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Kelvyn Thai
Kelvyn Thai

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Which DevOps certs are necessary for a Frontend Lead?

Hi everyone, I’m Kelvyn, 30 years old.
I’ve been working as a Senior Frontend Engineer (React, Next.js,...) for ~8 years. Recently I’ve been spending more time expanding my DevOps knowledge.

Even though my long-term direction is Frontend Lead / Frontend Platform / Frontend Architecture (not DevOps Engineer), I’ve realized that modern FE teams still need strong DevOps literacy:

  • Linux
  • Dockerizing Next.js
  • Gitlab CI/CD pipelines, Gitlab runner, manage jobs,...
  • S3 / CloudFront / ECR deployments
  • Performance, cache, observability
  • Edge/serverless architectures
  • K8s
  • Terraform for provisioning FE infra

So I’m exploring which DevOps or cloud certifications are genuinely useful for a Frontend leader, not someone aiming to become DevOps/Infra.

Here’s what I’m considering some certs from Linux Foundation:

📌 My Shortlist

  • LFCA (Linux + cloud + DevOps fundamentals)
  • KCNA (lightweight K8s & cloud-native literacy)
  • AWS Developer Associate (seems highly relevant for FE deployments)

If you were a Frontend Lead / FE Architect / FE Platform engineer,
or if you've walked a similar path:

👉 Which DevOps/cloud certification actually helped you?
👉 Which ones were not worth it?
👉 What would you learn if you were rebuilding your career today?

I’d really appreciate any insight or personal experience — especially from FE leads who integrate DevOps into their workflow without going full-time infra.

Thanks so much!

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