According to our 2023 salary report, the median salary for Junior and Mid-level DevOps engineers is the highest as compared to other technical roles including Software Engineers and Data Engineers. We break down the reason with insights from DevOps Engineers from ByteDance and Standard Chartered.
A DevOps engineer is responsible for bridging the gap between development and operations teams, utilising automation and collaboration to improve the speed and efficiency of software delivery.
In terms of focus, DevOps Engineer’s main focus is the integration of software development and IT operations processes. A Software Engineer’s main focus is to develop and maintain the software.
In terms of skill set, DevOps Engineer needs knowledge of both development and operations domains, including coding, scripting, testing, and deployment. A Software Engineer would work to develop the software depending on the tech stack.
Clement is a DevOps Engineer at ByteDance. He was previously an associate Software Engineer at GovTech and One X Tech.
“Personally I started out as a Software Engineer and loved the challenge that comes with building a product. However, the more I dabble with the art of DevOps, the more I am intrigued by the sophistication and precision that goes into the planning and execution of DevOps solutions. I also like the dynamic environment I work in, where we are presented with unique challenges daily, covering a wide range of technical issues and complexity.”
Lup Peng is a Lead DevOps Engineer at Standard Chartered Bank. He was previously a Software Development Engineer at Amazon and an Associate Software Engineer at GovTech.
“In my first software engineering role, there were recurring issues with integrating/deploying our new features into the pre-production environments (e.g. staging, UAT) for more comprehensive testing. As I was keen to get my features shipped out, I asked my team leader how I could help quicken this process. I was then tasked to work with the DevOps/SRE team to understand their pain points and identify ways to improve how we develop new features. I was fascinated by the complexities of what "deploying to production" meant, and the more I learnt, the more I was intrigued. This was my first step into the world of DevOps.”
Based on recent job openings for DevOps Engineers from NodeFlair, here are some of the common job scopes of a DevOps Engineer:
For Clement, his primary responsibilities include:
For Lup Peng, his main role as a Lead DevOps engineer consists of
Both soft and hard skills are equally important to be a good DevOps Engineer. It is also important to note that the definition of DevOps can be different across organisations and would require some broad skills.
Lup Peng shared some foundational DevOps technical skills one should know, which include:
“The job scope of a DevOps engineer can cover a wide range in a product development process, from supporting testing to security, and continuous integration all the way up to maintenance, you will definitely require strong technical skills. However, soft skills are also equally important in my opinion. Grit and tenacity, good communication skills and good self-organisation will definitely help you go far in this role.” Clement
Some popular interview questions from popular companies include:
The interview process typically consists of technical interviews, system design tests and tests in DevOps tools (including and not limited to dockerization, Terraform, Linux and Kubernetes).
“When given a problem statement, I would think aloud my approach, and make/clarify any assumptions that I might have - much like a coding interview. In hands-on exercises, being comfortable with the command line is definitely a bonus. Having a broad understanding of computer science fundamentals (e.g. operating systems, networking, programming languages, etc) will help uncover the true cause(s) behind the symptom(s) presented in the interview problem statement.” Lup Peng
“In order to ace it, you will need to practise your algorithms, followed by reading up extensively on system design. A tip is to pick up knowledge on using one of the major cloud solutions providers, like AWS, and extend from there. This will help give you a deeper appreciation of understanding system design.” Clement
Here’s a sneak peek of salaries for DevOps Engineers in 2022 according to our Tech Salary Report 2023 (30th, 50th, and 70th percentile respectively):
Interested in becoming a DevOps Engineer? Here are some popular companies hiring for DevOps engineers (and what they are paying)!
Disclaimer: The salaries presented for the companies are estimates for reference only and should not be considered as guaranteed or final figures. Actual salaries may vary and could be lower or higher than the estimates provided.
The weighted average salaries of DevOps Engineers at ByteDance based on user submissions and past job listings:
* Estimated based on salaries of Software Engineers at ByteDance
View all ByteDance salaries.
The weighted average salaries of DevOps Engineers at DBS Bank based on user submissions and past job listings:
View all DBS Bank salaries.
The weighted average salaries of DevOps Engineers at GovTech based on user submissions and past job listings:
* Estimated based on salaries of Software Engineers at GovTech
View all GovTech salaries.
The weighted average salaries of DevOps Engineers at JPMorgan Chase & Co. based on user submissions and past job listings:
View all JPMorgan Chase & Co. salaries.
The weighted average salaries of DevOps Engineers at NCS Group based on user submissions and past job listings:
View all NCS Group salaries.
The weighted average salaries of DevOps Engineers at Salesforce based on user submissions and past job listings:
* Estimated based on salaries of Solutions Engineers at Salesforce
View all Salesforce salaries.
The weighted average salaries of DevOps Engineers at Shopee based on user submissions and past job listings:
* Estimated based on salaries of Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) at Shopee
View all Shopee salaries.
The weighted average salaries of DevOps Engineers at Standard Chartered based on user submissions and past job listings:
View all Standard Chartered salaries.
The weighted average salaries of DevOps Engineers at Tencent based on user submissions and past job listings:
View all Tencent salaries.
The weighted average salaries of DevOps Engineers at Visa based on user submissions and past job listings:
* Estimated based on salaries of Software Engineer at Visa
View all Visa salaries.
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