Day 24 – DevOps Career Roadmap: Skills, Certifications & Salaries

The demand for DevOps engineers has skyrocketed in recent years as organizations embrace cloud-native technologies, automation, and continuous delivery practices. For aspiring professionals, understanding the skills, certifications, and career growth trajectory is crucial to succeed in this field.

At CuriosityTech.in, we provide a comprehensive DevOps career roadmap, guiding learners from foundational knowledge to advanced expertise, including certifications, practical skills, and industry-relevant insights.

1. Core Skills Required for DevOps Engineers

Skill Category	Tools & Technologies	Proficiency Level
Version Control & Collaboration	Git, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket	Beginner → Advanced
CI/CD & Automation	Jenkins, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, CircleCI	Intermediate → Advanced
Configuration Management	Ansible, Chef, Puppet, Terraform	Intermediate → Expert
Containerization & Orchestration	Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift	Intermediate → Expert
Cloud Platforms	AWS, Azure, GCP	Beginner → Advanced
Monitoring & Logging	Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, New Relic	Intermediate → Advanced
Security & DevSecOps	Vault, AWS KMS, Snyk, Aqua Security	Beginner → Intermediate
Scripting & Programming	Bash, Python, Go	Beginner → Advanced

At CuriosityTech.in, learners get hands-on experience with all these skills through structured projects, labs, and real-world scenarios.

2. DevOps Career Roadmap Diagram

        ┌──────────────────────┐

         │   Beginner Level     │

         │ Git, Linux, Scripting│

         └─────────┬───────────┘

                   │

         ┌─────────┴───────────┐

         │ Intermediate Level   │

         │ CI/CD, Docker, Cloud │

         └─────────┬───────────┘

                   │

         ┌─────────┴───────────┐

         │ Advanced Level       │

         │ Kubernetes, IaC,     │

         │ DevSecOps, Monitoring│

         └─────────┬───────────┘

                   │

         ┌─────────┴───────────┐

         │ Expert / Leadership  │

         │ Cloud Architect, SRE,│

         │ DevOps Lead          │

         └─────────────────────┘

 

Description: The roadmap shows a progressive career path starting from foundational skills, moving to intermediate cloud and automation tools, then mastering advanced orchestration, security, and monitoring, and finally reaching leadership or architect roles.

3. Recommended Certifications

Certification	Provider	Level	Benefits
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer	AWS	Intermediate → Advanced	Cloud deployment, CI/CD, and automation expertise
Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)	CNCF	Intermediate → Advanced	Orchestration and container management expertise
HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate	HashiCorp	Beginner → Intermediate	Infrastructure as Code mastery
Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer Expert	Microsoft	Intermediate → Advanced	Azure CI/CD and automation expertise
Google Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer	GCP	Intermediate → Advanced	Cloud-native DevOps workflows and reliability
Certified Jenkins Engineer (CJE)	Jenkins	Beginner → Intermediate	CI/CD pipeline implementation expertise
DevOps Foundation & Practitioner	DevOps Institute	Beginner → Intermediate	Foundational principles and advanced DevOps practices

CuriosityTech.in integrates certification guidance into hands-on labs, helping learners pass exams and apply knowledge in real-world projects.

4. Typical DevOps Roles & Salaries (2025 Insights)

Role	Average Salary (India)	Responsibilities
DevOps Engineer (Entry-Level)	₹5–8 LPA	CI/CD, build automation, basic cloud deployments
Cloud DevOps Engineer	₹8–12 LPA	Multi-cloud deployment, IaC, container orchestration
SRE (Site Reliability Engineer)	₹12–18 LPA	Monitoring, SLAs/SLOs, incident management
Senior DevOps Engineer	₹15–25 LPA	Designing pipelines, automation frameworks, mentoring juniors
DevOps Architect / Lead	₹20–35 LPA	Strategic planning, multi-cloud architecture, CI/CD strategy, team leadership

Salaries vary based on experience, location, cloud expertise, and leadership responsibilities.

5. Roadmap to Becoming a DevOps Expert

Step 1: Build Foundation

●      Learn Linux, scripting, Git, and basic cloud concepts.

Step 2: Master CI/CD & Automation

●      Hands-on with Jenkins, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD.

●      Automate build, test, and deployment pipelines.

Step 3: Containerization & Orchestration

●      Learn Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift.

●      Deploy microservices and manage scaling.

Step 4: Infrastructure as Code

●      Terraform, Ansible, or Pulumi to automate provisioning.

Step 5: Monitoring & Security

●      Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack for observability.

●      Vault, AWS KMS, Snyk for secrets and security compliance.

Step 6: Advanced & Leadership

●      Cloud architecture design, multi-cloud management.

●      Become DevOps Lead, Architect, or SRE Specialist.

At CuriosityTech.in, learners follow a structured roadmap combining hands-on labs, real projects, and certification preparation, ensuring career readiness.

6. Emerging Opportunities in 2025

1.    AI-Driven DevOps (AIOps): Integrating AI/ML for predictive operations and incident resolution.

2.    Serverless DevOps: CI/CD for serverless architectures with automated scaling.

3.    GitOps Adoption: Declarative CI/CD pipelines driven entirely by Git.

4.    DevSecOps: Security-first DevOps with automated compliance.

5.    Cloud-Native Microservices: Multi-cloud orchestration and container management at scale.

Professionals combining automation, cloud expertise, security, and observability will lead the next wave of DevOps innovation.

Conclusion

A successful DevOps career requires a combination of foundational skills, hands-on expertise, certifications, and continuous learning.

At CuriosityTech.in, learners follow a structured DevOps roadmap, mastering CI/CD, containerization, cloud platforms, security, and monitoring, and are guided through certifications, real-world projects, and career planning. By following this roadmap, aspirants can achieve competitive salaries and excel in enterprise-level DevOps roles.