Six roles.
One connected business.

Six roles, one operating system

A practical refresh for Tony | Notion Paper | 05 October 2026

Use this as a domain map, then work through the scenarios. The job post is brief: examples below are illustrative architectures and exercises, not claims about the employer. Refreshing vocabulary is useful; professional competence still comes from operating the workflow.

Suggested reading order for a software engineer

DevOps → data analyst → technical SEO → paid social → accounts payable. This order uses your engineering foundations first, then adds commercial measurement and finance operations. It is a suggested learning order, not a ranking of the jobs.

DevOps / infrastructure map

Own the service from network boundary to recovery.

Terraform Cloud was renamed HCP Terraform in 2024 [1]. An HCP workspace groups configuration, variables, state and runs; remote execution is its default mode [2]. Protect state because sensitive values can appear in it. A plan previews proposed changes; it is not proof that a release is safe.

Foundations before service names

• Linux processes, permissions, sockets and exit codes; DNS, HTTP, TLS and connection timeouts.
• Availability versus durability; RTO = acceptable recovery time, RPO = acceptable data loss window. Set both with the business.
• Containers share the host kernel. Docker packages the runtime; Terraform provisions infrastructure; GitHub Actions coordinates automation.

DevOps / safe changes and incidents

A green pipeline is one signal; the user journey is the outcome.

Use GitHub Actions OIDC to assume an AWS role with short-lived credentials; constrain the role trust to the intended repository and environment [3]. For containers, multi-stage builds separate compilation dependencies from the runtime image [4]. Pin dependencies, scan artifacts and deploy an immutable image digest.

Bash example: a read-only health check

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
url="${1:?Usage: check-health URL}"
curl --fail --silent --show-error \
  --connect-timeout 3 --max-time 10 "$url"
# Nonzero exit status fails the calling CI step.

Paid social / funnel and economics

Buy useful outcomes, then explain what the measurement can and cannot prove.

Illustrative calculation, no universal benchmarks

Spend $1,000; 100,000 impressions; 2,000 link clicks; 50 attributed orders; $4,000 attributed revenue. CPM = $10; link CTR = 2%; CPC = $0.50; click CVR = 2.5%; CPA = $20; ROAS = 4.0x. These orders need not all be new customers or caused by the ads.

If pre-ad contribution margin is 25% of comparable revenue, simplified break-even ROAS = 1 / 0.25 = 4.0x. This assumes the margin includes variable costs and the revenue basis handles refunds consistently; fixed costs and incrementality can change the conclusion.

Paid social / platforms and clients

The job includes account management, not just campaign buttons.

LinkedIn Insight Tag supports website conversion measurement and retargeting [7]. TikTok recommends Pixel plus Events API with deduplication for website conversions [8]. Meta documents Pixel setup [9]; its detailed CAPI documentation was access-limited during this refresh. Verify its current event-matching requirements before implementation.

Daily operating loop

• Before launch: approved objective, budget, target region, landing page, event test, naming/UTM convention and owner.
• During delivery: pacing, failed ads, spend anomalies, conversion lag, creative performance and funnel breakage. Segment before concluding.
• Experiments: state one hypothesis, primary outcome, allocation and minimum observation period. Avoid changing several variables together or declaring victory after a noisy day.
• Weekly client conversation: objective → result versus target → evidence → uncertainty → decision → owner/date. Ask for approval at the client-agreed spending boundary.

Remote night shift in Vietnam

Clarify client time zones, daylight-saving changes, meeting overlap, escalation coverage and written handoff expectations. A good handoff names live campaigns, pacing risks, changes made, unresolved questions and the next owner. Do not infer a particular US shift from this post.

Data analyst / sources and models

Define what one row means before designing the dashboard.

Retail KPI dictionary

• Net sales = gross sales - discounts - returns, on an agreed tax/shipping basis. AOV = comparable sales / eligible orders.
• Gross margin = (net sales - cost of goods sold) / net sales. Distinguish revenue, gross profit and cash collected.
• Inventory turnover = COGS / average inventory cost over the same period. Stockout rate needs a defined SKU/store/time denominator.
• Refresh latency, missing/duplicate records and source-to-report reconciliation gaps belong on the reporting health view.

Data analyst / integration and SQL

A trustworthy metric survives retries, returns and late data.

PostgreSQL: latest version per sales line

WITH latest AS (
  SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (
    PARTITION BY source_system, store_id, txn_id, line_id
    ORDER BY source_updated_at DESC, ingested_at DESC
  ) AS rn
  FROM raw_sales_lines
)
SELECT business_date, store_id, currency,
       SUM(signed_net_amount) AS net_sales
FROM latest
WHERE rn = 1 AND status = 'posted'
GROUP BY business_date, store_id, currency;

Assumptions: complete row versions; signed_net_amount is already discount-adjusted and negative for returns; business_date comes from the agreed local trading calendar. Ties need a deterministic source version/sequence. Never sum currencies without an agreed FX conversion.

Power BI: measures at the agreed grain

Net Sales = SUM(FactSales[SignedNetAmount])
Sales Orders = CALCULATE(
  DISTINCTCOUNT(FactSales[GlobalTransactionKey]),
  FactSales[EventType] = "SALE"
)
Net Sales per Sales Order = DIVIDE([Net Sales], [Sales Orders])

GlobalTransactionKey must be unique across sources/stores. This ratio includes period returns in its numerator and excludes return-only transactions from the denominator; label it accordingly. It is not automatically cohort-adjusted AOV.

Technical SEO specialist / indexability

Discovery, rendering, indexing and ranking are separate gates.

Triage an important missing page

• Confirm its intended audience and whether it should be indexed. Check status/redirect, robots access, noindex and canonical.
• Use GSC URL Inspection to compare the indexed state with a live test. Inspect rendered content, internal links and sitemap inclusion.
• For large stores, review filters, parameter URLs and duplicate templates. Protect valuable category pages while controlling low-value combinations.

Technical SEO specialist / tools and performance

Fix the bottleneck that affects useful pages, then verify the result.

Core Web Vitals: good thresholds [20]

Evaluate the 75th percentile, separately for mobile and desktop, and meet all three thresholds. Field data measures real experience; lab tools help reproduce causes. Improving these metrics supports user experience but does not promise a ranking position.

Prioritization and proof

Prioritize an accidental site-wide noindex or broken commercial template before polishing isolated metadata. Size impact by important URLs, traffic/revenue exposure and confidence; compare against effort and release risk. Give developers a reproducible ticket and verify the rendered page after deployment.

Technical SEO assistant / execution playbook

Turn an audit into accurate, reviewable work.

Example ticket that a developer can use

Specialist versus assistant

The specialist diagnoses systemic causes and sets priorities and rules. The assistant gathers evidence, executes approved changes and verifies them. This is a useful working distinction; the actual boundary must be confirmed with the employer.

• Before a CMS edit: know the page purpose and approval scope. Keep the existing URL unless a move is explicitly planned.
• After the edit: inspect the live result, not just the CMS preview. Save evidence and report exceptions.
• Routine quality: reproducible exports, clear issue names, accurate URL lists, no duplicate tickets and traceable changes.

Accounts payable / payment controls

Match the obligation, approve the expense, reconcile the payment.

Illustrative exception

PO: 100 units at $10; received: 80; invoice: 100 at $10. Three-way matching exposes the quantity discrepancy. Investigate delivery or recording errors; follow the exception policy before payment. Invoice entry alone is not payment approval.

Controls and operational metrics

• Detect duplicates by vendor, legal entity, invoice number and amount/date checks. Independently verify bank-detail changes.
• Separate vendor changes, invoice approval and payment release; retain audit evidence and resolve rejected payments.
• Monitor overdue items, cycle time, exceptions, duplicate payments, on-time payments and unreconciled balances. Define each population.
• Month-end: review unposted invoices, cutoff, received-not-invoiced items and accruals with finance. Tax/accounting treatment depends on company and jurisdiction.

Cross-role diagnosis / follow the evidence

One symptom can belong to several domains. Assign ownership after locating the failure.

A data contract every team can share

Refresh plan / practise the handoffs

Seven sessions of 45-60 minutes: a starting plan, not a promise of job readiness.

Further exploration after the basics

DevOps: recovery drills, policy as code and cost controls. Analytics: history/CDC, semantic contracts and experimentation. SEO: migrations, large-site crawl control and internationalization. Paid social: incrementality and cohort economics. AP: close processes, exceptions and control design.

Quick evaluation with model answers

Sources / keep your knowledge current

Primary references checked 05 October 2026. Numbered notes point to the specific guidance.

Examples, exercises, diagrams, prioritization and reading order are educational synthesis. Numerical examples are invented and explicitly labeled. Tool capabilities and UI labels can change; check linked documentation when implementing.

1. HashiCorp: HCP Terraform naminghttps://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/cloud-docs
2. HashiCorp: workspaceshttps://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/cloud-docs/workspaces
3. GitHub: OIDC in AWShttps://docs.github.com/en/actions/how-tos/secure-your-work/security-harden-deployments/oidc-in-aws
4. Docker: multi-stage buildshttps://docs.docker.com/build/building/multi-stage/
5. Anthropic: Claude Code securityhttps://code.claude.com/docs/en/security
6. Gemini CLI: sandboxinghttps://geminicli.com/docs/cli/sandbox/
7. LinkedIn: Insight Taghttps://business.linkedin.com/advertise/ads/insight-tag
8. TikTok: Events APIhttps://ads.tiktok.com/resources/help/article/events-api
9. Meta: Pixel setuphttps://www.facebook.com/business/help/952192354843755
10. Microsoft: star-schema guidancehttps://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/guidance/star-schema
11. Microsoft: DAX basicshttps://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/desktop-quickstart-learn-dax-basics
12. Tableau: level-of-detail expressionshttps://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/calculations_calculatedfields_lod.htm
13. Google: noindexhttps://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/block-indexing
14. Google: canonical URLshttps://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls
15. Google: structured datahttps://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/intro-structured-data
16. Google: JavaScript SEOhttps://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/javascript-seo-basics
17. Google: GA4 event-based datahttps://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10089681
18. Google: Tag Manager introductionhttps://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/6102821
19. Screaming Frog: JavaScript crawlinghttps://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/tutorials/crawl-javascript-seo/
20. Google web.dev: Web Vitalshttps://web.dev/articles/vitals
21. Microsoft: D365 invoice matchinghttps://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/finance/accounts-payable/accounts-payable-invoice-matching
22. Microsoft: D365 accounts payablehttps://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/finance/accounts-payable/accounts-payable