We avoid distinguishing too much between the Junior DevOps Support Engineer and DevOps Support Engineer roles. These roles are primarily focused on learning with the aim to grow into the contribution of a Senior DevOps Support Engineer and beyond. The primary indicator inside these levels is how far you are along your journey from dependent contribution to independent contribution.
I am a valuable and enthusiastic member of the Octopus Support team. I show great potential and have a high growth trajectory toward independent contribution.
- I recognise that Octopus (and surrounding technologies) is a complex area and I don't know everything about it. I reach out for help in a timely and effective way when I need it.
- I write well crafted, succinct and informative support responses with minimal coaching.
- I am gaining a good understanding of my area of expertise.
- I am learning to anticipate my customer's needs, including how to ask leading questions to help the customer to the solution.
- I am learning to write clear, well researched issues that assist provide the Engineering team with clear customer impact and assist in root cause analysis.
- I am becoming proficient with my tools and the core building blocks used by our team.
- I am learning to prioritise my workload.
- I am learning to recognise when I need help, and how to do this in an effective and timely manner.
- I am a self-managing team member, I make and keep my commitments using the privilege of flexibility wisely.
- I am constantly learning, through a variety of ways like reading books, reading code, configuring test environments, watching online courses, attending conferences or user group meetings.
- I am discussing the things I'm learning about or experimenting on with my teammates, maybe even collaborating on the experience.
- I take my individual growth seriously and realise it is valuable to both myself and to Octopus.
- I recognise I am my career owner. I reach out to my peers and my manager to develop my personal growth plan.
- Other team members genuinely want to work alongside me.
- I happily take responsibility for what I produce.
- I avoid going dark and I know when to call out for help.
- I communicate professionally and keep stake holders engaged at all times.
- I am well aware of all processes of the team and diligently follow them (like maintaining accurate documentation, timely customer updates, and so on).
- Even when I disagree with something I continue to work enthusiastically, learning from the others in the team.
- Every venture has mundane tasks, and I work happily and diligently through them.
- I go out of my way to develop a friendly and professional rapport with my customers and their team members.
- My contributions to team discussions are net-positive, informative, and helpful.
The Senior DevOps Support Engineer role builds upon the foundation of the DevOps Support Engineer role.
I am a confident, secure member of the Octopus support team with a proven record of excellent customer support.
- I am proficient with my tools and the core building blocks used by our team.
- I have a good understanding of my area of speciality within Octopus, and can confidently answer support questions in this area.
- I confidently anticipate my customer's needs. I am effective at asking leading questions to help lead the customer to the solution.
- I can confidently step outside my comfort zone and adapt quickly to unfamiliar areas of Octopus.
- I write clear, well researched issues that assist the Engineering team with clear customer impact and assist in root cause analysis.
- I know how to make pragmatic decisions in order to provide the best outcomes for our customers.
- I am excellent at prioritising my workload.
- I am quick to recognise when I need help, and I know how to do this in an effective and timely manner.
- People tend to ask me for my opinion when making support decisions because I have a proven track record of making wise choices.
- I am fuelling the team's desire to learn, perhaps by mentoring, running brown-bag sessions, sharing useful videos/blogs/papers.
- I can manage difficult conversations and tactfully challenge others, leaving them with a positive impression of myself and Octopus.
- I can effectively coach people and pass on my knowledge.
- I am a confident and proficient teacher of my craft.
- I add value to my team by being a trusted, proactive supporter of my team and its leadership, and by delivering high quality work with a minimum of fuss.
- I seek to understand the real needs of my customers, and I am comfortable selecting the best approach to best serve those needs (including saying no).
- I recognise problems early and get in and fix them regardless of whose fault it is.
- I am good at recognising problems outside the scope of my work and eagerly get involved in improving our product, our environment, and our processes.
- I happily tackle all problems regardless of difficulty.
- Every venture has mundane tasks, but I'm the one that can be trusted to get them done and get them done right, usually with a handful of ingenuity.
- I recognize and accept that change is constant, and my approach allows me to tactfully challenge, or confidently adapt, depending on which I deem appropriate.
- I possess writing skills that let me be clear, concise, articulate, and persuasive in all of my outgoing communications.
- I am devoted to learning; it's become a natural part of my life.
- I am actively introspective and take time to work on my personal and professional development.
- I happily take responsibility for my own mistakes and I learn from the mistakes of others.
The Lead DevOps Support Engineer role builds upon the foundation of the Senior DevOps Support Engineer and DevOps Support Engineer roles.
I am a technical leader, a person that is recognised both within the Support team and as part of the wider Octopus community for the breadth and depth of your technical ability.
- I have mastered my tools and the core building blocks used by our team.
- I have a deep technical understanding of my area of speciality, and I can confidently use this knowledge to assist customers and fellow support team members in all areas of Octopus.
- I know when it makes sense to push back against a customer, and when it is appropriate to not create an issue.
- I know how to mentor a customer to the best path, and I understand that the customer's stated issue and the actual issue might not be the same thing.
- I have a good understanding of CI/CD pipelines and how they are implemented by our customers.
- I am trusted across Octopus Deploy and have established good working relationships across the organization, and I co-ordinate our response to complicated support issues by pulling in the right people and teams at the right time.
- I actively research and implement technical solutions to improve our response times.
- I confidently, accurately, and quickly replicate complex deployment scenarios to assist with issue replication and resolution.
- I know when to directly assist with a ticket, and when to encourage others to learn more.
- I encourage others to find creative solutions to problems and accept that my way isn't the only way.
- I am always on the lookout for opportunities to teach and show others alternate, cleaner ways to delight our customers in an ego-less manner.
- I am working to improve our processes, making it easier for everyone in our team to grow and learn.
The Principal DevOps Support Engineer role builds upon the foundation of the Lead DevOps Support Engineer role.
I am an expert in the DevOps space, a person that is recognised both within Octopus and as part of the wider DevOps community for the breadth and depth of your technical ability.
- I have mastered the tools and concepts involved in DevOps and can apply them in production scenarios.
- I have a deep technical understanding of the DevOps space, and I can confidently use this knowledge to assist customers and fellow support team members in all areas of Octopus and related technologies.
- I know how to mentor a customer to the best path, and I understand that the customer's stated issue and the actual issue might not be the same thing.
- I have a deep understanding of CI/CD pipelines, the overall DevOps landscape and how they are implemented by our customers.
- I know the why, along with the how.
- I confidently, accurately, and quickly replicate complex deployment scenarios to assist with issue replication and resolution.
- I don't know everything, however I can confidently navigate to the answer using my existing knowledge while leading my team mates to the solution with me.
- I am constantly learning new technologies and methodologies that relate to Octopus.
- I work with teams outside of Support to further enhance my knowledge.
- I happily take responsibility for my own mistakes and I learn from the mistakes of others.
- I share the lessons I learn so the entire team and Octopus can benefit.
I take responsibility for 6-10 people in the DevOps Support team and the results they ultimately deliver. A DevOps Support Manager encompasses all of the qualities listed in Leadership and is a full-time role.
- I take responsibility for the people in my team, the way they work, and the results they deliver.
- I empower my team to get things done and I drive results collaboratively.
- I recognise dysfunction in my team and work effectively to resolve it in a timely manner.
- I clarify the goals, roles, and execution plans for my team.
- I help my team understand our strategy and how they are contributing to the big picture.
- I proactively coach people, accelerating them along their personal growth trajectory.
- I give radically candid feedback which is timely, actionable, and helpful.
- The feedback I give in performance reviews is rarely a surprise because it summarises the timely, actionable, and helpful feedback my teammate has been receiving.
- I am a positive contributor to how we approach people and culture in the DevOps Support team, including hiring, performance reviews, culture fit, salary reviews, and how we pay.
The Senior DevOps Support Manager encompasses everything in the Support manager role, with added confidence and ability to execute. Rather than re-writing the same PD, I have extracted two examples below to highlight the differing expectations between the roles.
- I proactively recognise dysfunction in my team and work effectively to resolve it in a timely manner.
- I help form team strategy with the VP of Support, actively working to execute on wider company goals.