AWS DevOps Engineer

How to Become AWS DevOps Engineer?

The growth in the demand of DevOps, as well as AWS, has been an evident phenomenon in recent times. As a result, the career opportunities for an AWS DevOps Engineer are highly promising. The popularity of AWS certifications as vital instruments for establishing prolific careers on the AWS cloud landscape is unquestionable.

Many popular names in the world of cloud computing are in competition with AWS right now. The diverse opportunities emerging every day in the DevOps landscape prominently indicate the need to go for DevOps Engineer job roles. However, the lack of guidance generally tends to create prominent difficulties for aspiring candidates. 

If you want to become an AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, then this discussion is the right source of information. The discussion would outline key details such as reasons to become a DevOps engineer on AWS and the basic details of AWS DevOps engineering. However, the crux of the discussion would largely emphasize the basic skills and role-specific skills for the AWS DevOps Engineer role.

Must Try: 15 Free Practice Questions for AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional

The next highlight of the discussion would be the information about the certification required for becoming an AWS DevOps professional. Subsequently, the discussion would dive into important aspects of the job description of AWS DevOps engineer role while shedding light on their crucial roles and responsibilities. Finally, the discussion would present brief information regarding the estimated salary for DevOps professionals on the AWS cloud. 

Why Should I Become an AWS DevOps Engineer?

Prior to a reflection on how to become AWS DevOps Engineer, it is important to know ‘why’! DevOps is a proven approach for modern enterprises to speed up their development lifecycles and shorten delivery times. The goal of DevOps aims at improving collaboration between the development and IT operations teams. As a result, enterprises could ensure optimal functionality in an application or software.

The basic features in DevOps culture are the primary reasons for constantly increasing the adoption of DevOps in the past few years. For example, the worldwide adoption rate of DevOps was 66% in 2016, and in 2017, the adoption rate reached 74%. Now, let’s get to the point of our discussion i.e., why should I become an AWS DevOps Engineer. 

As a beginner, you can look at the market share AWS enjoys presently, among other public cloud services. At almost 47%, AWS is a market leader and also brings in many employment opportunities. 

Organizations slowly realize the importance of DevOps. Therefore, they need skilled AWS DevOps professionals to provide the necessary boost to their productivity. 

The options of diverse job roles in the DevOps landscape presents variable and promising opportunities for long-term professional development. DevOps certified professionals can go for different roles, such as DevOps consultants, infrastructure architects, and automation architects. So, it is not necessary that you would become an AWS DevOps Engineer only after obtaining certification. Around 42% of companies include DevOps skills in their hiring portfolio, thereby implying multiple potential job roles for professionals skilled in DevOps. If you aspire to land your dream job in AWS cloud, we recommend you to search for AWS jobs near me and find the right job for you.

Here is the preparation guide for AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional exam that will help you prepare and pass the certification exam.

Who is a DevOps Engineer?

One of the most important requirements in understanding how to become an AWS DevOps engineer is to understand who is a DevOps engineer. The DevOps engineer is a professional with the responsibility for managing IT infrastructure according to requirements of supported software code. The DevOps engineer is also responsible for provisioning resources and recommends the suitable deployment model.

In addition, the DevOps engineer also looks into the validation and monitoring of performance. DevOps engineers also have to connect different components of coding with software development kits and libraries. The work of an AWS DevOps professional would also involve the integration of different components of SQL data management or the messaging tools for running software releases with production infrastructure and the operating system. 

Basic Skills for AWS DevOps Engineers

The outline of basic skills for an AWS certified DevOps engineer is a part of every reliable guide on becoming AWS DevOps Engineers. The basic skills are mandatory requirements for every DevOps professional to address their professional roles and responsibilities. 

  1. Experience in the development of code in one high-level programming language at the least.
  2. Skills for the creation of highly automated infrastructures.
  3. Experience in the administration of operating systems.
  4. In-depth knowledge regarding processes and methodologies for modern development and operations tasks.

Role-specific Skills for AWS Cloud DevOps Engineer

Apart from the basic skills, an AWS DevOps engineer should also master the role-specific skills. The role-specific skills are particularly ideal for fulfilling the requirements in different roles for AWS DevOps engineers. Here are some of the role-specific skills that you should focus on for the jobs of DevOps engineers on AWS.

  1. Flexibility is a foremost requirement for AWS DevOps professionals. DevOps professionals on AWS should have promising flexible working skills and adaptability to changes in code. 
  2. Continuous delivery theory, concepts, and their real-world applications are also another set of role-specific skills for AWS DevOps professionals. Basically, candidates should have fluency in using AWS CodeDeploy, AWS CodePipeline, and AWS CodeBuild. Candidates should have expertise in continuous delivery tools and systems such as GitHub, Travis, Jenkins, and others.
  3. Aspiring candidates for AWS DevOps Engineer job roles should also have more than two years of experience in provisioning, operations, and management of AWS environments.
  4. Knowledge of observability tools for application performance monitoring such as Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon SNS, and AWS X-Ray.
  5. AWS DevOps engineers should also have fluency in using Infrastructure as a Code tool such as CloudFormation, AWS Cloud Development Kit, and Terraform. 
  6. In-depth knowledge of configuration management tools such as Ansible, Puppet, and Chef is also a mandatory role-specific skill.
  7. Expertise in using container-related tools such as Dicker Engine, Kubernetes, and Docker Swarm.
  8. Experience in working and troubleshooting issues with operating systems such as Ubuntu, Windows, CentOS, and Amazon Linux is recommended. In addition, DevOps engineers should have promising capabilities in using common middleware software like load balancers, web servers, and application environments. 
  9. Familiarity with cron, CloudWatch Events, AWS Lambda, and SNS for ensuring automation.
  10. Soft skills for collaboration and communication are mandatory for the role. Soft skills are essential for addressing the basic objectives of the DevOps movement i.e., communication among all workers. 

Certification Needed for AWS DevOps Engineer Role

With the information about basic details pertaining to AWS DevOps engineers and the required skills, the path ahead may be clear now! However, it is also important to reflect on the importance of AWS certification for becoming a DevOps engineer. Aspiring individuals could find one definitive option in AWS certifications for achieving their dream of becoming a DevOps engineer. You can clear the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional certification exam to establish a successful AWS DevOps Engineer career path. 

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional

The AWS DevOps Engineers’ professional certification is an ideal option for individuals aspiring for DevOps engineer roles. The candidates for the exam should have at least two or more years of practical experience in the provisioning, operations, and management of AWS environments. The prerequisites for the exam focus on the basic skills needed to become AWS DevOps professionals.

For example, experience in administration of operating systems, building highly automated infrastructures and developing code in a high-level programming language. The AWS DevOps Engineer professional certification exam involves a multiple-choice and multiple-answer format. Candidates for the exam have to appear for the exam at a testing center of their selection. The total duration of the exam is 180 minutes. The total registration fee for the exam is $300 USD. The certification exam on AWS is available in Korean, English, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese.

The exam tests the following abilities of candidates:

  1. Implementation and management of continuous delivery systems and methodologies on AWS.
  2. Implementation and automation of security controls, compliance verification, and governance processes.
  3. Definition and deployment of systems for monitoring, logging, and metrics on AWS. 
  4. Implementation of systems on AWS with higher availability, self-healing capabilities, and scalability. 
  5. Designing, management, and maintenance of tools for automating operational processes. 

Check your current level of preparation with the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional Practice Tests.

Job Description of AWS DevOps Engineers

The importance of the job description of an AWS DevOps engineer is clearly evident for aspiring candidates. The job description helps candidates in learning about their different essential roles and responsibilities. The basic responsibilities of AWS DevOps engineers include the following.

  1. Deployment, automation, maintenance, and management of the production system.
  2. Ensuring higher levels of availability, scalability, and performance of application code and infrastructure.
  3. Creation of different strategies to ensure compliance of the process with DevOps principles.

The following roles and responsibilities of AWS DevOps engineers have the above-mentioned responsibilities as their foundation. 

  1. Deployment, automation, maintenance, and management of AWS cloud-based production systems.
  2. The building, releasing, and configuration management for AWS production systems.
  3. Recommending process improvements and modifications to the architecture.
  4. Review of new technology options as well as vendor products.
  5. Pre-production acceptance testing for verifying the quality of products and services.
  6. Providing the assurance of critical system security by leveraging the best-in-class solutions for cloud security.
  7. Troubleshooting systems and problem-solving on different platforms and application domains.
  8. Designing, management, and maintenance of tools for automation of multiple business processes.
  9. Definition and deployment of metrics and monitoring systems on the AWS platform.
  10. Providing status updates to stakeholders and resolves issues upon identification.
  11. Design of custom workflows, response documents and run books and communicating them to stakeholders.
  12. Working independently as well as in collaboration with development and operations teams and other stakeholders in the project.
  13. Addressing the needs of special projects while providing representation for their respective department.
  14. Designing and developing automation for supporting continuous integration and continuous delivery processes.
  15. Working with senior leaders on complex, enterprise-level projects that are a crucial aspect of a company’s general strategic direction.
  16. Supporting cloud architects for the facility of operation and migration services to ensure availability and delivery of cloud computing services according to business and technical requirements of clients. 

Salary of AWS DevOps Engineers

It is obvious now that the demand for the jobs of AWS DevOps Engineers is high. However, is that enough to think of starting a career in AWS DevOps? Probably an estimate of the average annual DevOps engineer salary on the AWS platform can clear your apprehensions!

AWS devops engg salary
Image Source: https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/AWS-Devops-Engineer-Salary

According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual AWS DevOps engineer salary on AWS is $124,190. The estimated salary figures are for the United States.

Final Words

If you are trying hard to become an AWS DevOps Engineer, then this discussion might have delivered promising information for you! Now, you should take the next step after learning all the information in this discussion. The recommended best practice would be to go through the basic skills required for DevOps engineers and gain expertise. Following that, you could go for hands-on experience in the management of various AWS services and tools related to DevOps.

We offer AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional training courses to help you become certified. So, take the right decision and step ahead to become a certified AWS DevOps Engineer!

Have any queries/questions related to AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional Certification Exam? Just start a discussion at Whizlabs Forum to get answers by the experts.

About Pavan Gumaste

Pavan Rao is a programmer / Developer by Profession and Cloud Computing Professional by choice with in-depth knowledge in AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform. He helps the organisation figure out what to build, ensure successful delivery, and incorporate user learning to improve the strategy and product further.

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