOps is a fast-changing specialty, the knowledge and capabilities a candidate requires must also change over time. If your projects require any of these DevOps engineer skills and types of domain knowledge, consider adding them to your DevOps engineer job description and your list of interview questions:
- Working knowledge of, and experience using, DevOps programming languages, scripting languages, and tools
- Knowledge about the stages of the DevOps cycle and the types of programming languages and tools that work well at each stage
- Experience as a back-end developer or a system operations engineer, who is familiar with software and web apps
- Knowledge about current trends in DevOps practices
- How to develop DevOps assembly lines into streamlined, event-driven workflows
- Understand microservices architecture and know how to code for it
- Know the latest trends in cyberattacks, cybersecurity measures, and code used to improve data and network security
However, there are other things to consider, too.
The DevOps Mindset
One of the most important things to consider is, what is DevOps? DevOps is not a role or a set of technologies. It’s a philosophy, culture, and frame of mind.
Part of finding the right candidate for a DevOps position involves finding someone with a solid DevOps mindset. Does your candidate have the skills and understanding to bridge the gap between development and operations environments? Can they provide solutions that work well for different stakeholders in different environments?
Your candidate should be able to concisely answer the questions “What is a DevOps engineer?” and “What does a DevOps engineer do?”
Getting the Most from Your Interviews
Just as it is a good idea to customize a list of technical skills to your job’s requirements, it helps to have DevOps interview questions tailored to your ongoing hiring process. These 15+ DevOps interview questions can help you build out your own set of interview questions.
Generally, DevOps development questions fall into two categories:
- What do you know about DevOps?
- How are you different from other DevOps candidates?
Starting with the “big picture” and problem-solving topics, and then narrowing the scope of questions might reveal the analytical and thoughtful person your organization needs.
Soft Skills
DevOps practice is a multi-stage process, involving lots of communication and collaboration skills. So, when you review a candidate’s soft skills, be sure to assess their ability to work effectively with other team members. And because a DevOps position is often a good fit for a remote candidate, make sure to review the skills and mindset needed when employees work across distance or time zones.
Finding DevOps Developers for Your Project or Staff
Given the skyrocketing popularity of the DevOps approach, finding someone with the skills and attitude you need might require some serious looking. Here are some places you can look to hire DevOps engineers:
The Best Places to Find DevOps Engineers
There is a knack for finding highly skilled DevOps developers. The main thing to remember is: don’t wait for candidates to show up. Instead, take some initiative and go looking for them. Here are some venues and online sites for you to meet DevOps engineers organically:
Online communities
- DevOps.com: News, tools, best practices, and technology trends, all served up in the largest aggregation of DevOps content on the planet.
- DevOps on Open Source: Articles, downloads, resources, and shared experiences are the fuel for this major DevOps online community.
- LinkedIn DevOps group
Conferences and Hackathons
- DevOps Days (30 locations worldwide): Targeted at DevOps engineers and their line managers, this event covers topics such as automation, testing, security, and organizational culture.
- DockerCon US: This community and container industry conference is organized for makers and operators of next-generation distributed apps built with containers.
- Azure DevOps Hackathon: Competition, three days of workshops, and all things Microsoft DevOps.
- Codefresh Fixvember Hackathon: This do-it-from-home DevOps hackathon challenges developers to contribute three pieces of code to open source projects, such as automation, testing, and bug fix use cases.
- DevOps Enterprise Summit (London and Las Vegas venues): This conference offers attendees a wide range of DevOps authors, founders, and speakers for heavy-duty exchanges of experience and insights into their own DevOps transformation stories. Now that you’ve got the intel about where DevOps engineers can be found, it’s time to talk about salaries and hourly rates.
How Much Do DevOps Engineers Make
Many factors determine DevOps developer pay: years of experience, geographic location, and scarcity of high-quality local candidates. However, there are rules-of-thumb pay rates that can help you entice highly qualified candidates to your area (or consider hiring remotely to take geography out of the equation!).
Salaries and Freelance Rates
The average annual salary of a DevOps engineer in the US is $130,000 ($62.50 per hour). Entry-level DevOps engineer salaries start at $110,000 per year, while more experienced workers make up to $165,000 per year. Salaries can vary widely, depending on many factors, such as education levels, certifications, additional skills, and years spent as a developer.
If you have a tighter budget, you may want to consider looking outside the US. Compared to the US, the global DevOps remote annual salaries average at $85,759. Entry-level DevOps engineer salaries sit at $71,637 and senior DevOps engineer at $103,292.
Here are the highest annual median salaries for DevOps engineers in states that have regional IT hubs:
- California: $150,000
- Massachusetts: $140,000
- New York: $150,000
- Nevada: $130,000
- Rhode Island: $116,250
- Washington: $140,320
Hourly rates for freelance DevOps engineers reflect the same, highly variable factors as applied to full-time developers. The average hourly rate for DevOps engineers ranges from $81-100. Expressed as an annual salary, this range is the equivalent of $171,100 to $211,200.
Next Steps
To get the maximum value from the time and effort of hiring DevOps developers:
- Engage in face-to-face and virtual events. Yes, job seekers will apply to you, but often you find the best candidates when you search proactively.
- Customize job descriptions carefully for each position. Technologies and IT practices change. (DevOps is an excellent example of this.) So, make sure that each job post reflects the up-to-the-minute value and priorities your organization assigns to the skills and experience of each position.
- Avoid paying too little by keeping up with national pay rate changes for DevOps pros.
- Avoid paying too much by aligning your hiring budget with regional norms.