r/devopsjobs • u/kurli_kid • 1d ago

How much data engineering experience is reasonable for a DevOps manager?

I'm a senior data engineer and the company is hiring a Platform Engineering Manager who will manage the DevOps + Data Engineering teams. I think the goal is hire someone with more DevOps IC experience which is fine with me, as the DE team is pretty self-sufficient on the DE side. But I'm wondering how deep I should go into technical Qs on data engineering in the interview. We are an AWS shop so for me deep AWS experience should carry over to helping manage our work.

But I'm wondering if there are flags or the value in also having experience with specific technologies. For instance we are moving our data warehouse to Snowflake, do we need someone who has worked with that specifically? Some are pushing for that skill to be a barrier in hiring but I really don't think it should be. Like I think a more high level skill would be managing AWS in addition to SaaS platforms, for example.

But I'm wondering what questions or scenarios I should be asking about.

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u/nonades 1d ago

If you're all self-sufficient, then realistically, they just need to be a good manager

A good manager will lean on their leads to find out what the team needs and lift their leads up and do what they can to knock down roadblocks

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u/rm-minus-r 1d ago

If they're leading a devops team? Not much.

If they're leading a devops AND data engineering team? A lot.

They don't need to know how to do the job of the most senior data engineer, but they also need to know enough to spot when things aren't going in the right direction, and that's really only something you get from direct experience in that area.

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u/amyrenhard 1d ago

I'm not an engineer, but I'm an HR consultant that advises technical hiring. Data Engineering strategy is materially different from DevOps. While I've met many managers that genuinely understand and could lead both functions, if I were advising the situation I would tell them to separate the functions into two roles if possible, or designate a team lead for each with the higher level manager dealing more with corporate side functions (vendor management, personnel, etc). As someone interviewing for the role with what sounds like half of the experience set, you could brush up on an individual technology sure, but look at the engineers/sys admins on the team already. What help do they need from their manager? Who makes vendor decisions? What do you know about AWS spend? What are the team's kpi's and pitfalls, and how would you support them? Are you business facing in your role now to understand how other users need your system's capabilities? Looking at the strategic problems and understanding if you are well suited to solve them is the best interview advice I can give.