Devop Engineer

A DevOps engineer builds and maintains the systems that let software developers get their code tested, released and running reliably on servers (usually cloud servers). The job sits between writing software and running infrastructure: you automate the build-and-release process, set up monitoring so problems get spotted early, and manage the cloud environments that applications live in. You work mainly for in-house development teams, whether at a software company, a bank, a retailer or a public sector body.

Starting salary: £28k–£40k
Live graduate jobs: Search all jobs
Main way in: Technology or software engineering graduate schemes at large…
They usually ask for: A degree in computer science, software engineering, or a…

Approximate graduate salary

Typically somewhere around £28,000–£40,000 to start, though this varies widely - London and large financial or tech employers sit at the upper end and beyond, while regional employers, smaller firms and public sector roles tend to sit lower. Pay in this field tends to rise quickly once you have two or three years of commercial experience, and on-call allowances can add to the total.

What you'd actually do

Writing and fixing CI/CD pipelines - the automated sequence that takes code a developer has written, runs tests on it, packages it up and deploys it to a live environment. Much of the week is spent tweaking these when they break or slow down.
Writing infrastructure as code: defining servers, databases, networks and permissions in configuration files (commonly using Terraform or cloud-native equivalents) so environments can be rebuilt identically rather than clicked together by hand.
Working with containers - packaging applications so they run the same way everywhere - and the orchestration tools that schedule them, most often Kubernetes. Graduates often start by reading and adjusting existing configuration rather than designing it.
Responding to alerts and investigating incidents: something is slow or down, and you dig through logs, dashboards and metrics to work out whether it's the application, the infrastructure, a dependency or a recent deployment.

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Scripting repetitive tasks away, usually in Python, Bash or Go - things like rotating credentials, cleaning up unused cloud resources, or generating reports on spend.
Sitting with developers to unblock them: helping someone work out why their build fails, why a service can't reach a database, or how to add a new environment variable safely.
Reviewing other people's configuration changes and raising pull requests for your own - infrastructure changes go through code review in most teams, the same as application code.

How graduates get in

Technology or software engineering graduate schemes at large employers - banks, telecoms, retailers, consultancies and government digital teams. Many don't advertise a 'DevOps' stream specifically; you join as a general software or infrastructure graduate and rotate or specialise into platform/DevOps work after a year or so. This is the most common structured route.
Direct entry as a junior DevOps, platform or cloud engineer at a smaller company or scale-up. Less common for a complete beginner, because teams often want someone who has already done some development or sysadmin work, but it happens - particularly if you can show personal projects.
Starting in an adjacent role and moving sideways: IT support, network operations, QA/test automation or junior software developer. Moving across after one to three years is a very well-trodden path, arguably the most common route of all.
Degree apprenticeships in digital and technology solutions, which some people complete instead of a traditional degree and which can lead straight into platform work.

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Internships or placement years (the 'sandwich' year on a four-year degree) in an engineering team - a strong placement often converts into a graduate offer and gives you the hands-on exposure that pure classroom learning doesn't.
Conversion routes for non-computing graduates: an MSc in computer science, or a coding bootcamp plus serious self-taught cloud work. Possible, but you will usually need visible evidence - a cloud certification, a GitHub account with real infrastructure code - to be taken seriously.

What employers ask for

A degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related technical subject is the most common background, but the subject matters less than demonstrable skill. Maths, physics, engineering and self-taught career-changers are all well represented.
A 2:1 is the typical bar for large graduate schemes, and some ask for 2:2. Smaller employers often ignore classification entirely and judge on a technical test or a conversation about what you've actually built.
Some programming ability - usually Python or another scripting language. You are not expected to be a full application developer, but 'I can't code at all' will close most doors.
Familiarity with Linux command line and with Git version control. These are assumed rather than taught at most employers.

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Cloud certifications (AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud associate-level) are not required but are a genuinely useful signal for graduates with no commercial experience, and some employers will fund them once you're in.
Evidence of hands-on work matters more here than in many graduate roles - a home lab, a deployed side project, contributions to open source, or a dissertation involving real infrastructure. Where employers differ: graduate schemes lean on aptitude tests and assessment centres, while smaller firms lean on practical exercises.

Skills that matter

Linux fundamentals

Almost all server infrastructure runs on Linux, so diagnosing problems means being comfortable with processes, permissions, networking and logs from a terminal.

Scripting and automation in Python or Bash

The core of the job is replacing manual, repeated steps with code that does them reliably every time.

Systematic debugging under pressure

When a service is down you need to narrow the cause down methodically rather than changing things at random, often while people are waiting on you.

Understanding of networking basics - DNS, HTTP, TLS, firewalls, load balancers

A huge share of 'the application is broken' turns out to be something not being able to reach something else, and you can't fix that without knowing how traffic flows.

Reading and writing clear documentation

Runbooks (step-by-step guides for handling known problems) and architecture notes are what stop you being the single person who understands a system.

Explaining technical constraints to non-specialists

You frequently have to tell a product manager or a developer why something can't ship today, or what a change will cost in cloud spend, in terms they can act on.

Putting these on a CV? We counted which skills 12,914 live graduate adverts ask for, and what to do with the answer — part of our application advice.

Where it leads

Graduate or junior DevOps/platform engineer: a year or two mostly supervised, working on existing pipelines and infrastructure, often with a mentor and a defined on-call shadowing period before you take real on-call shifts.
Mid-level DevOps, platform or site reliability engineer: you own services end to end, design parts of the infrastructure and are trusted on-call. This is where the biggest pay jump usually happens, though timing varies a lot between employers.
Senior engineer, then either a specialism (cloud architecture, security/DevSecOps, Kubernetes platform work, site reliability engineering) or a lead role setting technical direction across several teams.
A fork in the road: staying technical as a principal or staff engineer and architect, or moving into management as an engineering or platform manager. Both are normal destinations and neither is a promotion over the other.
Alternative routes out: consultancy and contracting (common in this field and often well paid, though less secure), cloud pre-sales or solutions architecture, or security engineering. Timelines across all of this vary widely - there is no fixed ladder as there is in, say, law or accountancy.

What people get wrong

“DevOps is a job title for people who look after servers - essentially modern IT support.”

DevOps started as a way of working, not a role: the idea that the people who build software and the people who run it should be one team. In practice most DevOps engineers spend more time writing code - configuration, pipelines, automation scripts - than logging into servers, and many teams have moved to calling it 'platform engineering' for this reason.

“You need to be a brilliant programmer to get in.”

You need to be a competent, practical one. Depth in algorithms matters far less than being able to write clear, maintainable scripts and read other people's code. Curiosity about how systems fit together is the stronger predictor.

“Modern cloud tooling means you don't need to understand the underlying machines.”

The abstractions leak constantly. When a container keeps restarting or a deployment stalls, the fix usually requires knowing what's happening at the operating system, network or storage level underneath.

“It's a purely technical job where you can keep your head down.”

You are a service provider to developers across the organisation, and a lot of the role is negotiation, prioritisation and persuading teams to adopt better practices. The engineers who progress fastest are usually the ones who can influence other teams.

Where this varies

The title covers quite different jobs. At a small company you may be the only person doing it, touching everything from the cloud bill to the CI pipeline to security patching. At a large bank or enterprise, the work is narrower and more governed - change approval processes, regulated environments, and often a mix of legacy on-premises servers alongside cloud. Consultancies deploy you onto client sites, so you switch tech stacks every few months. Some employers use 'DevOps engineer', others 'platform engineer', 'site reliability engineer' or 'cloud engineer' for broadly overlapping work, and the differences between those titles are not consistent across the market - read the advert rather than the title. On-call expectations also vary sharply: some teams have formal rotas with extra pay, others have none at all, and it is worth asking at interview.

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General guidance about the role across the UK market, not about any specific employer. Entry routes and requirements vary — always check the individual job advert.