The DevOps sector is still in urgent need of new talent, with 38% of tech companies stating that they struggle to find skilled developers in 2023. These same respondents named DevOps as the number-one area where they are feeling the pinch. Because of this, businesses must ensure they prioritize and nurture the right set of core skills when building DevOps teams.

Below, we discuss the key qualities that businesses should look for when taking on new DevOps engineers and what leaders can do to get the most out of existing employees.

Tech companies that prioritize the development of these skills will be rewarded with an intelligent, inquisitive and high-performing DevOps team, setting themselves apart from competitors.

An Eagerness to Learn

The DevOps sector is constantly evolving, so the talent organizations hire should be similarly open to evolution in the way they work.

Emil Krawczak, DevOps engineer at STX Next, said this is a key trait necessary for success. “To be successful as a DevOps engineer, you need to have a natural thirst for knowledge and desire to develop, and also be highly persistent when faced with challenges. This area of IT is developing so quickly that it’s difficult to keep track of everything new. It is not enough to learn at work; you need to take steps to grow your capabilities outside of the day-to-day, as well.”

An Analytical and Strategic Approach

System administration and development skills are essential, but they aren’t enough if developers don’t keep the bigger picture in mind at all times. Therefore, the ability to think strategically and the ability to apply analytical skills are invaluable for DevOps engineers.

Piotr Pawłowski, DevOps specialist at The One Question, explained how these traits made it easier for engineers to tackle a DevOps project. “Being successful in DevOps means having an analytical mind and taking a strategic approach. First and foremost, you should be to analyze the project and decide the right tools and approaches. You might know a lot about different tools and cloud solutions, but if you don’t know how to use them, you will not be successful in the world of DevOps.”

Putting DevOps Theory Into Practice

The ability to put theory into practice is where true progress is made. With that in mind, what DevOps employees glean from training, education, books and research has little relevance unless it is supplemented by practical experience.

Versatility is an integral skill in the industry, and successful DevOps pros should be able to use—or at least have working knowledge of—a broad range of tools. They should also specialize in at least one area of Dev or Ops. Python is a great example; Python is highly effective in the automation process and the language should be viewed as a key stepping stone in growing DevOps engineering skillsets.

Identifying Transferrable Skills

Employers searching for new talent should look for relevant skills in other IT disciplines that could help a candidate make the switch to DevOps. For example, experience in SysOps or a specific programming language can be extremely useful when opting for a change of focus.

“DevOps unites the world of admins (SysOps) with the world of programmers/developers (Dev). The easiest way to get into DevOps is to have experience in both of these areas,” Krawczak said. “As an admin, you can build on your experience in scripting, and as a developer, you can leverage your experience in setting up local infrastructure for testing.”

A Clear and Focused Approach to Specialisation

Marcelo Grebois, senior DevOps Engineer at Toptal, said businesses should keep things as simple as possible when establishing their DevOps approach. “Try to make things easy. Always think about automation, keep all infrastructure ‘as-code’ and stay up-to-date on tools and technologies.”

Roman Kamiński, cloud system architect at Atos, agreed. “Using automation tools such as Ansible and Terraform, for example, stops developers from getting left behind while helping them adjust to an ever-changing industry.”

Developing the Next Generation

It’s important that tech companies invest in the growth of DevOps engineers and help them focus on the skills that will maximize their potential. The organizations that put time and resources into nurturing the next generation of talent will benefit from a larger pool of well-trained engineers. In the long term, this will ease the DevOps skills shortage and make for a more prosperous IT department.