How to Build a Great TechOps Team

In spite of the unprecedented growth in the tech sector, there’s an interesting parallel phenomenon of an acute digital skills shortage around the world. Here’s a stat to put things in perspective:

An estimated 85 million jobs will go unfilled by 2030 because of skills shortages, resulting in a staggering $8.5 trillion in unrealised annual revenues. The digital skills gap is cited by executives as arguably the biggest barrier to the adoption of emerging technologies. From software development to cloud computing, TechOps, software testing and more – companies are struggling with a severe skills shortage in each of these specialisations.

In this scenario, what is a viable solution for companies to bridge this skills gap to effectively address their IT requirements?

In this blog we’ll look at TechOps as an example and see how businesses can build a robust TechOps team by hiring the right talent.

The global IT operations market is expected to grow from $9.9 billion in 2020 to a staggering $131.5 billion by 2028. This highlights how TechOps is becoming an increasingly integrated function within businesses.

Understanding the unique needs of your business

Before building out your IT team, it’s important to review the unique needs of your business to determine the particular use case for a TechOps team. For example – if your company is looking to build up its cloud infrastructure and needs an approach to plan, build, and maintain it, a TechOps team is the way to go. With the expansion in the adoption of cloud technologies, it’s safe to say that almost all businesses will benefit from integrating TechOps in their IT capabilities.

Different roles within TechOps

Some of the main roles within TechOps are:

• TechOps Engineer
• Systems Administrator
• Service Lead
• Service Operations Manager
• Service Analyst
• Technical Support Engineer
• Operations Support Administrator
• SecOps Engineer
• Technical Operator
• Application Support Analyst
• DevOps Engineer
• Technical Service Owner
• Technical Operations Manager

Depending on the nature and scope of your business, you’ll need to fill one or more of these roles within your TechOps team.

Top Skills for TechOps Roles

Here are the top skills to look for when hiring for TechOps roles.

Someone who enjoys continuous learning

From general OS administration and desktop support to more specialised roles like Linux administration, TechOps covers a wide gamut of operations so that no two days are alike. A TechOps engineer could be looking after the smooth running of a critical service or application one day, while the next, they could be working on a function like Service Desk or Release Management or maybe focusing on more specialist areas such as infrastructure, environments, networking or security. This involves continuous learning, which can be very exciting for the right candidate.

‘Our team ensures that applications are working correctly for the business and most importantly the consumer. My role is crucial for the business, I have worked on several projects and knowing that I have played a key part excites me. The fact that there is always new work, issues and ideas means that my days can be completely different.’

Matthew Bentham – FDM Technical Operations Consultant

Skills over degrees or pedigrees

When building your TechOps team, it’s important to hire for certain core skills and consider these over an applicant’s degrees and where they worked before.

‘Team fit and personality should be a deciding factor when selecting an applicant.’

Kemi Biye-Malcolm, FDM Product Owner, Products and Services

Not everyone gets hired by the Googles and Facebooks and this doesn’t diminish their skills or competency. During the hiring process it’s important to find out what skills and experience an applicant has over where they learnt them.

Empathy

An integral component of TechOps is customer service so it’s important during the hiring process to ask applicants of any operational challenges they faced in previous roles and their awareness of its impact on customer experience. Their responses should demonstrate empathy in realising how operational downtime can affect a customer’s business. They should also realise their own role in ensuring the optimum function and value of the product they deploy to customers.

‘A distinguishing factor between TechOps and the other technical streams that FDM offers is the element of customer service. A good TechOps team has a diverse skillset, great collaboration, open lines of communication between teammates, and strong customer service skills. FDM provides a solid technical foundation for consultants, arming each consultant with a well-rounded IT skillset which they can take with them throughout their careers.’

Kemi Biye-Malcolm, FDM Product Owner, Products and Services

Adaptability

In TechOps, no two days are the same. This means the ideal person to join a TechOps team has be adaptable. It’s a good idea during the hiring process to look for applicants who have had a varied experience as opposed to someone who has specialised in a single role or discipline.

‘My role involves many different tasks, so no two days are the same. I look after the website infrastructure, which includes deploying code, patching servers, maintaining software, as well as general problem solving when things go wrong. The role is creative and it is very satisfying to see my work making a difference.’

Shannon Smith, FDM TechOps Consultant

FDM’s Consultant Services

At FDM, we not only recruit talent. But through our 3 decades of experience in building and deploying talent pipelines, we understand the best fit for each individual candidate. So we can provide a business-ready pool of professionals with tailored skills to add value to your company from day 1 of deployment.

Our consultants work on crucial TechOps projects with clients, including firewall re-certification for a multinational investment and financial services company, the scaling up of an in-demand Service Desk function, and the onshoring of Identity and Access Management capabilities for a large retail and commercial bank.

To meet the unique requirements of our clients, we offer solutions to support more specific responsibilities, such as Security Operations, Microsoft 365 Administration, Power Platform solutions, Solution Architecture and Environment Coordination.

Find out how our Technical Operations Consultant Services can help you build the best TechOps team for your business.