Hiring advice
Why "try before you buy" hiring works for DevOps teams
July 2026
Permanent hiring is a big commitment on both sides. Here's why bringing in specialists on a fixed-term contract first can lead to better long-term fits.
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DevOps, Cloud and Infrastructure roles are technical, high-impact, and hard to reverse if the fit is wrong. A Statement of Work (SOW) engagement lets you bring in a vetted specialist for a defined project or period, see exactly how they work and what they deliver, and then decide — with real evidence — whether to make it permanent. It reduces risk for you, gives the specialist a genuine trial of the role, and means fewer costly re-hires down the line. It's a model we see work particularly well for teams scaling cloud infrastructure or standing up new DevOps practices under time pressure.
For hiring managers
3 signs your infrastructure team needs a specialist
June 2026
Not sure whether you need to hire? These are the patterns we see most often just before a team decides to bring in dedicated infrastructure expertise.
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First, deployments are slowing down or becoming risky, and the same one or two people are firefighting every release. Second, cloud costs are climbing faster than usage, usually a sign no one owns infrastructure optimisation full-time. Third, your engineers are spending more time on operational tickets than building product. Any one of these on its own might be manageable — but when two or more show up together, it's usually the point where a dedicated DevOps or Cloud Infrastructure specialist pays for themselves within a quarter.
For candidates
What good Cloud Engineering roles actually look like
June 2026
Job titles in this space vary wildly between companies. Here's what to actually look for when weighing up your next move.
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Two companies can advertise near-identical "Cloud Engineer" job titles with completely different day-to-day realities — one might be almost entirely cost-optimisation and governance, another pure build-out of new infrastructure. Before you commit to a process, ask about the current state of their cloud environment, who you'd report to, and how decisions get made when priorities clash between engineering and the business. Those answers tell you far more than the job title ever will.