Hire DevOps Engineers

Every engineer passes a live infrastructure screen covering Kubernetes cluster design, Terraform module architecture, CI/CD pipeline construction, and cloud-specific services for your chosen provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP). We screen for real production experience: multi-tenant cluster design, IaC state management, deployment strategies, and observability setup. We do not accept self-reported CVs or certificate-only credentials. The live DevOps screen covers Terraform state locking and workspace isolation - engineers must explain how state locking prevents concurrent apply conflicts and design a multi-environment workspace strategy. Kubernetes RBAC hardening is assessed as a live audit: engineers review a ClusterRole manifest and identify over-permissive verbs. Helm chart templating is tested with a values override exercise, and SLO error budget calculation is assessed - engineers must derive an error budget from a stated availability target and calculate burn rate from an incident timeline.

A DevOps engineer owns the build, deploy, and release pipeline and day-to-day infrastructure operations. An SRE (Site Reliability Engineer) focuses on reliability through SLOs, error budgets, on-call process design, and toil reduction -- typically for teams with production services at scale. A Platform Engineer builds the internal developer platform to reduce cognitive load on development teams, using tools like Backstage, Crossplane, and golden-path templates. Tell us which problem you are actually solving and we match the right title.

You receive 3 shortlisted, pre-vetted DevOps engineers within 72 business hours of submitting your brief. Our AI scans 300+ engineers and a senior DevOps engineer validates each match manually for cloud provider depth, IaC experience, toolchain fit, seniority, and timezone. Unlike application developers, DevOps engineers are also validated on security posture -- Vault, RBAC, and compliance experience are noted in every shortlist.

DevOps engineer rates range from $40 to $160 per hour depending on seniority and region. Open IT Freelancers adds a flat 15% management fee on top of the engineer rate. There is no matching fee -- you pay $0 to receive your shortlist. DevOps engineers typically command 15-30% higher rates than application developers of equivalent seniority, reflecting the combination of infrastructure, networking, security, and cloud knowledge required.

We have engineers specialising in all three major cloud providers. AWS is the most common (EKS, ECS, Lambda, VPC design, IAM, Control Tower), followed by Azure (AKS, Azure AD, Bicep/ARM, Azure DevOps, ExpressRoute) and GCP (GKE, Cloud Run, BigQuery infrastructure, Anthos). Multi-cloud architects who operate across all three are available at senior level. Specify your cloud provider in the brief and we match accordingly.

Yes -- we specifically match on compliance posture experience. Engineers with SOC 2 experience understand evidence collection, audit trails in CI/CD pipelines, access control reviews, and infrastructure change management. ISO 27001 experience typically includes ISMS design, risk assessment, and control implementation. Tell us your compliance framework in the brief. We will note compliance experience in every shortlist profile.

Yes. Engagements range from 4 weeks (CI/CD pipeline setup, Terraform migration) to 24+ months (platform engineering, ongoing SRE). The only commitment is a 14-day notice period to end an engagement, with no early termination penalties. Short-term DevOps engagements typically focus on infrastructure-as-code buildout, pipeline modernisation, or a specific cloud migration.

If within the first 14 days the engineer is not the right fit, we replace them at no extra cost. No arguments, no delays -- we activate the replacement process within 24 hours. For DevOps roles specifically, this guarantee matters more than in application development because a poor infrastructure fit can cause production issues. After 14 days, engagements run on 14-day notice.

You own 100% of all infrastructure code, Terraform modules, Helm charts, pipeline definitions, runbooks, and documentation. Ownership transfers automatically on work approval through our tri-party contract signed on day one. There are no platform licensing fees or IP retained by the engineer or Open IT Freelancers.

We screen for codebase and environment navigation alongside greenfield skills. In the brief, describe your Kubernetes version, managed service (EKS/AKS/GKE), Helm chart structure, GitOps tooling (ArgoCD or Flux), and existing observability stack. We match engineers who have worked in similar setups and can ramp without forcing a full rewrite.

Toptal's vetting process takes 1-2 weeks and their margin typically runs 40-60% on top of the engineer rate. We return a shortlist in 72 hours with a flat 15% fee. Our live DevOps screen covers Kubernetes cluster design, Terraform state management, and cloud-provider-specific services -- not generic algorithm challenges. We also include managed delivery (weekly reports, milestone tracking, escalation SLA) as standard on every engagement, which Toptal does not.

Timezone is a matching criterion. Specify your team's working hours in the brief and we only shortlist engineers with sufficient overlap -- typically 4+ hours of shared working time. DevOps on-call requirements may need tighter timezone overlap, which you can specify. We have engineers across Eastern Europe, South Asia, Latin America, South-East Asia, and Western Europe.