Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM)
DevOps Engineer
Software deployment and operations
What this life looks like
You bridge the gap between software development and operations, ensuring that code moves from a developer's laptop to a live production system quickly, reliably, and safely. DevOps Engineers are the backbone of modern software delivery — every tech company that ships products needs them.
What she actually does
You build and maintain the pipelines that automatically test, build, and deploy software. You manage cloud infrastructure, monitor systems for performance and reliability, respond to incidents when things go wrong, implement security best practices, and work to make the development process faster and more reliable through automation.
Where you can work
| Sector | Places in Africa |
|---|---|
| Fintech Scale-ups | Flutterwave, Paystack, OPay, Wave — companies with high transaction volumes and uptime requirements |
| Telecoms | MTN, Airtel, Safaricom — managing large-scale network and service infrastructure |
| Cloud Consulting | Liquid Intelligent Technologies, BCX, Accenture Africa — cloud infrastructure consulting |
| E-Commerce | Jumia, Takealot — managing high-traffic, transaction-heavy platforms |
Why it matters in Africa
As African tech companies scale from prototype to millions of users, the need for robust software delivery infrastructure becomes critical. DevOps engineers who can build reliable, automated deployment systems are among the most sought-after technical professionals in the African tech ecosystem.
Your pathway in
- Build a foundation in software engineering or system administration
- Learn Linux — it is the operating system that powers most cloud servers
- Master Docker and Kubernetes for container management — these are core DevOps tools
- Learn CI/CD tools such as GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or CircleCI
- Study cloud platforms, particularly AWS or Google Cloud, and their DevOps services
Skills you will need
- Linux and shell scripting
- Docker and Kubernetes
- CI/CD pipeline management
- Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
- Monitoring and incident response
- Infrastructure-as-code
A woman in this field
Ada Oyom
Nigeria
Ada began her career as a self-taught software engineer and open-source advocate at Interswitch Group, one of Nigeria's largest fintech companies. She has built a career spanning software engineering and DevOps practices at major African and international technology organisations, and is known for inspiring women in the African tech ecosystem through community leadership and mentorship.
Take your first step
- Learn Linux basics through the free Linux Foundation Introduction to Linux course on edX
- Install Docker on your computer and work through the official Docker getting started tutorial
- Set up a simple GitHub Actions workflow that automatically tests a small piece of code
- Join a DevOps or cloud computing community in your country or online