Information Technology Careers | Devops Engineer

Devops Engineer

Career Area: Information Technology

Occupation Group: Software Development

Salary

Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.

An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.

A typical Devops Engineer earns the following wages (national and state):

State

The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $115,430

*The salaries depicted here are representative of the range of salaries posted in job listings over the past year. Living wage in North Carolina is $30,000.

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $120,667

*The salaries depicted here are representative of the range of salaries posted in job listings over the past year. Living wage in North Carolina is $30,000.

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

Works with software engineers and system operators to develop, build and install new technology systems and manage code releases. Participates in strategic project planning; tracks changes in projects and guides project team work as new systems are deployed. Identifies and fixes problems and provides system maintenance.

Employment Trends

The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.

Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:

LocationGrowth
North Carolina1608+29.1%
Nationwide47389+25.6%

Skills

A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:

Baseline Skills

The following are baseline skills every Devops Engineer is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:

  • Troubleshooting: Troubleshooting or dpanneuring is a form of problem solving, often applied to repair failed products or processes on a machine or a system.
  • Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
  • Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
  • Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.
  • Writing: Experience expressing business messages effectively in written form. This may include planning drafting and revising as necessary.

Specialized Skills

These skills are specific to working in this career:

  • DevOps: Working experience of DevOps. DevOps is the combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that increases an organization's ability to deliver applications and services at high velocity: evolving and improving products at a faster pace than organizations using traditional software development and infrastructure management processes.
  • Python: Python is a widely used high-level programming language for general-purpose programming, created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991.
  • Kubernetes: Working experience of Kubernetes. Kubernetes (commonly referred to as K8s) is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling and management of containerized applications that was originally designed by Google and now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. It aims to provide a platform for automating deployment, scaling, and operations of application containers across clusters of hosts.
  • Linux: Linux (pronounced LIN-ks or, less frequently, LYN-ks) is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open-source software development and distribution.
  • Ansible: Working experience of Ansible, which is software that automates software provisioning, configuration management, and application deploymen. It is included as part of the Fedora distribution of Linux, owned by Red Hat Inc., and is also available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Scientific Linux and Oracle Linux via Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) as well as for other operating systems.

Distinguishing Skills

Any Devops Engineer that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:

  • Continuous Deployment: Working experience of Continuous Deployment. CD is a software engineering approach in which teams produce software in short cycles, ensuring that the software can be reliably released at any time. It aims at building, testing, and releasing software faster and more frequently. The approach helps reduce the cost, time, and risk of delivering changes by allowing for more incremental updates to applications in production. A straightforward and repeatable deployment process is important for continuous delivery.
  • OpenShift: Working experience of OpenShift, which is an open source hybrid cloud application Platform as a Service (PaaS) developed by Red Hat. Red Hat also offers a version of OpenShift for private clouds called OpenShift Enterprise.
  • OpenStack: Working experience of OpenStack. OpenStack is a free and open-source software platform for cloud computing, mostly deployed as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), whereby virtual servers and other resources are made available to customers.
  • NoSQL: A NoSQL (originally referring to non SQL, non relational or not only SQL) database provides a mechanism for storage and retrieval of data that is modeled in means other than the tabular relations used in relational databases.
  • Zabbix: Working experience of Zabbix, which is an enterprise open source monitoring software for networks and applications. It is designed to monitor and track the status of various network services, servers, and other network hardware.

Experience

This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Experience Required%
0 to 2 years11%
3 to 5 years62%
6 to 8 years18%

Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.

Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.

Common Job Titles

It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:

  • Devops Engineer
  • Senior Devops Engineer
  • Lead Devops Engineer
  • Lead Devops Engineer Remote
  • Azure Devops Engineer

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