Starting a Web3 startup is no small feat. The rapidly evolving landscape of decentralized technologies presents unique challenges and immense opportunities. One of the critical decisions you’ll face is building a robust team capable of navigating these complexities. But do you need a DevOps Engineer, an Infrastructure Engineer, or perhaps both? This blog post will explore the significance of these roles in a Web3 startup, helping you determine the best fit for your company. There’s a few different titles floating around for technical systems people in Web3, and founders often don’t realize the difference between them. There’s actually a massive difference in the background and capabilities that these professionals bring to the table.

Web3 DevOps Engineers

Understanding DevOps in Web3

DevOps combines development and operations, aiming to shorten the system development life cycle and deliver high-quality software continuously. In a Web3 context, this role becomes even more crucial due to decentralized applications’ complexity and the need for constant updates. DevOps is a culture that involves enpowering developers. For example, in a traditional IT environment, if a developer needs to update an environment variable in production, they would put in a ticket and wait until a systems admin could make the update. In a company with a DevOps culture, the DevOps Engineer would create tooling to allow the developer to update the environment variable themselves.

Key Responsibilities

A Web3 DevOps Engineer will manage the deployment pipeline, automate repetitive tasks, and monitor the application’s performance. Their goal is to ensure smooth and efficient operations, allowing developers to focus on writing code and adding new features.

Benefits for Web3 Startups

Having a DevOps Engineer on board can significantly enhance your startup’s agility. They streamline processes, reduce downtime, and improve overall efficiency. This is particularly important in the fast-paced Web3 environment, where quick updates and reliable performance are crucial.

Web3 Infrastructure Engineers

The Role of an Infrastructure Engineer

An Infrastructure Engineer focuses on designing, building, and maintaining the foundational systems and networks that support your applications. In Web3, this includes blockchain networks, distributed storage, and other decentralized infrastructure. Typical Web3 Infrastructure Engineers use Kubernetes to create high-availability environments that rarely if ever go down. An Infrastructure Engineer will typically have a background in IT and infrastructure as code, but they often will be unable to develop more than basic scripts and tools. They will likely know Bash though.

Core Responsibilities

Web3 Infrastructure Engineers are responsible for setting up the necessary hardware and software, ensuring network security, and maintaining system scalability. They work closely with DevOps Engineers to ensure that the infrastructure can support continuous integration and deployment.

Why You Need One

For a Web3 startup, reliable and scalable infrastructure is paramount. An Infrastructure Engineer ensures that your systems are robust enough to handle growth and resilient against potential attacks, providing a solid foundation for your applications.

Web3 Systems Engineers

What is a Systems Engineer?

Systems Engineers take a holistic view of your startup’s technological ecosystem. They integrate various components, ensuring that everything works seamlessly together. In a Web3 environment, their role extends to managing decentralized systems and ensuring interoperability between different technologies. A decentralized network is closer to a telecommunications network than a traditional web application, and Systems Engineers will be trained in how to manage systems lifecycles. Web3 Systems Engineers will be able to set up both infrastructure in addition to decentralized systems, and this makes them highly effect in a Web3 startup. However, they are relatively rare in the industry.

Key Duties

Their responsibilities include system design, performance tuning, and troubleshooting complex issues. They often collaborate with both DevOps and Infrastructure Engineers to optimize the overall system performance. “value-to-startups”>Value to Startups Systems Engineers are invaluable in a Web3 startup for their ability to see the bigger picture. They ensure that all parts of the system work harmoniously, which is essential for the smooth operation of decentralized applications.

Web3 Site Reliability Engineers (SRE)

The SRE Approach

Site Reliability Engineers apply software engineering principles to infrastructure and operations problems. They aim to create scalable and highly reliable software systems, a crucial aspect for any Web3 startup. Site Reliability Engineers work to reduce toil or manual taks that are involved in systems operations. Web3 SREs are often concerned with dApps but will also perform work on blockchain infrastruture and tools.

Core Responsibilities

SREs focus on availability, latency, performance, efficiency, change management, monitoring, emergency response, and capacity planning. They use automation to reduce toil and improve system reliability.

Importance in Web3

In a Web3 context, where applications must be highly available and performant, SREs play a critical role. They ensure that your startup’s services remain reliable and can quickly recover from any technical failures.

Choosing the Right Fit for Your Web3 Startup

Assessing Your Needs

The first step in deciding which role(s) to prioritize is assessing your startup’s specific needs. Are you struggling with deployment pipelines, or is scalability your main concern? Understanding your pain points will guide your hiring decisions.

Potential Overlaps

It’s essential to recognize that these roles can sometimes overlap. A skilled engineer may be able to cover multiple areas, especially in the early stages of your startup. However, as your company grows, specialized roles will become increasingly important. However, each of these roles involves a very different career path, and each type of engineer is going to come with different skills. In particular, these systems professionals will generally have much less of a coding background than a typical developer. Expect any of these engineers to be able to put together a Bash script. DevOps and Infrastructure Engineers will typically know some sort of infrastructure as code. SREs will also typically know some amount of python, and good DevOps engineers will know how to code in python as well.

Strategic Hiring

Consider starting with a DevOps Engineer if your immediate focus is on streamlining development and deployment processes. If your priority is building a robust and scalable infrastructure, an Infrastructure Engineer might be the better first hire. Over time, adding Systems and Site Reliability Engineers will round out your team and ensure long-term success.

Conclusion

Building a successful Web3 startup requires a well-rounded team of engineers. Each role—DevOps, Infrastructure, Systems, and SRE—brings unique skills and perspectives that are crucial for navigating the complexities of decentralized technologies. By understanding the importance of each role and strategically hiring to meet your specific needs, you’ll be well on your way to creating a resilient and efficient Web3 company. Ready to take the next step? Sign up for a consultation.