What a DevOps Engineer actually does
You run CI/CD (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, ArgoCD), write Terraform / Pulumi, manage Kubernetes clusters, configure observability (Datadog, Grafana, Prometheus), enforce security policies, and respond to production incidents.
Why DevOps Engineer matters in India right now
DevOps demand is universal across India: every services firm and every product company. Many product companies have renamed the title to Platform Engineer or SRE — the underlying job is the same.
Core competencies hiring panels expect
Kubernetes (deep), Docker, Terraform, one cloud at production scale, Linux, networking, CI/CD pipeline design, Python or Go for automation, and at least one observability stack.
Skill hubs to study before applying:
How seniority pays in 2026
Junior DevOps earns ₹6–12 LPA. Mid-level (3–6 yrs) earns ₹16–32 LPA. Senior DevOps / Platform engineers clear ₹35–65 LPA, with staff offers at FAANG-tier crossing ₹95 LPA.
Common reasons candidates self-eliminate
Treating DevOps as YAML editing. Strong candidates can debug a Pod stuck in CrashLoopBackOff, read a TCP dump, and explain why their last incident happened — with numbers.
Common questions
- DevOps or SRE in India — which pays more?
- SRE at product companies pays a 10–20% premium over DevOps at services firms in the same band. SRE roles are scarcer and harder to break into without prior production-systems experience.