What Does a DevOps Engineer Do, and When Should You Hire One?

"DevOps" is one of the most common terms in modern IT job descriptions, and one of the most misunderstood. Some people use it to mean a set of tools, others a team culture, and others a specific job title. For a business owner or project manager, the practical question is simpler: what will a DevOps engineer actually do for us, and do we need one?

This guide explains the role in plain language, lists the skills to look for and describes the signs that it is time to bring one in.

DevOps in one sentence

DevOps is the practice of bringing software development ("Dev") and IT operations ("Ops") together so that software can be built, tested, released and run reliably, quickly and repeatedly.

A DevOps engineer is the person who designs and maintains the systems that make this possible.

What a DevOps engineer does day to day

1. Builds CI/CD pipelines

CI/CD stands for continuous integration and continuous delivery (or deployment). In practice, it means that whenever a developer saves changes to the shared code repository, an automated process:

• builds the application,
• runs automated tests,
• checks code quality and security,
• and, if everything passes, deploys it to a test or live environment.

Tools commonly used include GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Azure DevOps and AWS CodePipeline. The result is fewer manual steps, fewer "it worked on my machine" problems and faster, safer releases.

2. Manages cloud infrastructure as code

Instead of clicking through a cloud console to create servers and databases, DevOps engineers describe infrastructure in configuration files using tools such as Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, Azure Bicep or Ansible. This "infrastructure as code" approach means environments can be recreated exactly, reviewed like software and rolled back if needed.

3. Works with containers

Containers (most commonly Docker) package an application with everything it needs to run, so it behaves the same on a laptop, a test server and production. For larger systems, orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes manage many containers across many machines, handling scaling and recovery automatically.

4. Sets up monitoring, logging and alerts

A DevOps engineer makes sure the team knows when something is wrong, ideally before customers notice. This includes dashboards for performance, centralised logs and alerts for errors, slow responses or unusual resource use. Common tools include Prometheus, Grafana, the ELK stack and cloud-native monitoring services.

5. Improves reliability and security

Typical tasks include automated backups and restore tests, zero-downtime deployment strategies, managing secrets (passwords and API keys) safely, applying security updates and enforcing least-privilege access.

6. Reduces costs

Because they understand both the application and the infrastructure, DevOps engineers are well placed to spot waste: oversized servers, idle environments, unoptimised storage and missing commitment discounts.

Key skills to look for

Nobody is an expert in every tool. Look for strong fundamentals (Linux, networking, scripting, Git) and deep experience with the specific platform and tools you use.

Signs your business needs DevOps help

You may benefit from a DevOps engineer if several of these sound familiar:

• Releases are stressful. Deploying new features involves manual steps, late nights and crossed fingers.
• Only one person knows how to deploy. If they are unavailable, nothing ships.
• Production breaks after updates and nobody is sure what changed.
• Environments are inconsistent. Testing and live servers behave differently.
• You find out about outages from customers.
• Cloud bills keep rising without a clear reason.
• Setting up a new server or environment takes days.

Full-time, freelance or part-time?

Not every business needs a full-time DevOps engineer. Common options:

• Project-based freelancer: sets up CI/CD, infrastructure as code and monitoring, documents everything and hands over. Ideal for small teams.
• Part-time or retainer: a few hours each week or month for maintenance, upgrades and improvements.
• Full-time hire: sensible for larger engineering teams, frequent releases or complex, high-traffic systems.

Many companies start with a freelancer to build the foundations, then decide whether ongoing work justifies a permanent role.

Questions to ask a DevOps candidate

1. "Walk me through a CI/CD pipeline you built. What did it automate, and what problems did it solve?"
2. "How do you manage secrets such as database passwords and API keys?"
3. "Describe an outage you handled. How did you find the cause and prevent it happening again?"
4. "How would you reduce our cloud costs without hurting reliability?"
5. "What documentation would you leave behind when the project ends?"

Good candidates answer with concrete examples, mention trade-offs and talk about making the team independent rather than dependent on them.

What to prepare before hiring

• Access to your code repository and current deployment process (even if it is manual).
• A list of environments (development, testing, production) and where they run.
• Your biggest pain points, in order of priority.
• A clear owner on your side who can make decisions.

Learning DevOps yourself

If you are a developer or system administrator wanting to move into DevOps, learning from someone who does the work daily can accelerate your progress. Practical, project-based guidance — building a real pipeline, containerising a real application — tends to stick far better than theory alone. On Dreqto, many cloud and DevOps professionals also offer tutoring; look for profiles marked "Teaches".

Finding a DevOps engineer on Dreqto

Browse cloud and DevOps professionals on Dreqto by skill (Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, AWS, Azure and more), experience and availability. Explore profiles before signing up, then send a connection request describing your project. Contact details are shared only after the professional accepts.

Frequently asked questions

Is DevOps a job title or a way of working?

Both. DevOps began as a set of practices and a culture of collaboration between development and operations. Many organisations also use "DevOps engineer" as a job title for the person who builds and maintains the automation, infrastructure and tooling that make those practices work.

How long does it take to set up a basic CI/CD pipeline?

For a typical web application with an existing code repository, a basic pipeline that builds, tests and deploys can often be set up in days rather than weeks. More complex systems with multiple environments, approvals and infrastructure as code take longer. A good engineer will propose a phased plan.

Do small teams really need DevOps?

Small teams often benefit most, because automation replaces work that would otherwise fall on already busy developers. Even a simple pipeline, automated backups and basic monitoring can remove most deployment stress.

Summary

A DevOps engineer automates how your software is built, tested, released and monitored, making releases faster and systems more reliable. If deployments are painful, outages surprise you or cloud costs are unclear, bringing in DevOps expertise, even for a short project, can transform how your team works.