How to Hire the Right DevOps Engineer for Your Organization

The demand for qualified professional DevOps engineers, managers, and contractors has skyrocketed in recent years. As more firms embark on digital transformation programs, successful DevOps is increasingly important. However hiring a DevOps engineer who perfectly match your company's processes, facilities and team spirit can be tough.

Define the Core Skills and Expertise Needed

Before posting a DevOps job or talking with recruiters, describe the candidate's required expertise and competencies. When hiring a DevOps engineer for DevOps services, state the required level of experience & project completion evidence. To uncover analogies and close any visible gaps, compare them to the tasks of your current company. As the name suggests, recruiting DevOps engineers includes looking for someone with a diverse set of skills in both operation and development.

The gap or vacancies that must be addressed will be decided by the company's stage in the DevOps journey, such as transitioning to a new model, using cloud technologies, or increasing its infrastructure. Finally, with contract employment, DevOps engineers would have been able to get to work immediately. However, you should avoid hiring a DevOps contractor that is too inexperienced for a position that demands more senior management skills. Consider the broader knowledge required for CI/CD pipelines, automation, containerization, microservices, & other areas specific to your infrastructure. Doing all of these early on can help recruiters find the top DevOps engineers for your evaluation.

Assess Cultural Fit and Soft Skills

Technical skills alone cannot guarantee a successful hire, nor should they. Hard technical skills can be learned, but personality traits and characteristics are typically irreplaceable. During the interview, evaluate the contract DevOps engineers' interaction, collaboration, problem-solving, motivation for oneself, and other soft skills. Encourage them to communicate openly with other members of the team. Different perspectives can help you establish a comprehensive picture of a candidate's attitude and vibe, as well as confidence that they are operating in an appropriate manner for your culture. Remember that candidates prefer to act more 'professional' during job interviews.

Early cultural alignment also reduces integration issues and constraints in the long term. Explain your processes, management style, and team dynamics when evaluating applicant suitability, and pay close attention to their feedback. What an applicant does not say, instead of what they say, can often indicate whether they are a good fit. DevOps contractors who integrate seamlessly into existing processes adapt faster and perform more efficiently from the outset, which might be advantageous if you want to foster a more cooperative, open culture between operations and development.

Validate Past Experience and Referrals

Examine candidates' previous contract experience with software stacks and technologies that are similar to your own. Cloud platform expertise, such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, is in high demand. Applicants may be familiar with various software stacks, such as Atlassian, and can provide supporting documentation of completed projects or operational operations, even if their current stack is from a different source. Referrals from vendors might also improve hiring confidence. Specialist DevOps consulting organizations, such as CONTUS Tech, maintain a carefully curated network of potential DevOps candidates who have been thoroughly vetted. When you work with us, we may make particular recommendations to help you save time while shortlisting.