There are several lucrative, high-paying DevOps job roles and responsibilities currently demanded by the industry. In recent years, DevOps has grown into one of the highest-paying careers in software development. If you are interested in a career in DevOps, it is important to know which job roles, titles, and paths are currently popular for the profession. This way, you can better understand your earning potential, career outlook, and other important industry trends.
It’s also important to understand the current IT climate. Studies have shown that many organizations are experiencing difficulty finding the right talent and that there is a development and IT talent shortage in the United States. Research from CNBC News found that in 2019, there were nearly 1 million unfulfilled IT-related positions. Another report from Gartner found that there the majority of surveyed senior executives found the lack of talented software development personnel to be a serious concern.
This creates a great opportunity for new and aspiring software developers. These career paths also highlight important trends in the software industry today; many modern developers are differentiating themselves with AWS training courses and specialized DevOps skill sets.
By focusing on the DevOps niche, you can not only increase your value in a short-squeezed industry but can benefit from learning more about this quickly growing philosophy and how you can apply it to many different roles. Today, some of the most renowned companies—including Airbnb, Reddit, and Netflix—use DevOps in their development infrastructure.
These career paths also highlight important trends in the software industry today; many modern developers are differentiating themselves with AWS training courses and specialized DevOps skill sets. To help you find your next calling, read on to learn about the high-paying DevOps job roles demanded by the industry.
DevOps Release Manager
First and foremost, there are plenty of high-paying careers for DevOps release managers, or engineers. Release managers are specialists tasked with issue reporting, release coordination, and deployment planning. In addition, these professionals are entrusted with preparing release readiness reviews and communicating deployment details. Simply, they are charged with brainstorming, negotiating, and managing all activities related to software release.
In order to succeed in this field, you will need to have strong leadership, analytical, and project management skills. Simultaneously, you will need to have a working knowledge of the software development life cycle (SDLC), data structures, and programming languages. Certainly, there are plenty of exciting career opportunities in DevOps release management.
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DevOps Engineer
In addition, you can always pursue opportunities working as a DevOps engineer. In this profession, you will be tasked with configuring development infrastructure, identifying stakeholder requirements, and monitoring for cybersecurity threats. At the same time, you may be commissioned with selecting reputable tools to automate and accelerate your build processes. For example, many engineers use DevOps tools in an effort to promote agility, quality, and security throughout programming.
If you are interested in working in this field, you will likely be able to find employment with technology consultant groups, public sector companies, and custom software development firms. In fact, you may even be able to find a job working for major retailers or telecommunications companies. Surely, becoming a DevOps engineer is a promising, high-paying career to explore.
DevOps Project Manager
As DevOps changes the way an organization creates, executes, and communicates, it also changes the way projects are managed. As the DevOps culture continues to grow, companies need more than coders and testers; they need people who can guide the team as they pursue projects with quicker speed and greater agility.
Project managers need to ensure the entire software development lifecycle is a well-oiled machine and are also expected to communicate deliverables and milestones internally and to key stakeholders. No amount of DevOps processes and technologies can replace the fact that you still need project managers that help determine what to do with them and how to allocate resources.
Like other developers and security professionals, project managers need to evolve with DevOps, too. More often than not, this means getting rid of some old habits in favor of more evolved practices. For instance, agile isn’t just a methodology ascribed to software development; project managers also need to be agile to keep up with the speed and delivery of long-term software development projects.
Prior to DevOps, project management largely adapted the waterfall methodology. Today, modern project managers need to be more granular in their approach, breaking up tasks into smaller pieces and collecting feedback along the way.
DevOps System Administrator
Next, DevOps system administration, commonly known as a DevOps admin or manager, is another lucrative career path to consider. As a system admin, you will be charged with managing infrastructure, maintaining platform health, and upholding information system integrity. In addition, you will likely be responsible for maintaining production environments, navigating capacity constraints, and establishing a scalable strategy.
If you would like to pursue these opportunities, you will likely need to possess prior experience working with Linux, DevOps, and other popular software development tools. Simultaneously, many firms will prioritize candidates that have a working knowledge of continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD). Indeed, look into exciting career opportunities as a DevOps system admin.
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DevOps Architect
Of course, you may want to pursue career opportunities as a DevOps architect. As an architect, you will be tasked with establishing continuous build environments, guiding the programming team, and regularly reviewing technical operations. At the same time, you may be commissioned with designing efficient programming practices and discovering any shortcomings.
If you are interested in working in this profession, you will need strong experience working with infrastructure monitoring, control, and management. At the same time, you will need to possess the ability to productively work independently, as well as in teams. Absolutely, DevOps architecture is an exciting, high-paying career path to explore this year.
DevOps Security Engineer
“Since a data breach could potentially cost an organization millions of dollars in damages, it’s imperative for businesses to have an experienced security engineer to rely on. Otherwise, the business runs the risk of lost revenue and an erosion of trust from customers.” – as elaborated by Anuradha Nandan, the Education and Training Solutions Marketing Specialist at ExitCertified, in one of her recent blogs.
In the field of DevOps, security engineer professions are commonly referred to as jobs in DevSecOps. As an information security engineer, you will be responsible for examining security breaches, analyzing vulnerabilities, and administering various protections. Additionally, you will be charged with reporting possible threats, researching potential weaknesses, and implementing cost-effective practices to resolve cybersecurity threats. Other important responsibilities include inspecting company software, firewalls, and other information systems.
If you are interested in these opportunities, you can expect to enter a job market with an average salary ranging from $75,000 to $105,000. Indubitably, becoming a DevOps security engineer is an excellent career path to explore in 2021.
There are plenty of exciting, high-paying DevOps job roles, titles, and responsibilities currently in demand by the industry. First off, consider working as a DevOps release manager. In addition, consider opportunities as a DevOps engineer. Next, look into careers as a system administrator or manager. Of course, explore career opportunities as a DevOps architect.
Moreover, consider job prospects as a security engineer. This way, you can help safeguard software products from network attacks around the world. Follow the ideas outlined above to learn about the high-paying DevOps job roles demanded by the industry.
DevOps Leader/Evangelist
Although you may not find many roles with a DevOps Evangelist title, this role deserves an honorable mention because every successful DevOps integration begins with a leader who propels the organization towards the next steps. Even as DevOps becomes more popular and companies around the world use it in their software development processes, it’s important to consider that every business had to start somewhere.
Implementing DevOps is no easy task and with that in mind, there needs to be an initial task force and leader that can lay the foundation and outline the steps necessary to move a company from traditional, waterfall methodologies to the agile methodologies associated with DevOps.
It’s this person(s) responsibility to relay the benefits and communicate a long-term plan. It’s their job to ensure buy both development and operational teams and to get everyone on the same page. The leader should help identify key roles, training methods, and resources necessary to make such a major change. After all, DevOps is certainly a culture.
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Fear of change and fear of failure is what keeps many companies from making the switch in their development processes. But if you have a team leader who can help cultivate an environment of learning and growing, it will likely empower employees to get on board the DevOps journey.
Ultimately, the DevOps evangelist is a change agent. It’s their job to eliminate or reduce the fear of failure from within the organization and discover different ways to improve the product’s existing architecture and streamline its end-to-end development — all while creating a positive culture in the process.
The biggest challenge DevOps leaders will face in traditional development environments is receiving crucial support from executive management, which is necessary for a smooth transition. Another major challenge is adapting to DevOps without disrupting the business. Typically, evangelists start by breaking down silos and having important conversations with both top-level executives and development and operations teams.
The overarching goal is to redefine how things are done, rather than re-do or completely re-organize. Leaders work hard to effectively communicate — with concrete examples — how DevOps just may impact the company’s ability to grow or fail.
Web developer and SEO specialist with 20+ years of experience in open-source web development, digital marketing, and search engine optimization. He is also the moderator of this blog "RS Web Solutions (RSWEBSOLS)".
