How to Hire DevOps Engineer – Here is All You Need to Know

Last Updated on: July 10, 2023

Did you know? “DevOps Engineer” is amongst the top ten “Best Jobs in America in 2019, according to Glassdoor, and it is the 6th job, in terms of most wanted experts. But the sad part is – as companies are looking to embrace DevOps, the high demand for DevOps engineers and a small pool of qualified and experienced applicants has left the business owners in a quandary.

Now, the question is with the lack of DevOps talent out there how to hire DevOps engineers that cater to the needs of your DevOps team? The term “DevOps” means different things to different businesses, which makes hiring a DevOps engineer a more daunting task. Our guide to hiring DevOps engineers will help you explore the value that DevOps brings to business and walk you through comprehensive details to hire the perfect DevOps specialist for your company.

But, before diving straight into the topic of how to hire a DevOps Engineer, let us first see what is the role of DevOps engineers.

What is the role of a DevOps Engineer?

DevOps is not the same as operations. And, DevOps engineers are not software developers or QA engineers. Instead, DevOps specialists are responsible for managing and optimizing the development team’s output, from streamlining various collaborations to automating the processes and performing QA. They are responsible for everything from features to fixes, frequent updates, tightly synced with business objectives and integrity of the system. They also master aligning your current data and reports with various DevOps adoption tools.

Hiring DevOps Engineer can help you achieve the following business goals:

• Software optimization (according to different deployment formats)
• Boost in software testing efficiency 
• Facilitation of means to implement new software versions
• Workflow automation
• Faster time-to-market

Now that you have got what is the role of a DevOps Engineer, here are skills to check while hiring DevOps Engineer.

Hiring DevOps Engineer: Skills to Check

System Administration

System Administration, also known as SysAdmin is the skill of working within multi-user IT environments, optimizing and managing the processes and performance. The core aspects of the System Administration role revolve around server management, however, the tasks can be wide-ranging – building and managing applications, supporting infrastructure and file servers. A SysAdmin can help in automating critical processes to keep your IT systems efficient.

System Administration also helps in managing the networks, storage and databases, as well as developing and deploying the IT security systems.

When you are hiring DevOps Engineer who can work as SysAdmin, consider looking for the following skills:

• Installation and configuration of software and hardware
• Troubleshooting various issues related to DevOps processes
• Systems performance monitoring
• Deployment of system security such as backups, firewalls, and controls.
• Continued upgrading of processes and systems to optimize performance.

1. Virtualization

Virtualization is an essential part of DevOps and all the virtualization-related work takes place in the cloud. It mainly involves the creation of software and the use of processes to virtualize the servers and various process components. This means your DevOps engineer should be skilled in working with fields such as Google Cloud, GitHub and Amazon Web Services, and in specific processes such as automating QA.

As per the demands of your business, you may require a candidate to have a specialized skill set in a particular area such as network virtualization or server virtualization. 

The main objective of virtualization is to achieve less with more. Therefore, when you hire DevOps Engineers looking for candidates who can improve performance, reduce inefficiencies and cost, and streamlines the process with virtualization as a key tool.

Here are the skills to look for:

• Virtualization designing and deployment across various platforms
• Ability to improve processes and efficiency
• Deployment of security systems to protect the virtualization environment.
• Install, configure and manage various virtualization environment components
• Configure, administer and conduct tasks like retrieval and backup.

2. Coding

Coding plays a critical role in bringing together the disciplines of Dev and Ops. Coding skills will help the DevOps engineer to work effectively with both teams. As your use of DevOps evolves, this will make the processes more efficient and will also reduce the deployment time.

Before hiring a DevOps engineer, determine whether you want to be a DevOps engineer who specializes in a coding language that fits into your current business framework, or one who specializes in multiple coding languages for future developments. This will help you in finding out the skills that you are looking for in a DevOps engineer:

Here are the set of skills to look for:

• Developing, testing and deploying applications and software
• Migration of code from testing to the production environment.
• Competent across various coding languages
• Identification and fixing of bugs
• Working knowledge of your current server environment.

3. Automation

Automation involves setting up various processes and systems to reduce the human time and resources to carry out various tasks. Thus, automation is one of the quintessential elements of DevOps. 

When you hire a DevOps engineer with hands-on knowledge of automation tools, you will require a similar approach that you followed when hiring a candidate with coding skills. This means you need to know what you want from the candidate.

Are you already using automation in your IT processes and looking for a DevOps engineer to work with these? Or do you want someone who can work with various automation tools and can help in managing your current team?

Now the question is how to hire a DevOps Engineer with command in automation. These skills will help:

• Experience in working with various automation tools.
• Knowledge of using the right set of tools for a particular job.
• Identification of opportunities to use automation tools to improve processes and enhance productivity.
• Automation architecture and performance testing
• Troubleshooting various automation problems

4. IT Security

Security and compliance form the critical aspects of any IT infrastructure. One of the biggest challenges faced by companies while incorporating DevOps is that the Development and Operations team are often unattached to the security teams.

DevOps is generally focused on speed and efficiency and it is typical that DevOps work remains ahead of security teams work. This increases the chances of delay as security specialists check and verify various codes. This slows down the DevOps process – affecting the very reason for adopting this way of working.

However, when you hire a DevOps engineer with proficiency in IT security. Look for an engineer with skills to implement and maintain security at all the stages of the DevOps lifecycle, from inception to deployment and long-term maintenance.

Here are the skills to look for:

• Expertise in the deployment of malware programs, running various anti-virus and maintaining IT performance while they are in use.
• Designing secure networks and architectures, and their successful deployment.
• Specific knowledge of cloud software security.
• Experience in risk assessment methodologies and tools
• Recovery and backup.

5. Testing & Diagnostics

Testing and Diagnostics often go hand in hand with various automation tools. Thus, it is always a good idea to look for a DevOps engineering team, who can conduct testing independent of automation tools.

DevOps environment is based on the principle of prevention rather than cure. Thus, when hiring DevOps specialists seek out a team that can ensure that releases will be secure and reliable. If someone is good at diagnostics, it is worth questioning how often diagnostic skills are used. 

Having a professional with diagnostic expertise is good for your business, however, the priority should be to ensure that there are no bugs and errors in the first place.

Here are the skills to check in your testing and diagnostic candidate:

• Implementation of a system to prevent repeated issues
• Troubleshooting issues once diagnosed
• Deployment of various automation tools for testing and diagnostics
• Diagnostic and testing skills related to various systems, software and platforms you use.

Also Read: How the Top DevOps Market Trends 2023 Will Help Your Business?

Hiring DevOps Engineers: What are the Options?

When it comes to hiring DevOps Engineers – you have three popular options: hiring freelancers, getting the help of recruiting agencies or hiring a DevOps engineer from DevOps Consultancy. Let’s review all three in detail:

Hiring Freelancers

Freelancing portals like UpWork, Freelancer.com and Toptal can help you in finding specialists in the IT sector. You can find a freelancer on these portals by setting up an account, creating a job post and starting a contract.

Benefits of hiring freelancers:

• Affordable for minor changes and short-term projects
• Can be trusted based on previous reviews and ratings.

Cons of hiring freelancers:

• No guarantees as no formal contract signed
• Different time zones
• Difficulty in management.

Recruiting Agencies

Another option for hiring DevOps Engineer is getting in touch with recruitment agencies. You get in touch with the agency and let them know the positions you would like to fill and they help you in finding the right DevOps candidate. From identifying people to conducting interviews and shortlisting the right candidates, they assist you in everything. The cost of the recruitment agencies depends on the service model you choose:

Executive Search – The Employer pays an up-front fee to get assistance in filling the role.

On-demand recruitment – In this case, recruitment agencies provide you with flexible support and mostly charge at an hourly rate.

Recruitment Process Outsourcing- In this case, the complete recruitment process is left in the hands of an agency.

Benefits of Recruitment Agencies:

• You spend more time on strategic tasks
• Becomes effortless to find qualified candidates.

Cons of Recruitment Agencies:

• The high cost of the recruitment process
• No control over the process
• Potential communication issues

Hiring a DevOps Engineer from DevOps Consultancy

This is probably the best option for any size of project and budget. When you hire DevOps Engineer from an IT company, you have the freedom to onboard resources based on the requirement of your project, thus making it cost-effective. Also, hiring DevOps Engineer from a dedicated IT company means getting backed by expertise.

How Systango Makes it Easy for You to Set Up Dedicated DevOps Team

DevOps is now a gold standard approach in IT and businesses have got strong reasons like boost in efficiency, time-saving, increased collaboration and more to adopt DevOps. Here are the 5 reasons why it is a must for a business to adopt DevOps. 

Setting up a dedicated DevOps Team with Systango (DevOps Consultancy, London) is super simple. First, we gather the project details from the client and discuss the team size, deadlines and deliverables. Next, we assemble the team, select the best-suited experts from our team, invite you to perform the final interview and smoothly integrate DevOps Engineer into your current project. As a result, you complement your project with the needed expertise with any hustle of recruitment. 

Why Systango as your DevOps Consulting Company?

• We have worked with several startups, mid-level enterprises and Fortune 500 companies.
• We help you in achieving 40% faster releases and deployments
• With us, you will save up to 50% through cloud optimization and monitoring.
• Partnership with AWS, Azure and GCP.
• Hands-on experience in a plethora of monitoring, CI/CD, communication, microservices and security testing tools.

Summing Up

Now that you are armed with insights such as skills to look for in DevOps Engineer, you should be able to fill the requirement in your team within no time. If you like the idea of partnering with the DevOps consulting company, then get in touch with us to discuss your project details.