What does a cloud engineer do?

Cloud engineers need to be able to perform many technical and non-technical tasks from being able to effectively present cloud-based solutions and their advantages to company management and negotiating with vendors to actually maintaining and troubleshooting the cloud-based system and keeping it secure. 

While in small companies that are just beginning their transition to a cloud-based environment there may be only one cloud engineer who’s expected to perform all tasks related to cloud computing, in large companies with lots of employees focused on cloud engineering everyone is assigned a specific role. Some of the most popular cloud application engineer job roles include software engineer and architect, systems administrator, Java developer, data scientist, sata engineer and more. 

Any cloud engineer resume needs to have a bachelor’s degree in IT or computer science listed on it. You should also strive to know as many programming languages as possible, including Python, Java, C++ and Angular JS. Employers also require cloud engineers to be familiar with various tools, including Kafka, Kubernetes, Redshift, SQL and more. Security is one of the main concerns when it comes to cloud computing and cloud databases so experience in cyber security is also a significant advantage. 

A cloud engineer with a bachelor’s degree can expect to make an average of $96,554 a year before tax, however, a few years of experience can boost this number. If you have a master’s degree, you can expect you salary to rise by about $10,000 a year. Plus, wages in larger companies are usually higher than in small ones. 

As with most IT jobs, your best bet is to search for a cloud engineer position in a large city with lots of booming businesses. The hottest markets include New York, Chicago, Washington DC, San Francisco, San Jose and Boston.