// Certification Index2026 Edition
DevOps Engineering Cert Roadmap
The certs you should pursue depend less on the title and more on the kind of work you want to do. DevOps is a broad field -- a CI/CD Engineer and a Platform Engineer may share some overlap but pull from very different cert tracks. A few things worth knowing for 2026: Terraform Associate 004 launched in January following IBM's acquisition of HashiCorp; the Linux Foundation now auto-renews KCNA when you earn or recertify CKA; and AZ-400 was updated to reflect GitHub Actions workflows and DevSecOps practices.
Below are 22 of the more common DevOps roles and the credentials typically tied to each. Roles like AIOps and Developer Experience Engineer are newer titles -- cert expectations there are less standardized, but the underlying skill sets are real and growing.
- DevOps EngineerAWS DOPAZ-400CKATerraform Assoc
- Senior DevOps EngineerAWS DOPAZ-400CKSRHCE
- DevOps ArchitectAWS SAPAZ-305CKSTerraform Assoc
- Platform EngineerCKACKADTerraform AssocAZ-400
- Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)CKAGoogle PCDEAWS DOPLFCS
- CI/CD EngineerAZ-400AWS DOPCKADGitLab CI/CD
- Release ManagerAZ-400AWS DOPITIL 4PMP
- Infrastructure Engineer (IaC)Terraform AssocRHCSAAWS SAALFCS
- DevSecOps EngineerCKSCSSLPCDPAWS SCS
- Container / Kubernetes EngineerCKACKADCKSKCNA
- Configuration Management EngineerRHCE (EX294)Terraform AssocAWS DOP
- Automation EngineerTerraform AssocRHCEAWS DOPPCEP
- Observability EngineerCKAAWS DOPLFCSLinux+
- MLOps EngineerGoogle PCMLEDatabricks ML ProAI-102
- GitOps EngineerCKACKADTerraform AssocGitLab CI
- Cloud Operations EngineerAWS CloudOpsAZ-104Google ACEITIL 4
- DevOps Manager / DirectorAZ-400AWS DOPPMPITIL 4
- DevOps ConsultantAWS DOPAZ-400CKAPMP
- AIOps EngineerAWS AIFAI-102Google PCMLECKA
- Developer Experience EngineerCKACKADAZ-400LFCS
- Test Automation EngineerISTQB CTFLAZ-400AWS DOPCKAD
- DataOps EngineerAWS DEADP-203Databricks DETerraform
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This list isn't exhaustive and shouldn't be treated as authoritative career advice. Cert relevance varies by employer, stack, and team size -- a CKA matters more at a Kubernetes-native shop than at an enterprise running managed services. If you're currently in one of these roles and would swap a recommendation for a better one, I want to hear it -- reach out via the contact page.