How to Become a DevOps Engineer?
Your Complete Guide to a Career in Infrastructure, Automation, and Cloud
A DevOps Engineer is a specialist who is geared towards automating processes, integrating continuous delivery pipelines, and ensuring the reliability and stability of systems. They treat infrastructure as code, observe performance, and work across functions to expedite software releases.
Disclaimer: Salaries vary depending on experience, location, company, and industry.
Start Your JourneyWhat Does a DevOps Engineer Do?
Role Definition
A DevOps Engineer is a specialist who is geared towards automating processes, integrating continuous delivery pipelines, and ensuring the reliability and stability of systems. They treat infrastructure as code, observe performance, and work across functions to expedite software releases.
Their work ensures the simplification of deployments, faster recovery, and scalability of systems. They must be an expert in using tools such as Docker, Jenkins, and Kubernetes, as well as possess exceptional skills in cloud platforms, scripting, and system security.
Typical Responsibilities
- Automating Processes: Automation of the software development and deployment processes in order to make them more streamlined and eliminate repetitive tasks.
- Monitoring Performance: Tracking performance and uptime of systems to help applications perform well and proactively troubleshoot any performance problems.
- Maintaining CI/CD Pipelines: Maintenance of CI/CD pipelines to maintain effective and consistent code deployments.
- Collaboration: Collaborating with development and operations teams to encourage communication and accelerate problem-solving.
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Maintaining infrastructure as code to define and manage infrastructure in a scalable, version-controlled way.
- Security and Compliance: Ensuring system security and compliance to meet organizational and regulatory compliance standards.
Common Industries & Environments
DevOps engineers are essential across various sectors that rely on robust and agile software delivery:
- Technology: The backbone of software development and cloud-native innovation, ensuring fast, reliable, and continuous integration and deployment.
- Finance: Supporting secure, compliant, and scalable infrastructure for real-time processing, fraud detection, and financial applications.
- Healthcare: Facilitating the management of complex infrastructures with sensitive patient data, ensuring HIPAA/GDPR compliance and high availability.
- E-commerce: Enabling high uptime, smooth user experience, and rapid deployment of updates for dynamic, high-traffic online platforms.
- Telecommunications: Ensuring stability, scalability, and automation in managing large-scale, distributed systems and real-time data networks.
Key Skills Required for This Career
Technical Skills
Soft Skills
Courses to Get These Skills
Gaining Practical Experience
Follow these practical steps to build the skills and experience needed to succeed as a DevOps Engineer.
Practice creating end-to-end CI/CD pipelines using tools like Jenkins or GitHub Actions to automate code testing and deployment in your own applications.
Join and contribute to public repositories on GitHub that involve infrastructure automation or deployment workflows to gain hands-on experience and visibility.
Take up internship or freelance opportunities to work on real-world DevOps tasks, such as server provisioning, monitoring, or pipeline setup.
Utilize free or trial cloud accounts to design, deploy, and manage simulated infrastructure setups, gaining practical experience with services like AWS, Azure, or GCP.
Your Educational & Learning Path
A strong foundation in programming, system administration, cloud technologies, and automation is essential for a career in DevOps.
Formal Education & Foundational Skills
A Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, IT, or related fields offers a solid foundation, though many DevOps professionals succeed without one. Start by learning basic programming (e.g., Python) and system administration to understand how software and infrastructure work together.
Online Courses & Bootcamps
Great Learning’s online courses and boot camps are ideal for working professionals and beginners alike. Their programs offer specialized learning on automation tools, cloud platforms, and DevOps practices.
Free Course
PG and other Courses
Self-Study & Practice
Self-study and hands-on practice are critical for mastering DevOps tools and concepts. Engage with these exercises to build expertise:
- Commit to continuous, hands-on experimentation: Regularly build home-lab CI/CD pipelines with GitHub, Jenkins, Docker, and Kubernetes to turn theory into muscle memory.
- Explore documentation of cloud platforms and tools: Make reading the latest Terraform, Docker, and cloud-provider documentation part of your weekly routine.
- Level-up with coding challenge sites: Tackle DevOps-focused tasks on HackerRank, LeetCode, or Replit to practice scripting and automation.
- Prepare for interviews: Review curated DevOps interview questions and do mock assessments to validate your understanding before facing recruiters.
Further Resources to Aid Your Journey
Access these resources to refine your DevOps skills and collaborate with the community.
Blogs & Articles
Stay updated with the latest techniques, tools, and best practices in the DevOps space.
Online Communities
Engage with active online communities to apply skills, stay updated, and learn from real-world use cases.
Relevant Tools & Platforms
Hands-on experience with these tools is essential for any aspiring DevOps Engineer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, many succeed through certifications, self-study, and hands-on experience—especially with GreatLearning’s practical courses.
With consistent effort, you can be job-ready in 6–12 months through focused learning with GreatLearning.
While not as intensive as development roles, scripting knowledge is crucial. GreatLearning offers Python and shell scripting modules to get you started.
Absolutely. DevOps roles are in high demand, with excellent salaries and growth potential, particularly in cloud-first companies.