Three titles, three different problems

DevOps Engineer. SRE. Platform Engineer.

Three titles, and most job ads use them as if they’re interchangeable.

What people assume the difference is:

• DevOps means you automate deployments
• SRE means you carry the pager
• Platform means you manage Kubernetes

That’s the job ad. It isn’t the job.

What actually separates them:

• DevOps optimises how fast a change reaches production
• SRE optimises what happens when that change breaks
• Platform Engineering optimises how little anyone has to think about either
• DevOps owns the pipeline. SRE owns the error budget. Platform owns the paved road.
• All three fail the same way: by quietly becoming a ticket queue

The title tells you what the company is currently worried about.

Read a job ad that way and it suddenly makes sense.

The question isn’t “which title should I be chasing?”

The question is “which of these problems does this company actually have?”

Which of the three does your team actually need right now?