Engineering Lead - Cloud/DevOps

What would an average day look like?

An Engineering Lead - DevOps' daily schedule can vary depending on the organization's demands, project requirements, and team structure. However, here's a broad outline of what an Engineering Lead - DevOps might do on a typical day:

• Morning Planning and Prioritization:

• Start the day by reviewing emails and messages, prioritizing tasks, and creating a to-do list.
• Assess the status of ongoing projects and identify any critical issues or changes.
• Team Coordination:
  • Hold a brief team meeting or stand-up to discuss project status, goals for the day, and any immediate challenges.
  • Address any questions or concerns team members may have.

• Project Oversight:

• Monitor the progress of ongoing DevOps projects, ensuring they are on track and align with the organization's strategic goals.

• Technical Guidance:

• Provide technical guidance and support to team members, helping them overcome obstacles, optimize processes, and implement best practices.

• Tool and Technology Assessment:

• Evaluate new DevOps tools, technologies, and practices to determine their suitability for the organization's needs.
• Make recommendations for adoption or improvement.

• Infrastructure and Environment Management:

• Oversee the provisioning and management of cloud infrastructure, ensuring scalability, reliability, and cost-efficiency.
• Monitor and address any infrastructure-related issues or changes.

• CI/CD Pipeline Management:

• Ensure the stability and performance of the CI/CD pipelines.
• Address any build, test, or deployment issues and work on optimizing the pipeline.

• Security and Compliance:

• Collaborate with security teams to ensure that security measures and compliance requirements are integrated into the CI/CD pipeline and infrastructure.

• Meeting and Stakeholder Communication:

• Attend meetings with cross-functional teams, executives, and stakeholders to provide updates on DevOps initiatives, discuss project requirements, and address concerns.

• Training and Mentorship:

• Provide training, mentorship, and knowledge sharing sessions for team members to enhance their skills and knowledge of DevOps practices.

• Cost Management:

• Review cloud cost data and identify opportunities for cost optimization, such as reserved instances, resource resizing, and other cost-saving measures.

• Documentation and Best Practices:

• Ensure that best practices, processes, and standards are well-documented.
• Review and update documentation as needed.

• Innovation and Continuous Learning:

• Stay informed about emerging DevOps trends, technologies, and best practices.
• Experiment with new tools or methodologies to assess their potential benefits for the organization.

• Problem-Solving:

• Address any technical challenges, incidents, or outages that arise during the day.
• Collaborate with the team to resolve issues promptly.

• End-of-Day Review:

• Review the progress made during the day and ensure that critical tasks are addressed.
• Prepare for the next day by identifying priorities and action items.

It is vital to note that an Engineering Lead - DevOps' day-to-day duties may be dynamic and susceptible to change dependent on the organization's evolving needs and ongoing projects. In this capacity, flexibility, good leadership, problem-solving abilities, and excellent communication are required. Furthermore, an Engineering Lead - DevOps frequently blends technical activities with administrative and strategic responsibilities, making the position varied and challenging.

Who should apply?

A position as an Engineering Lead - DevOps involves a combination of technical experience, leadership abilities, and the ability to manage DevOps techniques inside an organization. Those who should apply for such a position include:

• Experienced DevOps Professionals: Individuals with a strong background in DevOps practices, including automation, CI/CD, infrastructure as code (IaC), and cloud technologies, who have several years of experience in the field.
• DevOps Engineers and Team Leads: DevOps engineers who have demonstrated leadership within their teams or organizations and are ready to take on broader responsibilities and a more strategic role.
• Technical Managers: IT or technical managers with experience in managing and leading teams, who want to focus on DevOps and automation practices at a higher level.
• CloudCloud Architects: Cloud architects with expertise in designing and implementing cloud-based solutions who are looking to extend their leadership into DevOps.
• Team Managers and Directors: Managers and directors of IT or engineering teams who wish to transition to a DevOps-focused leadership role.
• Certified DevOps Professionals: Those with relevant certifications such as AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert, or DevOps Institute certifications, which demonstrate expertise in DevOps practices.
• Strong Communicators: Individuals who can effectively communicate with technical and non-technical stakeholders, bridge the gap between development and operations teams, and provide clear leadership and guidance.
• Change Agents: Professionals who are passionate about driving cultural and organizational change to promote DevOps principles and practices.
• Innovators: Those who stay up-to-date with emerging DevOps technologies and industry trends and are committed to adopting new tools and methodologies to enhance their organization's DevOps practices.
• Problem-Solvers: Individuals with a strong ability to identify and resolve complex technical challenges, optimize processes, and address incidents efficiently.
• Project Managers: Professionals with project management experience who can oversee multiple projects, manage priorities, and ensure that DevOps initiatives align with organizational goals.
• Continuous Learners: Those who are committed to continuous learning and skill development, keeping pace with the evolving landscape of DevOps and technology.

Applying for an Engineering Lead - DevOps position necessitates a mix of technical expertise and leadership abilities, as the role entails guiding and leading teams to effectively implement DevOps practices, optimizing processes, and ensuring the organization's development and operations workflows are streamlined and efficient.

This all sounds great, what's it going to do for my career?

You will be exposed to new technologies in an environment where they can be used at scale. Because all of our products have a worldwide audience, we must design with this in mind. Our infrastructure is spread across many AWS regions and must always be quick and reliable.

We always strive to tackle problems at the appropriate level of the stack, so you'll have opportunity to hone both your development and operations skills.

You will also be encouraged to invest in yourself and further your education. Friday afternoons, for example, can be spent to work on other topics that interest you. We also conduct hack days to get away from the daily grind and experiment with new technologies and techniques.

Requirements

• Fantastic communication skills
• Deep familiarity with Linux based distributed systems at scale
• Experience with AWS or another cloud provider
• Experience with SQL and/or NoSQL databases at scale
• Experience with services lifecycle, monitoring
• Experience with DevOps practices and culture
• An automation mindset
• A good understanding of Kubernetes
• Experience with Terraform or other IaC tools