Is DevOps a technical role?

The roles and responsibilities of this role are well justified by the lucrative salary that comes with it. If you are looking at building your career as a DevOps engineer, there is a path you can follow to gain the necessary skills, qualifications and expertise. 

A DevOps engineer role is typically a senior position. Therefore, you need significant experience working as a part of software development teams or organisations. Most people who become DevOps engineers either have been developers in the past, QAs or worked in operations-related roles.

This could be true for any specialist role in the IT industry, but a computer science degree focusing on software development will always be an advantage. But as requirements change from formal education to skill-based requirements, there are several self-taught and professionally certified developers entering the industry with all the relevant skills and experience. 

Thus, a traditional four-year degree is just one of the ways to enter the industry. While it is the most direct, there are several different ways to get experience in a software development role that could open new avenues for you as a job seeker.

A dedicated manual tester at a junior level can steadily get on-the-job experience, start training and earn the industry qualifications needed before moving to a more senior QA or testing role. The final destination on this path is the DevOps engineer role.

You should also have sufficient knowledge about cloud computing systems and platforms, as well as any new technologies and solutions like Microsoft Azure, GCP (Google Cloud Platform) and AWS.