DevOps engineer (33, Switzerland, Computer Engineering grad) looking to move into MLOps/AI – is an online master worth it?

[u/Disastrous-Ad-4829]

Hi everyone,

I’m 33 and based in Switzerland, working as a DevOps engineer with around 7 years of experience. My background is mostly in CI/CD, cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, monitoring/observability, and automation – the usual DevOps toolkit. I have a degree in Computer Engineering, so I’m comfortable with programming and core CS concepts.

Over the last year I’ve become increasingly interested in AI/ML, especially MLOps and AI engineering. I’d like to transition my career in that direction (MLOps/platform/infra for ML systems, or AI/LLM engineering on the infra side).

To make this transition more “official” on my CV, I’m seriously considering a part‑time, fully online master’s degree in AI / data science / ML, ideally from a European or Swiss university, so that I can keep working while I study. My main goal with the master is:
• To have a recognized credential (MSc) that helps recruiters and companies take the shift seriously.
• To get structured coverage of ML/AI fundamentals, not to become a pure data scientist, but to understand the ML lifecycle well enough to do solid MLOps/ML platform work.

My questions for the community:
1. Has anyone here moved from DevOps to MLOps/ML platform roles around this age (early/mid‑30s)? How realistic is it, and what did your timeline look like?
2. From the hiring side, how much does an online master actually help versus strong projects + hands‑on MLOps skills?

For example, degrees like:
• Online/part‑time MSc in AI or Data Science from European universities (distance‑learning, 90–120 ECTS).
• Swiss or EU distance‑learning AI masters (UniDistance, Distance University/Idiap, IU, GoVersity, etc.).
3. If you were in my position (33, Computer Engineering degree, 7 years DevOps, Switzerland), where would you invest first?
• A serious online master for the credential and structured learning.
• Or several focused courses/bootcamps + self‑driven projects (MLOps, LLMOps, cloud AI, etc.) and skip the degree?

I’m already comfortable with Python for scripting and infra work, and I’m starting to read more ML/LLM papers and play with small projects, but I want to be strategic with time and money. Any honest experiences, advice, or “if I were you I’d do X/Y” perspectives from people already working in MLOps/AI (especially in Europe/remote roles) would be super helpful.[reddit]
Thanks in advance!