WP Engine Employee Spotlight: Josh Yelton, DevOps

In this blog series, we talk to WP Engine employees to learn more about their roles, what they love about the city they work in, and hear from them what they like most about working at WP Engine. In this interview we talk to Josh Yelton, a DevOps Engineer at WP Engine’s Austin headquarters. 

What is your role at WP Engine?
I am a DevOps Engineer.

What is a typical day like at the office?
A typical day is I come in work on some tickets, have a stand up with the project team I’m assigned to, and then work with people on that team for whatever our goals are for the current sprint.

How did you hear about WP Engine?
I had a friend who worked here that I worked with at my previous job and it sounded like an awesome opportunity.

How has WP Engine helped in your career development?
It’s been a great place to learn. I’ve encountered a lot of technologies I wasn’t previously familiar with. It’s been such a fast-paced, fast-growing environment that there’s always new things to do.

What advice do you have for prospective candidates for an engineering position?
You should be looking for an environment with a start-up culture that’s growing and improving. You should also be willing to work on a team…we’re very team focused. That’s a part of why I love working here.

What is the most challenging thing about the job in general?
It’s the nature of our business, running the amount of websites that we do is not easy and has a lot of challenges that don’t present themselves until you’re at the kind of scale we are. So the hardest thing is just keeping up with the growth.

What’s the most exciting thing about where WP Engine is heading?
Just the continued customer growth and the challenges that present themselves and exploring new architectures that allow us to support our scale.

Are you originally from Austin?
No, I’m from Florida.

What’s your opinion on the thriving tech scene in Austin — especially for engineers?
I think it’s great. It’s one of the main things that brought me to Austin and one of the main things that keeps me here. I don’t see myself leaving Austin anytime soon.

Do you have any advice for anyone entering a tech career?
You should do it if you have a true passion for it. If you like solving problems and figuring things out without necessarily having an easy answer available. If you like having to keep up with all the latest things, because the skills required change very rapidly. I’ve been in tech for about 10 years now and I never stop learning.

If you could be a piece of tech what would it be?
I would be the Linux Kernal, because it’s the primary thing that allowed for the growth of the internet.

WP Engine is currently hiring for positions in DevOps and Engineering at our Austin headquarters. See here for the full range of careers WP Engine is hiring for: wpengine-careers.com