More and more is being asked of today's DevOps engineer. Mastering automation DevSecOpscontainers, IaC, multi-cloud environments and now... AI! From AIOps to NoOps, how is the profession changing? What hard and soft skills will we need in 2025? What certifications should we adopt? How can we reconcile on-call duty, complexity and the rapid development of tools? And, last but not least, what will it pay? Discover our job description!
At the crossroads of software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops)DevOps engineers are revolutionising the way companies deliver digital solutions.
Armed with automation tools, the agile methodologies and cloud expertise, it feliquifies the application lifecycle to guarantee speed, reliability and scalability. Its objective: to transform the silos between teams into a continuous value chain, from design to deployment.
DevOps engineer, a recent profession
The DevOps movement emerged at the end of the 2000s in response to the limitations encountered by traditional methods known as "DevOps". cascading ".
Faced with slow deployment times and organisational silos between teams, DevOps has gradually emerged as a necessary response to the need to improve the quality of service. digital transformation fast.
Initially adopted by web giants such as Amazon and Netflix, it has spread to all economic sectors, in particular to major French companies such as Orange, Société Générale and Doctolib.
According to a study by Syntec Numérique in 2023, 72 % of French companies will be using DevOps to maintain their competitiveness and respond to accelerating innovation cycles.
The pioneers and successes of DevOps
Netflix is one of the world's leading DevOps pioneers. With its use of Chaos Monkey, Netflix automatically tests the resistance of its systems to breakdowns in productionguaranteeing exceptional availability of 99.99 %. This concept, known aschaos engineeringis now widely used in industry.
In France, BlaBlaCar has adopted Kubernetes and Terraform to scale its cloud infrastructure on AWS, enabling it to support growth of up to 100 million users.
Similarly, Doctolib has deployed CI/CD pipelines with GitLab and Jenkins, reducing its deployment times by 70 % and speeding up critical updates to its medical platform.
La Banque Postale, for its part, has made the transition to a hybrid cloud combining Azure and OpenStack with Ansible, improving security while meeting the requirements of the RGPD.
Tasks of the DevOps engineer
DevOps engineers play a crucial role in optimising software development and deployment cycles. They design and implement CI/CD pipelines (continuous integration and deployment) For automate code deliveryensuring speed and quality.
The use of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), via tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation, enables the DevOps engineer to guarantee the reproducibility and scalability of technical environments. They are also responsible for the constant monitoring of applications and infrastructures, using platforms such as Prometheus, Grafana or Datadog, making it easier to prevent incidents and reduce downtime.
In addition, the safety dimension, known as DevSecOpsis now an integral part of its remit. It systematically integrates automated safety checks into development pipelines via tools such as SonarQube or Checkmarx. Cost optimisation on cloud platforms, in particular AWS, Azure or Google Cloudis also an important strategic area, guaranteeing greater financial control over digital resources.
Training and key skills
To become a DevOps engineer, we recommend that you higher education (bac +5) in ITThese include recognised engineering schools such as EPITA and Télécom Paris, as well as masters degrees specialising in cloud computing and the cyber security.
L'obtaining professional certifications such as AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), Terraform Associate or Azure DevOps Engineer, is a real career accelerator.
Technical skills
DevOps engineers need to master a wide range of technical tools and methodologies to meet the growing demands of modern businesses. These skills include proficiency in continuous integration and deployment tools (CI/CD)These include Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions and CircleCI, enabling new features to be delivered quickly and reliably.
Containerisation is also an essential skill. DevOps engineers use tools such as Docker and Kubernetes to isolate applications and simplify their large-scale deployment, facilitating greater portability and optimised management of IT resources.
Docker is used extensively to create lightweight, portable containers, combined with Kubernetes for automated orchestration of large-scale applications. This expertise enables modern applications to be managed more efficiently and flexibly.
The cloud is another essential pillar of their technical knowledge. DevOps engineers work mainly on the main cloud platforms, such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud Platform, making full use of their services to guarantee agility, scalability and reduced infrastructure costs.
What's more, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is an essential skill for managing IT environments. Using tools such as Terraform, Ansible and Puppet, DevOps engineers create reproducible, automated and secure infrastructures that facilitate large-scale deployments while reducing operational risks.
DevOps engineers must also master monitoring and observability practices. They use advanced tools such as Prometheus, Grafana or New Relic to monitor application performance, quickly detect anomalies and facilitate proactive intervention in the event of an incident, while ensuring an optimal user experience.
Security, integrated directly into DevOps processes under the name of DevSecOpsThis involves mastering tools such as Vault, Aqua Security and SonarQube to detect vulnerabilities from the earliest stages of the development cycle. This helps to prevent security breaches and comply with regulatory standards (RGPD).
Finally, DevOps engineers must have solid scripting and programming skills, particularly in Python, Bash or PowerShell. These languages enable them to create robust, customised scripts that make it easier to automate repetitive tasks, thereby boosting operational efficiency and limiting human error.
These technical skills necessarily go hand in hand with constant curiosity and an active technology watch, enabling DevOps engineers to keep abreast of the latest trends such as GitOps, AIOps and MLOps. These new practices encourage ever greater automation, enhanced collaboration and rapid deployment of innovative applications that meet the new digital challenges facing businesses.
To sum up
- CI/CD tools Jenkins, GitLab CI, CircleCI, GitHub Actions
- Containerisation Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift
- IaC Terraform, Ansible, Puppet
- Cloud AWS (40 % market share in France), Azure, Google Cloud Platform
- Monitoring Prometheus, Grafana, New Relic
- Security : Vault, Trivy, Aqua Security
- Scripting Python, Bash, PowerShell
Soft skills
- Collaboration team spirit to break down the silos between devs and ops
- Technological curiosity : constant monitoring of new developments (AIOps, GitOps)
- Stress management : ability to respond to critical incidents (possible on-call duty)
In terms of interpersonal skills, a DevOps engineer needs to have an excellent collaborative spirit to facilitate exchanges between development and operations teams. Constant curiosity about new technologies and a strong ability to adapt to rapid changes in the sector are particularly sought-after qualities.
Salary in France (2024)
- Beginner (0-2 years) 40,000 to €50,000 gross per annum
- Advanced (3-5 years) 50,000 to €70,000 gross
- Senior/Lead (5 years and over) 70,000 to €100,000+, depending on responsibilities (plus bonuses in the finance or healthcare sectors)
Career paths for DevOps engineers
- DevOps architect : designing complex cloud architectures
- SRE engineer (Site Reliability Engineering) guaranteeing the reliability of large-scale systems
- Cloud security specialist : expertise in infrastructure security
- ISD : IT department, innovation strategy
Why choose this profession?
✅ Direct impact Visible contribution to operational efficiency.
✅ Exponential demand 30 % of job offers up in 2024 (France Travail)
✅ Attractive salary and benefits (teleworking, funded certifications)
⚠️ Challenges
- Mental workload due to on-call duty
- Complexity of multi-cloud environments
- The need for ongoing training
Conclusion
Choosing a career as a DevOps engineer means opting for a meaningful career that has a direct impact on business performance and agility. With demand expected to grow by 30 % by 2024, DevOps offers job security, competitive pay and significant career development opportunities.
However, the job also presents certain challenges: a high mental workload due to on-call duty, the increased complexity of multi-cloud systems and the need for constant technological monitoring.
In conclusion, the DevOps engineer now represents the backbone of the modern digital enterprise, combining technical expertise, cross-functional vision and a culture of innovation to enable organisations to perform.
