How to hire an operations engineer

How to hire an operations engineer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step operations engineer hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write an operations engineer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new operations engineer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does an operations engineer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your operations engineer job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find an operations engineer for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

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   Hiring the perfect operations engineer also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   This list shows salaries for various types of operations engineers.

   Type of Operations Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
   Operations Engineer	Mechanical engineering is one of the broadest engineering disciplines. Mechanical engineers design, develop, build, and test mechanical and thermal sensors and devices, including tools, engines, and machines.	$30-63
   Engineer	Engineers are highly trained professionals who determine the feasibility of various projects, usually related to the construction industry. They are considered experts in mathematics and science, two disciplines that they need to use in designing and coming up with plans for projects... Show more	$31-62
   Team Lead Engineer	A team leads engineer is in charge of spearheading and overseeing the efforts of an engineering team, ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow. Although the duties may depend on one's industry of employment, it typically includes designing and developing systems according to project requirements, setting objectives and construction guidelines, delegating tasks, managing budgets and schedules, and monitoring the workflow, performing corrective measures as needed... Show more	$40-75

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Python
   • Cloud
   • AWS
   • Linux
   • Troubleshoot
   • HVAC
   • Java
   • Plumbing
   • GIT
   • Jenkins
   • SQL
   • Docker
   • Azure
   • Preventive Maintenance

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Design, implement, and manage an enterprise class DNS and DHCP solution.
   • Used bug tracking tool JIRA to manage and track all the bugs by creating bug tickets.
   • Manage network cabling and server racking for both Ethernet and optical configurations for SAN and EMC.
   • Manage VMWARE ESXi servers to allocate virtual resources to developers, QA team and maximize the performances.
   • Create LabVIEW programs to automate test and characterization of optical components, perform testing, and analyze data.
   • Contribute PowerShell functions to a PowerShell module used to automate software upgrades.

   More operations engineer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the operations engineer job description is a good way to get more applicants. An operations engineer salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for an operations engineer in Montana may be lower than in California, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level operations engineer. Additionally, an operations engineer with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average operations engineer salary

   $91,522yearly

   $44.00 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level operations engineer salary

   $63,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 20, 2026

   Average operations engineer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$118,147	$57
   2	District of Columbia	$106,768	$51
   3	Washington	$94,700	$46
   4	New York	$93,126	$45
   5	Arizona	$91,849	$44
   6	Texas	$91,188	$44
   7	Virginia	$89,880	$43
   8	North Carolina	$87,751	$42
   9	Illinois	$87,703	$42
   10	New Jersey	$87,100	$42
   11	Ohio	$86,904	$42
   12	Georgia	$84,797	$41
   13	Massachusetts	$84,769	$41
   14	Michigan	$83,787	$40
   15	Pennsylvania	$82,513	$40
   16	Minnesota	$82,310	$40
   17	Colorado	$81,647	$39
   18	Indiana	$77,200	$37

   Average operations engineer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Apple	$131,521	$63.23	627
   2	Airbnb	$128,272	$61.67	7
   3	Meta	$127,587	$61.34	498
   4	Bunge	$126,695	$60.91	15
   5	Yelp	$124,731	$59.97
   6	DocuSign	$121,889	$58.60	5
   7	Unity Technologies	$121,493	$58.41	76
   8	Nike	$120,024	$57.70	9
   9	Kaiser Permanente	$119,506	$57.45	21
   10	Walmart	$119,467	$57.44	783
   11	One Legal	$119,335	$57.37
   12	Occidental Petroleum	$119,262	$57.34	2
   13	Renaissance Learning	$119,093	$57.26
   14	Workday	$118,984	$57.20	9
   15	Grubhub	$118,569	$57.00
   16	Qualtrics	$117,940	$56.70	6
   17	Neiman Marcus Group	$117,506	$56.49	2
   18	Shutterfly	$117,111	$56.30	5
   19	Google	$117,008	$56.25	214
   20	Best Buy	$115,655	$55.60	7

4. Writing an operations engineer job description

   A job description for an operations engineer role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's an operations engineer job description:

   Operations engineer job description example

   Minimum qualifications:
   
   * Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
   * 5 years of experience with software development in one or more programming languages with data structures/algorithms.
   
   * 3 years of experience testing, maintaining, and launching software products, and 1 year of experience with software design/architecture.
   
   Preferred qualifications:
   
   * Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science or related technical field.
   
   * Security Clearance (Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmentalized Information (TS/SCI) with Polygraph).
   
   * Experience with Large Scale Distributed Systems, Linux, Active Directory, ServiceNow, etc.
   
   About the job
   
   Google Cloud's software engineers develop the next-generation technologies that change how billions of users connect, explore, and interact with information and one another. We're looking for engineers who bring fresh ideas from all areas, including information retrieval, distributed computing, large-scale system design, networking and data storage, security, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, UI design and mobile; the list goes on and is growing every day. As a software engineer, you will work on a specific project critical to Google Cloud's needs with opportunities to switch teams and projects as you and our fast-paced business grow and evolve. You will anticipate our customer needs and be empowered to act like an owner, take action and innovate. We need our engineers to be versatile, display leadership qualities and be enthusiastic to take on new problems across the full-stack as we continue to push technology forward.
   
   In this role, you will assist in launching and supporting deployed Google Distributed Cloud Hosted (GDCH) implementations.
   
   Google Cloud accelerates organizations' ability to digitally transform their business with the best infrastructure, platform, industry solutions and expertise. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google's cutting-edge technology - all on the cleanest cloud in the industry. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.
   
   Responsibilities
   
   * Design and develop software and tooling that enables managing the whole GDCH stack as "Infrastructure as Code".
   
   * Manage the lifecycle of operational components (e.g. ticketing system, bug tracking system, monitoring and reporting system, Active Directory, etc.).
   
   * Automate and streamline the specific components deployment and configuration through full automation.
   
   * Develop zero downtime upgrades of the components through patch.
   
   * Enable seamless scale of the systems through sector scaling of the components over time.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are various strategies that you can use to find the right operations engineer for your business:

   • Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your operations engineer job on Zippia to find and recruit operations engineer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit operations engineers, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new operations engineer

   Once you've decided on a perfect operations engineer candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new operations engineer. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire an operations engineer?