Did you ever wonder why it’s such a pain in the neck to find a qualified DevOps engineer? There’s always some obstacle. Either the candidates aren’t qualified enough to keep up with your needs, or the rates are so crazy you’re not sure you need them anymore.
While other companies deploy project after project, you’re still trying to figure out how to meet a single deadline with an X amount of devs (which is obviously NOT enough).
Sounds familiar?
If you’re looking for a DevOps engineer for your project, this article is for you. Keep reading to learn more about hiring a CI/CD engineer and what are some things you might be overlooking that hamper your recruitment process.
Please note that the salaries and hourly rates mentioned in this article don’t equal the cost of hiring offshore software developers through outsourcing companies. Read more about how offshore software development costs are formed here.
Table of Contents
Before we move on to the DevOps engineering hiring process, let’s define who this person is and what DevOps actually means. The term is coined out of the two words ‒ “development” and “operations”. A DevOps engineer is a person who is skilled in both. It’s a versatile expert whose main function is to help different development teams improve specific parts of code and enable companies to improve their platforms based on what they already have.
Interestingly, DevOps as a job title is kind of made up by the industry, which means that there is no step-by-step process on how to undertake this career. Whether or not someone can apply for DevOps position depends on their skills and experience with coding and working in different teams.
In short, DevOps engineer is someone who:
So what are the main responsibilities of DevOps engineer?
We provide custom-selected DevOps engineers after the 5-steps talent selection process. You can get developers in under 1 week.
Contact us to take a look at CVs.
Let’s take a closer look at each.
DevOps engineer’s job is to fill the immediate business needs. In their day-to-day, DevOps look at the individual functions of the cloud environment and write code to scale them. To pull it off, a person needs to be able to write small snippets of code in several languages. They also must be skilled in testing, and big-picture planning (integrations and additions across many systems).
DevOps engineers are responsible for building a CI/CD pipeline and making sure that all the processes, people, and tools work in sync. They can spot areas of improvement and optimize the pipeline on the go. When DevOps engineer does the job well, the team can continuously test without hampering overall speed.
Automation is the reason why organizations hire CI/CD engineers in the first place. DevOps are responsible for its implementation and their job is to boost the efficiency of both engineering and IT. Meanwhile, companies can focus on more strategic tasks.
DevOps engineer’s job is to support the users of the infrastructure they develop. The best way to ensure safety is to build reliable software, to begin with. Writing secure code that will be protecting the cloud against hackers and viruses is a valuable skill for a DevOps engineer.
Collecting data and understanding how to act on it effectively is crucial for every organization. That’s why DevOps engineers monitor their apps and infrastructure to detect and oversee the blind spots, observe them, and troubleshoot possible issues.
Clearly, the skillset required for such professionals is far above the average. In one of the surveys conducted by DevOps Institute for their Enterprise DevOps Skills Report, C-suite executives, managers, and individual contributors were asked to rate the importance of the different skill categories for their DevOps team members.
Take a look at the results.
The expectations are generally pretty high, but they vary slightly based on the desired experience level.
Are there any differences in job requirements for, say, junior and senior DevOps engineer? Most certainly, there are. Let’s examine them closer.
Given the number of skills required for this job, it’s no surprise that the salaries of DevOps engineers are pretty high. However, they fluctuate greatly based on many factors:
To illustrate, let’s compare DevOps salaries in three different regions.
Disclaimer: The numbers discussed further are just an estimation and may vary based on the aforementioned factors.
Region | Yearly earnings (junior) | Yearly earnings (middle/senior) |
Ukraine | $ 7 900 | $ 31 500 |
United States | $ 70 000 | $ 178 500 |
Europe (e.g. Nehterlands) | $ 34 000 | $ 79 000 |
When searching for an ideal DevOps engineer, pay special attention to crafting an appealing and to-the-point job description. It will save you the hustle of turning down the applications that don’t fit the requirements.
Below is the example of a DevOps engineer job description you could use as a reference in your search.
Introduction
[Your company name] is a company that specializes in […]. Right now, we are looking for [junior/ middle/ senior] level DevOps Engineer to fill in a vacant position in our team. You will work at the intersection of Development and Operations to design, code, test, and optimize great solutions for clients.
Job Role and Responsibilities
Who You Are:
What You’ll Do:
Required Expertise
Preferred Expertise
Supposing, you’ve picked a few good-looking CVs. Now, how do you determine whether any of them are a good fit? Very simple. Asking the right questions will do the trick. After the interview, you should be able to tell whether the candidate has the necessary hard and soft skills to become a perfect addition to your team.
Below are the examples of interview questions for junior, and middle/senior developer to check their hard skills.
Many companies value personality and soft skills over technical expertise. After all, you can deepen the knowledge or sharpen the skill, but personality stays the same. Here are some questions you can ask during the interview to make sure a candidate fits in your company culture.
Read also about hiring dedicated iOs development teams.
When it comes to hiring a DevOps engineer, there are three popular options: freelance websites, recruiting agencies, and outsourcing companies. Let’s review all three in detail.
Freelancer platforms like Upwork, Freelancer.com, YouTeam, Toptal are very popular when it comes to finding specialists in the IT sector. The principle behind these platforms is the same. You set up an account, create a job post, choose a freelancer (or a team of freelancers), and start a contract.
Cons of hiring a freelancer:
Another widely used option is partnering with recruitment agencies. Here’s how it works. You let the agency know what positions you’d like to fill and they provide the recruitment services to the extent that you prefer, from identifying qualified people to conducting interviews and candidates selection. The cost of their assistance may vary based on their service model:
Cons of working with recruitment agencies
This is probably the best option for projects of any size and budget. It’s less expensive than hiring in-house employees, but just as reliable.
Outsourcing individual experts or even the entire teams through IT companies is super convenient. They are not only qualified but have all the necessary technology in place. All you need is to share the details of your project and cooperate along the process. Sounds like a plan, isn’t it? But make no mistake, there are still some pitfalls to beware.
The truth is, finding the right outsourcing company can be a challenge. You’ve probably heard all these urban legends about the worst outsourcing experience. However, if you take this process seriously, your project will end up in good hands. To find a reliable IT company, go beyond Google search. Places like Clutch will help you find accurate information about each team and referrals from colleagues will encourage you to make the best choice.
Our company also provides team extension services. Here’s how it works in Relevant Software.
It’s super simple. First, we gather the client’s project requirements, agree on the desired workflow, team size, deadlines, and deliverables. Next, we assemble the team, select the best-suited experts, show you CVs, invite you to perform the final interview, and smoothly integrate into your ongoing project. As a result, you complement your team with needed experts and finalize all the work successfully without any recruitment hustle.
We enjoy helping startups, mid-sized businesses and digitalizing enterprises transform the future with actionable solutions. Take a look at some of the projects we provided engineers to:
Hopefully, this article will help you become more strategic about the hiring process if you are eager to hire developers. Now that you’re armed with these insights, you should fill in the vacant position in no time. And if you liked the idea of outsourcing and partnering with an IT company, Relevant Software will eagerly provide you with junior, middle, and senior DevOps engineers. Contact us for details.