Symron Bains: Spartan Stories – Building sustainable tech capability through DevOps

Meet Spartan Symron Bains, a former IT recruiter with a Master’s in Data who turned his non-traditional background into a high-impact DevOps career with Sparta Global. Today, he’s actively driving legacy system modernisation and CI/CD security for his client as a deployed DevOps Engineer.

Our Spartans come from diverse backgrounds, bringing unique perspectives, adaptable mindsets, and transferable skills to our clients. Symron Bains spent five years in IT recruitment before facing redundancy during COVID – a turning point that pushed him to pivot into tech and earn a Master’s degree in Data.

Despite his new qualification, Symron faced a saturated job market where breaking through traditional recruitment filters proved challenging.

“What made the difference was that Sparta looked beyond my CV,” says Symron. “They saw the transferable skills I’d built, both technically through my Master’s and through the soft skills I’d developed over years in recruitment. They suggested I consider a Junior DevOps Engineer role instead of Data – something I hadn’t previously considered.”

Bridging the gap to deployment

Transitioning into a completely new field can feel daunting, but the AI & Tech Institute’s targeted learning and practical application give Spartans the technical grounding to step in with confidence from day one.

“I was apprehensive at first, since I had no direct DevOps experience,” Symron explains. “But the weeks of training Sparta provided gave me the technical grounding and the confidence to know I could genuinely build a career in DevOps. It meant I was able to hit the ground running from day one with my client.”

Beyond pure technical tooling, Sparta builds an adaptable mindset designed for fast-moving environments:

“We were actively encouraged to use AI tools for troubleshooting and research throughout. More than any single tool, what really prepared me was the mindset the training instilled – I was constantly pushed to problem-solve independently, research unfamiliar technology, and get comfortable picking up new tools – AI and other – I’d never touched before.”

Overcoming market hurdles with dedicated support

Breaking into tech often requires more than just technical ability; it requires an advocate who recognises raw talent and connects it with the right opportunities. For Symron, overcoming the initial entry barrier came down to three pillars:

• Personalised hiring: “Rather than just being another CV in a pile, I had people who took the time to actually understand my background and match it to a role and client that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to join on my own.”
• Foundation technical skills: “The training gave me the technical grounding to actually act on my proactive instincts in a tech context, rather than just flagging an issue and waiting for someone else to pick it up.”
• On-site peer network: “Having the training cohort and the other Spartans that joined the client at the same time, gave me a lot more support and confidence than I’d previously had in my job search.”

Inside a typical day in DevOps Engineering

Today, Symron works within a team of eight focused on infrastructure maintenance, automation, and continuous delivery. A typical workday revolves around configuring environments and building efficient delivery pipelines.

“My day-to-day is centred around maintaining and configuring machines using Ansible, alongside creating and maintaining CI/CD pipelines – both skills I first picked up during Sparta’s training,” he says.

Because his client is actively pushing to modernise legacy tools, Symron’s blend of fresh training and self-directed learning allows him to make an immediate impact;“A lot of the tools I work with day to day are relatively new to the business. Because of the training, plus a fair amount of encouraged independent learning since, I’m often more up to speed on these newer tools than senior developers with far more experience overall. Thisw puts me in a good position to actually propose changes rather than just implement what’s asked of me.”

Driving impact

Symron’s primary focus is helping his client build secure, sustainable in-house capabilities by updating foundational software delivery practices. The core objective is modernising a legacy system to extend its lifespan, migrating code repositories from SVN to Git, introducing CI/CD pipelines, and integrating automated security and unit testing to meet modern compliance standards.

“Migrating off SVN, introducing pipelines, and adding security and testing isn’t just a technical upgrade,” Symron emphasises. “It’s about giving the client a system, and processes, that will still be secure and maintainable long into the future.”

One of his standout achievements involved pioneering security integration for niche client tech; “A lot of my early work was proof-of-concept research into improving pipeline security and modernising CI/CD for a fairly niche programming language with very little existing documentation. Being able to bring that knowledge back to the team meant we could move much closer to the client’s wider modernisation goal – not just for this one project, but as a reference point for similar work elsewhere.”

Pragmatic AI and continuous automation

As industries look toward AI-first workflows, Symron balances rapid innovation with strict data confidentiality and security protocols. Automation sits at the heart of his daily DevOps role through Ansible and pipeline orchestration. When it comes to AI tools, a deliberate, security-first approach is key:

“In terms of AI engineering and agentic tools specifically, we’re actively looking at incorporating these into future work, though we have to be a lot more deliberate given our security requirements. Day to day, I confidently use AI for troubleshooting and research in areas that don’t involve sharing confidential data. It’s extremely useful for getting unstuck or getting up to speed on something unfamiliar quickly.”

A launchpad for non-traditional talent

Reflecting on his path from IT recruiter to key contributor on a major engineering modernisation project, Symron encourages anyone considering a career shift not to let a non-traditional background hold them back.

“Tech is at the heart of most industries now, so there’s genuinely no better time to get into it,” says Symron. “What makes Sparta different is that they look beyond your CV and focus on you personally – the skills you actually possess, rather than just what’s written down. They match that to what clients are genuinely looking for, then train you in whatever’s missing to bridge that gap.”