What Is a DevOps Consultant?

We help client teams use DevOps practices to create more observable, sustainable, and predictable environments by integrating operations capabilities into development teams.

At Test Double, we believe DevOps is not a formal position or set of skills, but rather a culture of software developers who believe in continuous improvement. DevOps Consultants help build the DevOps team at Test Double by developing a common set of tools and code, and mentoring both clients and other agents on best practices.

DevOps Consultants are developers who achieve success by working within existing client teams to automate code pipelines, ensure high-availability and disaster recovery, establish observability and feedback loops, and implement/maintain baseline security controls. We focus on solving client problems with solutions to empower technical teams to gain ownership of delivery processes and insight into deployed systems across a variety of business domains. It’s critical to draw on a wide knowledge base of best practices and tools, as each assignment brings new challenges.

What Is Expected of a DevOps Consultant?

DevOps consultants consistently deliver high-quality infrastructure and generously share their knowledge and experience. We actively pair with and mentor other consultants and client developers on infrastructure best practices. Our engagements include acting as a consultant alongside larger teams at large clients, and taking on more leadership in mentoring, establishing processes, and modeling best practices at smaller clients.

DevOps Consultants deliver solutions that break down barriers between development and operations teams, while elevating and expanding the overall quality, culture, and reach of the teams they work with. Building software in close collaboration with client teams gives us the opportunity to learn from one another and share our knowledge and experience—making a deeper impact by coaching and mentoring others on healthy, more sustainable, and scalable DevOps practices.

Specific ways in which we accomplish these goals are by:

• Delivering primary DevOps solutions to clients across:
  • Cloud Architecture and Deployment in at least one major cloud provider
  • Hands-on experience running production services on Kubernetes and managed container platforms, including rollout strategies, autoscaling, and observability
  • Able to weigh tradeoffs between container orchestration (k8s vs. ECS) and serverless container platforms when advising clients
  • Comfortable with event-driven serverless (Lambda, Cloud Functions) and knowing when it's the right tool versus a long-running container
  • Infrastructure as Code
  • Configuration Management
  • CI/CD Pipelines
  • Monitoring and Observability
• Creating high-quality infrastructure to meet the needs of its users and businesses
• Applying security best practices in deployment pipelines and cloud environments
• Helping clients achieve Service Level Agreements and Service Level Objectives by providing observable infrastructure
• Implementing high-availability and disaster recovery architecture
• Identifying technology, communication, and process issues and proposing improvements
• Sharing best practices for cloud architecture that are fault-tolerant, highly available, and cost-effective for the client’s business
• Mentoring by sharing experience and knowledge with client developers and operations teams so they are well-positioned to succeed, even long after we're gone
• Collaborating internally with other Test Double agents on infrastructure best practices
• Learn new frameworks, languages, tech, and techniques to adapt to changing client needs
• Communicate openly and honestly with everyone, even if the news will not be positively received

AI Approach

We use AI to meaningfully improve how software is designed, built, and delivered. We exercise judgment in when and how to apply it, balancing speed, quality, and reliability.

We produce work that meets a high bar, we can explain our approach, and adapt as tools and practices evolve. We help teams adopt AI effectively by shaping patterns, practices, and standards that improve outcomes over time.

Our Team Culture

We support clients in challenging situations and foster engagement on project teams. We balance pragmatism in delivery with principled quality standards. We encourage other team members, guiding them to better solutions and approaches in ways that help those team members grow.

We are open and honest communicators, modeling that behavior with our clients and fostering a culture of interconnectedness within client teams. We establish supportive and trusting relationships with our client teams, and with our fellow Double Agents.

All TD Double Agents are encouraged to:

• Collaborate with other agents on internal processes and initiatives to help the company accomplish its mission to improve how the world builds software
• Contribute to the growth of other consultants in the organization through activities like internal presentations, pairing and mentoring, providing timely growth-focused feedback, sponsoring agents on new opportunities, and connecting agents with others across the organization
• Consistently contribute to Test Double’s growth in areas like candidate outreach and qualification, marketing (blogging, screencasts), community (speaking, meet-ups, panels), and open-source presence, and expand technological capabilities
• Reinforce a culture of inclusion and continuous improvement

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in software development
• 3+ years of experience in DevOps, cloud computing, or operations
• 3+ years of experience in consulting
• Strong understanding of Configuration Management tools like Ansible, Chef, or Puppet
• Strong understanding of Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform
• CI/CD Pipelines like Jenkins, CircleCI, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD
• Demonstrated ability to direct AI in delivery—defining problems, applying quality checks, and producing consistent results, with examples of improving team workflows
• Containerized deployment strategies like Kubernetes, AWS Elastic Container Service, Docker
• Observability and monitoring tools like CloudWatch, Grafana, and DataDog
• Low ego, high emotional intelligence (EQ), and a mindset of continuous improvement
• Experience leading teams in decomposing work and maintaining a healthy backlog that is valuable to the business
• Experience balancing competing priorities and influencing teams towards high-quality software development practices
• Ability to communicate effectively across different levels or positions within an organization
• Proficiency in designing, architecting, and refactoring systems of moderate complexity worked on by teams of 10+
• Ability to resolve conflicts and issues within the delivery team
• Experience in mentoring and leading the technical direction of software engineers
• Expertise in designing and delivering systems to production in the use of one or more of the following: Ruby, Go, Python, JavaScript/Typescript.
  
  

What We Offer

Compensation

• Starting salary: $170,000 - $190,000 based upon capabilities and experience

• Equity:  Immediately eligible for the company ESOP

Benefits

• Remote First - Work from anywhere, travel required for critical client and company functions
• Time off: 5 weeks flexible time off (vacation and sick time) + 10 Paid Holidays, 2 week sabbatical after 5 years
• Company Ownership: ESOP Employee stock ownership program - Test Double is 100% employee owned
• Family Support: 8 weeks paid parental leave at 100% of salary, plus additional unpaid
• Retirement: Company Contribution of 3% of salary to (401k)
• Continuing Education: 1 week of conference attendance (and up to $3,000 of expenses)
• Health: Premium health/dental/vision insurance (80-100% covered)
• New computer hardware purchase every 3 years
• Co-working space reimbursement (1/2 rent up to $500 monthly)
• Company-wide in-person retreat every ~2years
• Short and Long Term Disability
• Life Insurance