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README.md

DevOps Support Roles

This repository contains role descriptions and growth guidance for the Support team at Octopus.

Purpose

We want to ensure everyone on the team understands:

  • What’s expected at each level
  • What’s required to progress to the next level
  • How we support each other’s growth and development

How We Work in Support

While each level has specific expectations, the following principles apply across all roles:

  • Customer impact is our north star
    Whether you're answering tickets, improving tooling, or shaping strategy, your work should help customers succeed. When we help customers succeed, we help the company succeed, because happy customers stick with us.

  • Support is a team sport
    We succeed by working together: sharing knowledge, supporting each other, and creating space for everyone to contribute.

  • Initiative matters at every level
    From asking a thoughtful question to leading cross-team improvements, we value people who notice, act, and follow through.

  • We grow by learning
    We all make mistakes, miss things, or get stuck. What matters is how we respond by seeking feedback, staying open-minded, and continually improving ourselves and our systems.

  • Clarity, empathy, and curiosity go a long way
    We aim to be calm, kind, and thoughtful, especially when problems are complex, stakes are high, or people are learning.

Your Career Journey in Support

We view progression through our IC (Individual Contributor) levels as a journey with two distinct phases:

  • L1 to L3 (Junior DevOps Support Engineer, DevOps Support Engineer, Senior DevOps Support Engineer) focus on developing individual mastery. Growth at these levels is about building core capabilities such as technical proficiency, troubleshooting, communication, and deepening product or domain expertise. Success is defined by how effectively you can support customers and solve increasingly complex problems.

  • L4 and L5 (Lead DevOps Support Engineer, Principal DevOps Support Engineer) mark a shift from self-improvement to organisational impact. At this stage, engineers are expected to have strong execution skills, and further gains from honing those skills tend to show diminishing returns. The path forward is about multiplying impact by improving systems, shaping team culture, mentoring peers, influencing cross-functional strategy, and solving problems at scale.

Role Levels

The following levels are defined:

Contributing

We welcome feedback from everyone on the team. This framework should evolve over time to reflect how we grow, the work we do, and the people we support.

If you have suggestions for improvement, please open a pull request or start a discussion.