Hire a Build and Release Engineer
A build and release engineer can be referred to as a build developer or release engineer. It is a software professional specializing in managing and enhancing the company’s software product development and releases.
Release engineers often deal with already existing source code that can be used for integration and effective work of software. This position requires extensive programming skills and experience with various technologies. A build/release engineer is responsible for timely and productive delivery of software products as well functionality, version capabilities, and implementation. Their main goal is to make the development process easier for programmers and ensure that everything is going according to the plan from day one and up to release.
Release Engineer Roles and Responsibilities
The area of responsibilities of a release engineer includes:
- Development of implementation plan;
- Programming and deployment of software solutions/products, including functional requirements;
- Control and monitoring of existing systems’ performance;
- Static code analysis;
- Creation of programming scripts for software development, testing, and deployment;
- Maintains software delivery to end customers and makes sure that new versions are fully integrated with the rest of the software;
- Version control management, making sure that new versions are fully updated and functional (using Git);
- Build automation engineer also resolves any software issues that might occur, like debugging and troubleshooting;
- Maintenance of software development documentation;
- Provision of continuous software delivery cycle.
An expert build release engineer needs to have not only programming skills and strong tech knowledge but also analytical thinking, project management experience, problem-solving approach, and excellent communication. They work closely both with the developers and with clients (end-users).
Companies from various industries are interested in professional DevOps services and build & release engineering or hiring QA release engineer. Hiring such professionals is a kind of guarantee that all software products and releases will be timely and effective. Furthermore, it is essential for product development and integration of all solutions together in one highly functional system.
A software build engineer is beneficial for businesses that deal with software development and releases, of course. This professional is responsible for the bigger scope of things– the solution itself, its functioning, and deployment.
Difference Between Build Engineers and DevOps
Some people might think that a software release engineer overlaps in the responsibilities of a DevOps team. Although it is easy to see why such misunderstanding exists, they are not the same positions.
A build developer and DevOps have similar goals – to make software development and deployment faster and better. But they have different responsibilities, areas of work, and tools to achieve that.
DevOps engineer is responsible for the deployment and testing of applications. Such professionals create pipelines to deliver tools to a programming team. But a build engineer uses automation tools (Ansible, Jenkins, Version One) to make programming, debugging, and releasing faster.
To put it simply – a company needs to hire devops engineer developer and senior release engineer to ensure both agility and stability of the software development. They are not overlapping but rather work together in CI/CD environments. It is also possible to say that a server build engineer works within the DevOps.
Here is a table of responsibilities for these positions to make the comparison easier:
| DevOps | Build & Release Engineer |
| Managing cooperation and communication between programming team and operations team; | Ensuring easy build process with different OS (Linux, Unix); |
| Ensuring the app maintains the company’s requirements and expectations; | Maintaining the code’s conformity to software’s architecture; |
| Managing any issues around deployment and updating; | Using different tools and creating automation plugins for the development process; |
| Using such tools as Bamboo, Puppet, and Chef; | Automation and re-usage of existing source code for faster development; |
| Ensuring easy and fast cloud automation, including backups and disaster recovery; | Working closely both with the developing team and end-customers of an app/product; |
| Suggestions of cost-effective and easy system options; | Ensuring consistent and frequent software releases; |
| Creation of automated coding practices for standardized architecture. | Management of version control, сonfiguration management, production, and deployment. |
Difference Between Design Release Engineer and Build & Release Engineer
Another professional that often gets mistaken with a build & release engineer is a design and release engineer. They are working in the same CI/CD environment yet they have different areas of responsibilities.
The design release engineer deals with all things concerning the conformity of the completed design to the previous requirements and the company’s goals. This position requires deep knowledge of the whole design process (DFM, GD&T, QC). Such an employee is responsible for a subsystem. For example, that all the changes made along the development process are synchronized within this subsystem.
To get a better grip on the difference between these employees, here’s a comparison table of their responsibilities in the software development process:
| Design Release Engineer | Build & Release Engineer |
| Synchronization of changes within the subsystem; | Ensuring easy build process with different OS (Linux, Unix); |
| Maintaining the consistency of the design; | Maintaining the code’s conformity to software’s architecture; |
| Release of parts and subsystems of a software product; | Using different tools and creating automation plugins for the development process; |
| Maintaining the documentation regarding the requirements and their implementation in the completed design; | Automation and re-usage of existing source code for faster development; |
| Communication between the company and supplier; | Working closely both with the developing team and end-customers of an app/product; |
| Development of strategic solutions for ensuring safety, quality, and cost of development. | Ensuring consistent and frequent software releases,management of version control, configuration management, production and deployment. |
Build Engineer Software Development: Salary Rates
DevOps release management requires high-level expertise from a professional. So it is not surprising that the salary rates for such employees are on the higher end of the spectrum. And the rates for a building engineer continue to grow with time as the demand for such experts is also growing.
Here is a graph that shows the growth in the average salary rates for a release developer position from 2012 till today:
But time is not the only factor that influences build DevOps salaries. Another crucial factor is the level of expertise and experience. Here is a comparison table of yearly salaries for junior, middle, and senior build & release engineers in 5 countries:
| Junior | Middle | Senior | |
| USA | $5,750 | $7,417 | $9,583 |
| UK | $2,956 | $4,546 | $7,390 |
| Germany | $4,276 | $6,538 | $6,705 |
| Switzerland | $6,436 | $8,631 | $11,205 |
| Ukraine | $1,700* | $2,800* | $5,200* |
*Ukrainian salaries are provided based on Mobilunity’s Recruitment Team research on the local job markets. All salaries are net and do not include the service fee (in case of hiring on a dedicated team model). The salaries are provided for comparison purposes and could not be entirely accurate. Contact us to know the exact cost of hiring a developer corresponding to the required parameters.
Of course, the location is another huge contributor to the salary level of such IT experts. Here is a comparison of average monthly salaries for build and release engineers in 5 different countries.
Benefits of Hiring Build & Release Engineers
The popularity of such experts is easy to understand. They can bring significant benefits to a software development company and provide applications and products to end-users. Building engineer is an essential employee that can make this process cost-effective, fast, and simple. Here are the main benefits of hiring a build & release engineer:
- Automation of development processes and tools;
- Decrease in development time and cost due to automation and re-usage of existing source code for faster release;
- Insurance on continuity of the development cycle;
- Fast response for any deployment or release issues, debugging, testing, troubleshooting;
- Standardization of coding practices and procedures to makes them consistent and confirming to business needs and requirements;
- Quality and quantity control over the existing systems and apps as well as new releases;
- Version control management, integration of all software solution in one effective system;
- Provision of easier and more effective CI/CD environment for developers;
- Increased customer satisfaction.
That’s why many businesses decide on hiring such experts and outsourcing these services. Outsourcing and outstaffing help to decrease costs even more. And it allows finding such professionals faster because they are not always available locally due to high demand.
Mobilunity – Your Excellent Outstaffing Partner
Mobilunity is a Ukrainian outstaffing company with more than 10 years of experience in this industry. Our main goal is to help businesses worldwide grow and achieve success with excellent software development services.
We have provided excellent dedicated development teams for more than 40 companies from different countries and are happy to do this for you. Here are just some of our clients to name – Bye-E (Denmark), Paidy (Japan), Network of Arts (Switzerland), Chip In (The UK), and ICUC (Canada).
We can find you the best team among talented and experienced Ukrainian developers to meet your business goals.
Looking for a build and release engineer in Ukraine? Contact Mobilunity to hire!
All salaries and prices mentioned within the article are approximate NET numbers based on the research done by our in-house Recruitment Team. Please use these numbers as a guide for comparison purposes only and feel free to use the contact form to inquire on the specific cost of the talent according to your vacancy requirements and chosen model of engagement.
