40,000+ jobs for DevOps Engineers were listed by Naukri in October 2025. Now tech roles have always required complex skills; learning them requires significant investment, and it does take some time to build your portfolio by adding practical projects.
As we move ahead into 2025, the demand for skilled DevOps professionals is increasing in India and around the globe, creating many opportunities across industries. Organizations are rapidly adopting cloud computing, automation, and AI-powered workflows, and they need professionals who can help them achieve their tasks with ease. From startups to global tech giants, companies are seeking skilled DevOps experts who can enhance productivity, security, and efficiency.
We understand how difficult it is to decide on a path and resources to get started as a student, so here we bring the DevOps engineer roadmap 2025, which will guide you through everything you need to know, from essential skills and tools to promising career paths and salary potentials in this field.
Whether you’re just starting or looking to improve your skills, through this guide, we hope you can gain a clear outline of how you can become a successful DevOps engineer.
What is DevOps?
DevOps basically combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops), and it becomes quite useful by automating tasks and speeding up the whole working process with efficient feedback loops and constant upgradation.
Instead of working in separate teams, the developers and operations engineers work closely throughout the entire lifecycle of an application. This teamwork helps businesses deliver high-quality software at a greater speed while reducing errors and downtime. The benefits of this are faster deployments, easier scalability, and improved system reliability.
If you get deeper into DevOps, you’ll witness a DevOps lifecycle that follows a continuous process that helps with improvement and stability. It includes these stages: plan, code, build, test, release, deploy, monitor, and feedback. This process ensures ongoing improvement throughout the software development journey.
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Why Choose DevOps as a Career in 2025?
A DevOps career in 2025 is one of the smartest moves you can make in tech. The need for DevOps professionals is increasing rapidly in the market. Organizations like SAP, Informatica, Thomson Reuters, HashedIn by Deloitte, and Jio are actively hiring DevOps professionals, and there are numerous specific job postings on Glassdoor for Mumbai, including at companies like ETP Group, Quantanite, and Habilelabs. This increase in demand provides excellent career opportunities and high-paying roles.
According to Glassdoor, in India, entry-level DevOps engineers earn between ₹4L to ₹ 8L per year, whereas an experienced professional can make ₹12L to ₹25L per year.
Knowing DevOps opens the path to various roles and opportunities. You can explore roles such as DevOps Engineer, Cloud Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), or Platform Engineer.
Sounds interesting, right? Rest assured, with continuous learning and a passion for automation, you can surely achieve your career goals.
Here are four of the most in-demand DevOps career paths in 2025:
- DevOps Engineer: Focuses on automation, CI/CD pipelines, and deployment processes.
- Cloud Engineer: Specializes in managing and optimizing cloud environments on platforms like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
- Site Reliability Engineer (SRE): Ensures systems run smoothly, combining development and operations skills to maintain uptime and performance.
- Platform Engineer: Builds internal platforms and tools that help development teams deploy and scale applications efficiently.
With so many paths to explore, DevOps offers long-term career flexibility and growth across multiple industries.
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Future Scope with AI, Cloud-Native, and Automation
The future of DevOps in 2025 and after is predicted to be highly needful and useful for industries. With artificial intelligence (AI), cloud-native technologies, and automation, demand for all tech roles has not altered, but, better yet, has increased significantly. These innovations are changing how software is built, tested, and deployed, making DevOps even more powerful and essential in modern tech environments.
You can also read more about this at Future of DevOps: 2025 and Beyond
All the segments mentioned above mention the essentialities of DevOps, which are important to understand before beginning the learning journey. And now, if you are ready, let’s look into the step-by-step DevOps Roadmap that you can definitely use to begin your journey.
Step-by-Step DevOps Roadmap
Starting your DevOps journey can feel overwhelming at first, but making a plan and following it step-by-step can make it much easier. Whether you’re a beginner or you are planning to switch careers, each step in this roadmap will help you build the foundation that is required to become a DevOps engineer in 2025.
Let’s start from the basics and move toward advanced tools and concepts:
Step 1: Learn a Programming Language
Languages like Python, Go, Java, and Ruby are popularly used
You can start with Python because it has the simplest syntax and is widely used in DevOps automation. You’ll write scripts to automate server tasks, manage deployments, and handle configuration. Python’s massive library ecosystem means you can accomplish complex tasks with just a few lines of code. It’s beginner-friendly yet powerful enough for production systems.
At Scaler, we also provide free resources on various topics, so it is easier for learners to get a stress-free start. Hence, you can click here on [Python tutorial] to access all lectures.
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Step 2: Focus on Operating System & Linux Fundamentals
Understanding Linux is crucial since most servers run on it. Learn how processes work programs running on your system. Understand memory management, how virtual machines isolate environments, and how the file system organizes data. Learn different shells like Bash for scripting. This knowledge will help you deal with server issues and optimize performance.
You can begin your learning with [Linux Tutorial]
Step 3: Start Using Command-Line Interface (CLI)
Command line interface is basically a text-based interface that helps in giving commands in the form of text, and the output as well is received as text. The major use of CLI is that there are various tasks that are complex but are often repetitive, so you can automate those tasks for an easier workflow.
You can read more at: AWS CLI (Command Line Interface) – Scaler Topics
Step 4: Use Version Control & GitHub/GitLab
Version control systems are tools that track changes in your project’s files so you can see what was modified, when, and by whom. They help you manage different versions of your work.
Git is one such tool that makes it easy for multiple people to work together on the same project without overwriting each other’s changes.
These tools help developers practice and deploy various projects to build a credible portfolio.
Step 5: Cloud Computing Essentials
You should start with AWS, as it dominates the market with the most job opportunities.
Learn to launch virtual servers (EC2), store files (S3), manage databases (RDS), and understand networking (VPC).
Cloud platforms eliminate physical infrastructure, letting you scale resources instantly and pay only for what you use.
Step 6: Containerization with Docker
Docker lets you package applications with everything they need into portable containers so they run the same everywhere. You create images (blueprints), run containers (isolated apps), store them in registries, and manage multiple containers with Docker Compose, fixing the “works on my machine” problem.
Learn Docker by practicing simple projects and exploring Docker Hub tutorials or Scaler tutorials to understand how containers work in real setups.
Step 7: CI/CD Pipelines
CI/CD automates testing and deployment. When code is pushed, automated pipelines test it, build it, and deploy it to production without manual intervention. Start with GitHub Actions for simplicity. This reduces human error, speeds up releases, and gives developers faster feedback on their code.
Step 8: Container Orchestration with Kubernetes
Kubernetes is a tool that helps manage and run containerized applications automatically. It organizes containers across multiple computers called clusters, scales them up or down based on usage, restarts any that fail, and balances incoming traffic.
Though it’s a bit complex, it’s the industry standard for running large applications reliably. Start learning Kubernetes after Docker through labs or free online courses.
Step 9: Networking & Security Basics
Understand how data travels across networks. DNS converts domain names to IP addresses, HTTP enables web communication, and TCP/IP forms the internet’s foundation.
Learn about firewalls that block malicious traffic, VPNs for secure connections, and proxies for routing requests. This knowledge is important for troubleshooting and securing systems.
Step 10: Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
IaC treats infrastructure like code. Instead of manually configuring servers, write files describing your infrastructure, and tools like Terraform create it automatically.
This makes infrastructure reproducible, version-controlled, and testable. Changes are tracked, and entire environments can be rebuilt with one command.
Step 11: Serverless Computing (Optional Skill)
Serverless runs code without managing servers. AWS Lambda executes functions in response to events, perfect for scheduled tasks, API backends, or data processing.
Step 12: Monitoring & Observability
Monitoring keeps systems healthy. Prometheus collects metrics, Grafana visualizes them with dashboards, and the ELK stack analyzes logs.
Track CPU usage, memory, error rates, and response times. Application monitoring tracks user experience, while infrastructure monitoring watches server health and detects problems before users complain.
Step 13: Other Advanced Topics to Explore
SRE applies software engineering to operations, focusing on reliability and scalability.
Microservices break large applications into smaller, independent services that can be deployed separately.
DevSecOps integrates security throughout the development process rather than adding it at the end.
These advanced concepts make you more valuable as you grow in your career.
Skills Needed to Become a DevOps Engineer
Technical expertise in coding, automation, cloud technologies, and security is essential. Equally important are soft skills like collaboration, problem-solving, and communication. A mindset prepared towards continuous learning and an emphasis on automation will help you prepare for this competitive field.
DevOps Engineer Career Path and Salary
Entry-Level Positions
Positions like Junior Engineer or Junior DevOps Intern lay foundational experience, introducing you to practical projects and software.
Mid-Level Positions
Job roles such as DevOps Engineer or Site Reliability Engineer entail collaborating with live applications, optimizing automation, and well as system stability.
Senior Positions
Lead DevOps Engineer, Platform Engineer, and DevOps Architect lead strategy, design intricate systems, and lead team members.
Salary Insights
- Freshers: ₹4LPA to ₹ 8LPA
- Mid-Level: ₹12LPA to ₹25LPA
- Senior: $100K+ globally or ₹25+ LPA
DevOps Roadmap for Beginners vs. Experienced Professionals
Beginners should concentrate on baseline foundational skills, following a broad roadmap that covers programming, operating systems, and essential tools. Experienced developers or system administrators can speed up their progress by deepening their knowledge in cloud technologies, containerization, and automation.
Your path to DevOps mastery depends on where you’re starting from.
For Complete Beginners (students, career changers): Learn Linux fundamentals, networking basics, and one programming language (Python or Go). Progress through version control, Docker, and CI/CD pipelines. Expect 12-18 months to become job-ready.
For Experienced Professionals (developers, sysadmins): Leverage existing skills and focus on gaps. Developers: learn infrastructure and automation. Sysadmins: emphasize scripting and cloud platforms. Achieve proficiency in 6-9 months with targeted learning.
How Scaler Can Help You in Your DevOps Journey?
Whether you are a beginner or an experienced individual, Scaler understands how important it is to move up in your career, and growth is essential!
Hence, as we have seen our students grow, we have formulated a structured program just for people who wish to get into DevOps engineering with all the resources and support, including mentorship and guidance.
For more details, check out: Scaler DevOps Course
Conclusion
Focusing on the right skills and tools can help one become ready for exciting career opportunities in DevOps. As it remains one of the most rewarding tech careers in 2025, it combines technical depth with business impact.
The career path is clear: start as a Junior DevOps Engineer, grow into senior and specialized roles, and ultimately reach architect or leadership positions with six-figure earning potential.
Your journey starts with a single command line. Ready to accelerate your DevOps career with expert guidance and industry-level projects?
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FAQs
1. Is DevOps a good career in 2025?
Yes. DevOps remains highly in-demand with excellent salaries and strong job security as organizations embody cloud-native architectures. You can also get insights through Scaler Placement Outcomes.
2. How long does it take to become a DevOps engineer?
Complete beginners need 12-18 months of dedicated learning. Experienced developers or sysadmins can transition in 6-9 months by targeting knowledge gaps strategically.
3. Can I become a DevOps engineer without coding knowledge?
Basic scripting (Python, Bash, Go) is essential for automation. You don’t need advanced development skills, but some coding foundation is necessary for effectiveness.
4. Which cloud provider should I learn first?
Start with AWS (largest market share) or Azure (enterprise-focused). Master one deeply before exploring other core concepts.
5. Do DevOps engineers need Kubernetes?
Yes, Kubernetes is industry-standard for container orchestration. Most modern organizations use it for scalable deployments.
6. Which pays more: DevOps or Cloud Engineer?
Salaries are comparable, though specialized skills like SRE or cloud architecture can command premium compensation.
7. How does DevOps differ from SRE?
DevOps focuses on development-operations collaboration and automation. SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) emphasizes system reliability, performance monitoring, and incident response, applying software engineering to operations.
8. What is the future scope of DevOps in India?
Excellent. India’s IT sector is rapidly adopting DevOps practices, with growing demand in startups, enterprises, and service companies offering strong career growth opportunities.
