Zübeyir Tercan brings a quiet strength to the fast-paced world of DevOps. As a Technology Team Lead, he’s known for his calm approach, strong sense of organization, and relentless drive to automate and improve. When he’s not streamlining systems or mentoring his team, you’ll likely find him cycling uphill – literally. Passionate about both performance and perspective, Zübeyir combines technical precision with human insight.
Tech & Career
You joined Scalefocus thanks to a glowing recommendation from a friend. What was your first impression when you started?
I immediately noticed that the people are very friendly and welcoming. Since then, this (among some others) has been the best part of Scalefocus for me.
What does a typical day look like for you as a DevOps Technology Team Lead?
This somehow depends on the client and project you’re working with but usually looking at the overall system health, dashboards, some metrics, and fixing if anything is broken and automating if they haven’t been already. Helping the dev team when/if they need some support. Developing/improving the automations for the landscape and keeping the thought “I need to take a look at that new X technology nowadays” but having difficulty finding some time for it.
In your view, what’s the biggest misconception people have about DevOps?
DevOps engineers would know everything 😊.
DevOps is all about constant improvement. What’s one tool or practice you swear by?
I think it is not a tool but a mindset. “Better automate it” is a good reminder. We need to automate things and this usually requires a different mindset than having it done fast.
The tech world evolves fast. How do you stay up to date without getting overwhelmed?
Being married and having children, this seems to me the most difficult task. I try to be as effective as possible to stay up to date without sacrificing my family or personal time. In this respect, sharing information back/forth with the team is an important contributor to the effective refreshment. I’ve heard a lot of new technologies from my teammates, and I try to contribute back to keeping an active collaborative team.
Leadership & Growth
What’s one lesson you’ve learned about leading a team that you wish you knew earlier?
Everyone is created differently, sometimes very differently. Something that seems meaningful to me could very well be meaningless to somebody else and they might be very right from their perspective.
As someone described as friendly and organized, how do those qualities shape your leadership style?
Being friendly really works for the benefit of the team but expecting the team to be as organized as you are causes headaches for both me and the team. I’m trying my best to avoid that 😊.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to move into a DevOps leadership role?
In the DevOps world, you cannot know or master every technology, language or tool out there. What you need to deliver to the team is the approach or perspective DevOps should have.
Beyond the Code
If you could have dinner with any historical figure – who would it be and why?
That’s a very interesting question. Honestly, I would love to meet many of them. Firstly, I would love to meet Prophet Muhammad and see how he delivered his message and completely changed the society around him and meet his companions to see what they were discussing on common human issues.
I would also want to meet some mystical (to me) science discoverers like Avicenna, Nikola Tesla, Piri Reis and others who are beyond their time and their work is still surprising us. I really wonder how they mastered their field the way they did.
If I can meet them, the dinner is really optional 😊
What’s one small daily habit that brings you a lot of happiness or balance?
Physical movement. I try to walk or cycle to the office and that incredibly helps you to be happier and balance your world. I need to improve that, too.
You’re a passionate cyclist. What’s your dream cycling route or event you’d love to do?
As a cyclist who already climbed to Uludağ (1865 m) I’m dreaming to climb to other mountains in Türkiye and Alps. But I need to improve my fitness a little bit.
If you could instantly master a new skill outside of tech, what would it be?
I would love to be extremely patient with people. If that is not counted as a skill (I think it should), I would love to play a peaceful sounding instrument very well.
