As VP DevOps, you should have at least 2 years experience working in this position and at least 5 years working as a Senior DevOps engineer. You should have a proven track record working with cloud infrastructure as well as CI/CD in a team environment. Ideally, you will have a scripting and coding background as you will be working closely together with product development teams to support them in product building, deployment, and maintaining product infrastructure.
You will leverage your experience and managerial skills to organize and optimize your DevOps team and guide them to work on improving, optimizing, and delivering the overall organizational IT strategy.
As VP DevOps you will work closely with the Lead DevOps Engineer to oversee team formation and organization, knowledge building and sharing, regular status reporting, tutoring and guiding the team members and junior members to ensure a harmonious team environment.
As a fast-growing venture builder company, we offer the experience to work on a variety of different products, technologies, and challenges that must be met and managed. This means having an appetite for continuous learning and improving your skills and knowledge. It is important that you have an analytical mindset and can perform well under pressure as will be the case from time to time.
Reports to: CTO
Member of: Technical Board, Middle Management
Attributes:
- Analytical mindset
- Problem solver
- Self-driven
- Teamplayer
- Good communicator
- Product oriented mindset
- Good business acumen
- Be an opportunistic intrapreneur
- Experience working with cross-functional teams and understand their workflow
Responsibilities:
- Manage DevOps
- Manage cross functional teams and communication
- Contribute and optimise internal processes and procedures
- Assist product delivery is on time and in line with the product vision
- Nurture (mentor) and develop DevOps engineers
- Hands on when needed
- Assist HR in the recruitment process
- Contribute to and optimise the company’s technical strategy
- Resource Planning
- Keeping abreast of technological developments and risks
Required Knowledge:
- Infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM templates or similar)
- Advanced Linux administration (Networking, Security, ACLs, Nginx, Systemd, Backup strategies, Resource monitoring)
- Experience with AWS
- Docker orchestration with production experience
- Basic Windows administration
- Automation of tasks
- Experience with version control systems such as Git
- Security Hardening
- Cost Optimization
- Experience with setup for scalability and durability
- Linux low-level system administration
- Scripting (bash, python, ruby)
- Coding (.NET, GO, PHP)
- Ansible
- ETL pipelines
- Advanced Windows administration
Technologies and Applications
Some of the technologies, applications, and services that our DevOps team works with include: Linux, Windows, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, Hasura, NGINX, CloudFlare, AWS, JIRA, Composer, Gitlab, Prometheus, Grafana, Jenkins, Consul, Docker, Ansible, ELK, Graylog, Slack, Auth0, Sentry, Terraform
Responsibilities:
One of the primary responsibilities of the VP DevOps is to oversee and manage the DevOps team. This includes but is not limited to:
- ensure that onboarding of new DevOps engineers follow the rules of the EPTI Playbook
- coaching and mentoring DevOps engineers in their role
- assist in the setup of new projects
- be aware of project and sprint planning to plan ahead
- ensure the use of best practices
- infrastructure decisions
- ensure each member is occupied with meaningful work
- ensure technical expertise is at hand for every aspect
- Manage cross functional teams and communication
As a VP DevOps you will oversee and manage the communication and collaboration between cross functional teams, ensuring and encouraging good communication between the different team members. The objective of this is to minimize misinterpretations and understandings, reduce stress, tension and unnecessary emotional or personal attitude.
- Contribute and optimise internal processes and procedures
At EPTI we strive to be dynamic and ensure we grow with the demands and requirements both internally as well as externally. This means that none of the processes and workflows documented in the EPTI Playbook are written in stone. As a VPE you are required to observe the execution of processes and workflows, keep up-to-date with best practices and new emerging managerial practices. You are expected to be a good observer and provide constructive feedback on what works and what doesn’t and how to possibly improve processes and workflows at regular technical board meetings.
- Assist product delivery that it is on time and in line with the product vision
As VP DevOps you are expected to understand and facilitate communication between product stakeholders/business lead, tech lead and DevOps by understanding the product vision and values. Clear guidelines and decisions should be the result. Any high risk or critical technical challenges should be raised to the Technical Board level where appropriate so that they can be addressed and resolved efficiently.
Assisting in product delivery also means ensuring that stakeholders and business leads understand the impact of any requirements or change to requirements and if necessary reject any new requirements to ensure product delivery. In cases where requirements are determined to be business critical this should be raised to the level of the COO with possible options on how to achieve the goals so that an agreement can be reached on how to proceed.
- Nurture (mentor) and develop DevOps engineers
As a VPE you are expected to assess and understand the level of standard each DevOps engineer in your hierarchy has and to nurture and develop their skills so that they will continue to progress and improve over time. This entails:
- carry out regular performance reviews as per EPTI guidelines
- set clear goals using OKR (Objectives and Key Results) or other appropriate methodologies
- suggest study and research material according to the skillset of the engineer and ensure they are being challenged
- provide constructive feedback on the work delivered on an ongoing basis
- identify talents for possible promotions to the next level
There are a number of scenarios where a VP DevOps is expected to get hands-on. Those are:
- When solving challenges at Technical Board level
- When mentoring
- When there are technical challenges on projects that require his expertise or efficiency
- When there is a lack of resources on a project to ensure project delivery
- Providing proof of concepts or quick prototypes where applicable
- Assist HR in the recruitment process
HR handles and governs the overall organisation’s recruitment process but relies on the contribution and collaboration of VPE’s to suggest new sources of recruitment as well as review and interview potential candidates when they pass initial tests.
The VP DevOps is also expected to ensure that HR has all the tools, including preliminary tests, to manage the pipeline for technical recruiting. This means the VP DevOps should regularly review tests to ensure they are up to standard, include any technical requirements EPTI has as well as ensure the test is set at the right quality level.
- Contribute to and optimise the company’s technical strategy
As an active member of the technical board the VP DevOps is expected to provide feedback on any technical aspects of the company. This means understanding the current EPTI Playbook procedures and processes, overseeing their implementation and execution as well as gathering feedback on how to improve any of them where applicable.
From time to time operations will initiate resource planning sessions in which people will be assigned to various projects, project roles will be assigned and resources needs identified. As VP DevOps you are expected to participate and contribute to resource planning meetings and suggest best fit for projects and possible resolutions for any conflicts. Ensure every resource has a meaningful placement and provide possible opportunities for resources to transition to different work positions if so desired.
- Keeping abreast of technological developments and risks
It is essential to stay abreast of what is happening in the technological world, in particular where current EPTI projects are concerned. Subscribe to meaningful tech feeds and channels, search for events and courses that provide value.
In addition, be aware of current risk and security issues in the technological world to safeguard the interests of EPTI and its products and projects.
- Be an opportunistic intrapreneur
As VP DevOps you are expected to behave like an intrapreneur, be proactive and when you see opportunity or the need, then raise it to the level of the Technical Board for discussion. This may apply to existing projects and products as well as to new ideas that you may develop.
