The right person for a DevOps engineer job should be well-versed in deployment automation, infrastructure automation, as well as version control.
Călin is one of Pentalog’s autonomous DevOps engineers. His passion for IT started at a very early age, and soon he became a full-stack development expert. When Călin realized that he can use his skills to help his team with quicker and more improved releases, there was no turning back; he knew that he had to pursue a DevOps engineer career.
DevOps Roles and Responsibilities
The DevOps engineer role evolved from an organizational need to fully embrace cloud infrastructure in dedicated, multi-tenant, and hybrid environments. These specialists bridge the gap between software development teams and IT operations, two essential departments meant to work together.
For IT specialists looking for more visibility over the product’s deployment, a DevOps engineer career could provide desired job satisfaction and the chance to shine in a dynamic environment. These professionals offer a wide range of hard and soft skills, including exceptional communication abilities.
Are you looking for new professional challenges as a DevOps engineer? Join us!
To gain a better grasp of the DevOps roles and responsibilities, let’s take a closer look at Călin’s job duties as an example of how to perform in this field.
Călin is part of a DevOps agility-driven team, working for a U.S.-based entertainment company with offices around the world. Together with the client’s DevOps engineer team, they manage the company’s infrastructure on cloud using AWS tools. Their mission is to enable rapid development and iteration of new features for a platform that offers worldwide videos to anime fans.
DevOps Engineer Job Specifications
To pursue a DevOps engineer career, you must be experienced in several open source technologies and have a broad knowledge of the technology used by DevOps engineers, including:
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Linux/Unix systems administration;
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Experience with AWS and other Cloud-related IaaS;
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Demonstrated ability to understand complex systems;
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Proven ability to innovate new ideas and projects to automate existing and legacy systems;
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Experience with deployments and resolving issues quickly;
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Experience with Chef, Jenkins, and other systems automation technologies;
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Proven ability to support a service-oriented architecture;
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Experience with centralized logging stacks such as ELK;
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Experience with version control systems such as Git and writing version control system hooks;
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Strong knowledge of modern monitoring and graphing systems;
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Solid understanding of current web and internet technologies like Nginx, Redis, MariaDB, DNS, and CDNs;
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Working knowledge of AWS CloudFormation and Terraform
And that’s not all!
Călin’s interests in deployment automation, network operations, and system administration are a second layer to his extensive hands-on experience around a wide variety of open source technologies and tools. His strong grasp of automation tools, incremental code, testing, and framework computerization propelled him to a position where he’s expected to quickly move the business forward, while at the same time offering a stronger technology advantage.
Why is the DevOps Engineer Job a Challenge?
The main function of a DevOps engineer is to introduce continuous delivery and continuous integration workflow, which requires understanding the previously mentioned tools as well as several programming languages. But, there are also several other responsibilities:
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Writing specifications and documentation for server-side features
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Management of continuous deployment and continuous integration (CI/CD)
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CI/CD script writing
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Performance assessment and monitoring
And, DevOps usually comes with the responsibility of on-call support shared among the team. Since the service should provide 24/7 operational support, a DevOps engineer job may come with even more challenges.
Călin, together with the client’s team, have agreed that no one will work overtime or be on-call on weekends.
The client must trust that tasks are being properly handled once you’ve finished your part; it’s crucial to this type of remote collaboration. DevOps engineers can also appreciate collaborating with well-trained specialists – talking about new approaches and learning more about the field.
DevOps Operations at Pentalog
Pentalog has a team of certified Solution Architects and Engineers, experts in Cloud technologies (AWS, Azure, GCP) and DevOps practices.
Călin is part of this team and can share how they do it: “Before starting a project, we define long and short-term goals, which are regularly tracked, refined, and updated to ensure continuous improvement. Agile and Lean principles inspire our DevOps method, which continues throughout the entire product development lifecycle. Collaboration between business owners and development, operations, and quality assurance teams build the foundation of DevOps. With this approach, software development and operation experts come together as a team to ensure that their goals are aligned, and they work in sync to achieve them.”
Every DevOps engineer at Pentalog has experience with auditing, consulting, engineering, monitoring, and even mentoring. Pentalog’s Principal Cloud Architect is one of our most involved specialists in the DevOps operations process and mentoring.
While you consider whether to apply for a DevOps engineer position at Pentalog, read about our relocation program in Cluj that’s in full swing.
