Have You Heard of SaaSOps Professionals? They’re Here to Stay

You might see a new role opening up soon in your IT department: SaaSOps professionals like a SaaSOps Engineer.

We recently introduced the SaaSOps movement at Altitude, our annual IT conference, because it was clear to us that this category exists. SaaSOps is a space that our forward-thinking community constantly operates within—there just hasn’t been a formal name for it yet. Here’s the definition:

SaaSOps noun

: a practice referring to how software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications are managed and secured through centralized and automated operations (Ops), resulting in reduced friction, improved collaboration, and better employee experience

Saying that SaaSOps resonated with people is an understatement. The immediate response to SaaSOps blew away our highest expectations.

One attendee told us:

“SaaSOps is the future. It’s not just a roadmap for how to operate as the ‘Future IT Professional,’ but also a mindset that will continue to push you and whatever company you work for.”

The thing that amazed us the most was all the IT professionals who started changing their job titles to include SaaSOps, adding it to their descriptions on LinkedIn, and even including SaaSOps in job descriptions for new hires.

We talked to a few of these SaaSOps trailblazers to learn more about their decision to change their job titles and what SaaSOps means to them.

Jay Feliciano
SaaSOps – Engineer II at Spotify

“This is the trajectory that my career is on right now. This is what I want, and to really materialize it, you have to show that you believe in it.

I’ve been in this field for 22 years, and my career has totally shifted because I see this new avenue of IT that hasn’t really been explored yet. SaaSOps is where I’m realigning my career goals. We really believe in SaaSOps at Spotify, so we’re really building up this function of IT.

SaaSOps has existed; we just never had a name for it. When I read [BetterCloud CEO] David’s book and saw SaaSOps spelled out, I was really inspired by it and thought ‘Yeah, this is what I want to do.’”

(In fact, Jay is looking for a SaaSOps engineer to join his team at Spotify! Click here to learn more.)

Chloe Becquet
SaaSOps/IT Director at BounceX

Becquet attended Altitude and changed her job title to become a SaaSOps professional immediately after the conference wrapped.

“I’ve been super pumped about the new title, but I have been containing myself. Information technology has evolved and so have my responsibilities. SaaSOps defines this evolution, and I feel like part of a family of professionals living in the cloud!”

Dennisse DeJesus
SaaS Ops – IT Support at General Assembly

DeJesus was another conference attendee who changed her job title at the close of the conference. “After leaving Altitude, I felt enlightened and empowered. I immediately updated my LinkedIn info to include SaaSOps professionals because that’s what I am.”

Randy Tanenhaus
SaaSOps and IT Manager at ClassPass

“I strongly feel like my team is a SaaSOps team and far from the traditional IT team. I want to highlight this and explain to my leadership why I am transitioning to SaaSOps. SaaSOps helps to demonstrate that we’re not just a cost center, but that we bring value to the company. I want that value to clearly be reflected in our titles and our department.”

Andy Poirier
SaaSOps – Lead Systems Engineer at The Knot Worldwide

“It’s been hard to describe my position up until this point. I’ve always tried to describe it as a mix of DevOps and SaaS administration, so I was pleasantly surprised at Altitude to find out that someone made a name for it. Thanks for that! :)”

Dartanian Richards
IT Support Engineer II at Thumbtack

“For the past four or so years, my company has asked me, ‘Where do you want to go with your career?’ and I’ve never really felt satisfied with any answer. The positions that exist out there don’t match with what I do and what I’m passionate about. I’ve been leaning towards things like ‘app support’ because it was closest, but hearing David explain SaaSOps during his keynote resonated with me. It clicked, and my brain went, ‘That’s it!’” 

Colin McCarthy
VP, Global IT at Essence

“I am planning on including SaaSOps in future job titles and job postings because it more accurately describes the work being done. As we move to a Zero Trust Network model, I need staff with the skill set to manage end user data, not just skills to build and patch file and directory servers.”

Rose Layton
Strategic Technical Partner at Strada Education Network

“There’s a couple of reasons that I want to use the SaaSOps terminology in job descriptions and in my personal skills list.

First, job descriptions often are the first places for the broader public to see changes in terminology. For instance, the presence of SaaS as a term is still catching on in many IT job descriptions, even though it’s a very common term in our industry. By using ‘SaaSOps’ in our job descriptions, and then by giving context for what that is, we’re lending ourselves to ensuring the legitimacy of the term and its longevity. 

Second, we have struggled for a long time to succinctly describe the new type of work that we do and the expertise it requires. As a result, our job descriptions get long and repetitive with lists of software stacks, descriptions of all the different tasks we do, etc. We’re happy to see new language coming forward to describe it. My only hope is that this becomes more than just jargon, and that beyond IT, people start to recognize the challenges of the SaaS world with as much reverence as they have for older skill sets such as computer networking and hardware.”

While we coined SaaSOps, it falls onto the shoulders of IT professionals to take the reins and make change happen. These new job titles are just the start of the SaaSOps movement. We hope to see more and more IT professionals changing their titles, hiring new team members, and even re-organizing their teams with SaaSOps in mind.

If you’re a SaaSOps professional, feel free to download our SaaSOps banner to display on your LinkedIn profile.