As a DevOps Engineer at Life.Church, your primary responsibility is to ensure the reliability, scalability, and security of the digital platforms that support global ministry efforts. You will spend your days collaborating with software developers, product managers, and system administrators to build robust deployment pipelines and highly available cloud environments.

You will play a key role in supporting the YouVersion Bible App and the Church Online Platform. This involves managing large-scale cloud infrastructure, optimizing database performance, and implementing proactive monitoring tools to catch system anomalies before they impact users. You will also be responsible for automating repetitive operational tasks, allowing the engineering team to focus on building features that serve the global church community.

In addition to your technical duties, you will actively participate in the spiritual life of the Life.Church staff. This includes attending staff meetings, participating in prayer times, and volunteering at local campus events. You will help foster a culture of innovation, excellence, and spiritual devotion within the technology department, ensuring that the team's work remains aligned with the overall mission of the church.

To be competitive for the DevOps Engineer or Senior Site Reliability Engineer position, you must demonstrate a strong blend of technical expertise and spiritual alignment.

Technical and Professional Experience

• Must-have skills:
  • Extensive experience managing cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred).
  • Strong proficiency with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools, particularly Terraform.
  • Deep experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins).
  • Proficiency in containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
  • Strong scripting and automation skills (Python, Bash, Go).
• Nice-to-have skills:
  • Experience managing databases at scale (PostgreSQL, MySQL, NoSQL).
  • Familiarity with serverless architectures and microservices.
  • Advanced knowledge of networking, security best practices, and CDN configurations (Cloudflare, CloudFront).

Cultural and Spiritual Qualifications

• Must-have attributes:
  • A vibrant, active personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
  • Full alignment with the Life.Church statement of beliefs, values, and leadership covenant.
  • A clear, demonstrable calling to vocational ministry.
  • Willingness to relocate to the Edmond/Oklahoma City area to work from the Central Offices.
  • Active participation and membership in a local Life.Church campus, including volunteering.

Q: How technical is the DevOps interview process compared to traditional tech companies? A: The technical bar is high, particularly regarding cloud architecture and automation, which is tested via a take-home challenge. However, the live interviews focus much less on algorithmic coding and far more on system design, practical troubleshooting, and cultural alignment. You will spend more time discussing your character and calling than writing code on a whiteboard.

Q: What is the purpose of the multi-day onsite interview? A: The onsite visit is designed to give you and your family a holistic view of life at Life.Church. It is as much for you to evaluate the church as it is for them to evaluate you. You will tour the Central Offices, meet various team members, attend a Saturday service, and visit multiple campuses to ensure you are fully aligned with the ministry's culture and environment.

Q: Is church attendance and volunteering mandatory for employees? A: Yes. Working at Life.Church is considered a ministry calling, and all staff members are expected to be active, tithing members of the church community. This includes attending weekly services and regularly volunteering at a local campus.

Q: How long does the entire hiring process typically take? A: The process is highly thorough and deliberate, often taking between two to three months from your initial application to a formal offer. Scheduling conflicts, extensive assessments, and the coordination of the multi-day onsite visit contribute to this extended timeline.

Be completely transparent about your faith journey. Do not try to give "correct" or rehearsed answers during the cultural interviews. The hiring team is looking for genuine authenticity, vulnerability, and a sincere heart for ministry. Share your struggles, your growth, and your passion for serving others honestly.

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Take the cognitive and personality assessments seriously. These are not mere formalities; the hiring manager and department leads will review your results in detail with you. Approach these tests with honesty and self-awareness, as they are used to determine how you will fit into the existing team dynamic.

Prepare to explain your technical decisions clearly. During the review of your take-home challenge, focus on the "why" behind your architectural choices. Be ready to discuss trade-offs regarding cost, complexity, and scalability, and demonstrate how your design aligns with DevOps best practices.

The DevOps Engineer position at Life.Church is a unique opportunity to use your advanced technical skills to make a global spiritual impact. By managing the infrastructure for platforms like the YouVersion Bible App, you will directly enable millions of people to engage with scripture and community daily. The role offers a rare combination of high-scale engineering challenges and a deeply supportive, mission-driven work environment.

To succeed in this process, you must dedicate equal energy to preparing your technical portfolio and reflecting on your personal calling. Ensure you can articulate your faith journey clearly, demonstrate your system design expertise through the take-home challenge, and approach the intensive assessment process with humility and self-awareness.

The salary range listed above reflects the compensation for the Senior Site Reliability Engineer level at the Central Offices in Edmond, OK. When evaluating this range, consider the lower cost of living in the Oklahoma City metro area, alongside the unique spiritual and community benefits of working within a dedicated ministry environment.

If you feel called to this mission and are ready to take the next step, begin by thoroughly reviewing the Life.Church statement of beliefs and aligning your technical resume to highlight your experience with high-scale cloud infrastructure. For more detailed interview insights, community reviews, and preparation resources, explore the additional tools available on Dataford to help you put your best foot forward.