Top Jobs for AWS Certified Professionals

AWS is the market leader in the cloud world offering many certifications. These certifications not only help you increase your skill set but to also improve your chances of landing your next cloud job. Today, we will discuss some of the top cloud jobs for AWS certified individuals. Let’s start with the Cloud Architect!

Cloud Architect

The job of a Cloud Architect is ranked among the most prestigious technical jobs. Cloud Architects often interface with C-level executives. The main responsibilities of an AWS Cloud Architect include:

• Provide technical leadership related to products, processes, tools, technologies, etc.
• Provide cost-efficient and scalable AWS native solutions
• Design and deploy scalable, highly available systems on AWS
• Identify the correct AWS service based on business and technical requirements
• Suggest a cost-effective and efficient architecture for a diverse range of business applications
• Migrate on-premises applications to AWS
• Oversee the migration of multi-tier applications to AWS

AWS Cloud Architects design the technical architectures and lead the implementation efforts, ensuring the latest technologies are successfully integrated into customer environments. Cloud Architects work directly with customers, providing both technical leadership and an interface with different stakeholders.

The annual average of Cloud Architects is around $155,659 per annum in the USA. The salary falls between $80,500 to $212,500 per annum depending on skills, experience, and position.

Cloud Engineer

The role of an AWS Cloud Engineer is to manage and automate the cloud infrastructure in terms of setup, maintenance, deployment, and optimization. The responsibilities of an AWS Cloud Engineer include:

• Set up, migrate and administer the AWS infrastructure
• Automate applications deployments and infrastructure as code
• Identify, evaluate, and resolve infrastructure vulnerabilities and application deployment issues
• Interact with stakeholders, provide cloud support, and make recommendations based on business and technical needs
• Develop and maintain cloud-native solutions in accordance with industry’s best practices
• Ensure efficient functioning of data storage and process functions according to the company’s security policies and industry’s best practices in cloud security
• Review existing systems and make recommendations for possible improvements

Usually, cloud engineers work under the guidance and supervision of cloud architects. Architects design the system, and cloud practitioners implement the system.

The average salary for an AWS Cloud Engineer is around $129,810 per year in the USA. Depending upon an individual’s skills and expertise, it can be as high as $177,000 and as low as $72,500.

SysOps Administrator

The SysOps Administrator is responsible for managing and operating different applications in the AWS environment. The focus is more on the infrastructure compared to the applications themselves. Responsibilities of an AWS SysOps Administrator include:

• Provisioning, installation, configuration, and maintenance of systems and associated infrastructure
• Configure new systems and deploy them according to technical and business requirements
• Solid understanding of the cloud metrics and monitoring the utilization of AWS resources through Amazon CloudWatch
• Configuration of AWS resources and fine-tuning the cloud infrastructure systems (e.g. effective use of AWSConfig)
• Reducing the time required for production deployment through infrastructure automation (e.g. Cloudformation)
• Creating and managing VPC, security groups, network firewalls, storage, DNS, etc.
• Maintaining the backup of resources (e.g. on-premise resources backup to AWS)
• Upgrading various software and OS patching; managing the disaster recovery and data backups
• Ensuring data integrity and access control through the AWS application platform
• Monitoring billing and cost optimization strategies

The estimated total pay for an AWS SysOps Administrator is $114,674 annually in the United States – ranging from 91,731 to $139,327 depending on the level of skills and experience.

DevOps Engineer

The role of a DevOps Engineer is to ensure a smooth workflow of application development and deployment. It is a combination of development and operations. Following are some of the key responsibilities of a DevOps engineer:

• Perform infrastructure maintenance and implement any debugging or patching that may be needed
• Implement automation to streamline processes, improve efficiencies and reduce cloud hosting costs
• Collaborate with product owner, Solutions Architects, platform team and development teams for continuous improvement
• Enhance and drive automation, including “Infrastructure as Code”
• Setting up and maintaining CI/CD pipelines
• Integrating automation test suites with CI/CD pipelines
• Perform R&D to deliver complex solutions on public, private, or hybrid cloud
• Analyze and troubleshoot issues related to infrastructure and CI/CD, and develop tools for task automation
• Business-as-usual Support on a need basis for critical issues
• Managing and upgrading DevOps tools, libraries, and processes
• Setting up and maintaining containerization needs (Docker, Kubernetes, etc.)

The annual salary of an AWS DevOps engineer is around $127,998.

Cloud Security Engineer

Security is one of the inevitable needs of modern applications, which makes the role of a cloud security engineer vital for any organization. Here are some of the job responsibilities of a Cloud Security Engineer:

• Use advanced methods for securing the AWS platform
• Use suitable encryption techniques to protect data
• Ensure regulatory and compliance needs by designing and implementing security measures according to the industry’s best practices
• Ensure optimal use of AWS security groups, NACL rules, security hardening, etc.
• Use AWS built-in processes and tools to implement secure internet protocols
• Make different tradeoff decisions related to cost, security, and deployment based on business and technical needs
• To understand and apply specialized data classifications and AWS data protection mechanisms
• Implementation of IAM users, roles, and policies
• Implement WAF and VPN’s for secure connectivity between different systems
• Implement secure communication between the public AWS cloud and on-premise infrastructure

The average salary for AWS-certified security specialty is around $101,336 annually in the USA.

Cloud Developer

A Cloud Developer builds software services and enterprise applications using the AWS platform. Following are some of the key responsibilities of an AWS cloud developer:

• Code in multiple programming languages (e.g. Python, C, Java, NodeJS)
• Implement new services released by AWS to build business applications
• Understand the current application infrastructure and suggest improvement to it
• Identify and document best practices for application deployment and infrastructure maintenance
• Migrate existing infrastructure with zero downtime to establish a fault-tolerant and scalable infrastructure
• Implement CI/CD pipeline using the AWS CI/CD services or external CI/CD tools
• Write infrastructure as code (IaC) using CloudFormation or Terraform
• Implement monitoring solutions (including CloudWatch, Prometheus, etc.)
• Implement best security practices (e.g. using IAM Roles, KMS, etc.)
• Implement containerization using Docker and kubernetes
• Implement different serverless approaches using AWS Lambda, AWS Fargate, and Serverless Application Model (AWS SAM)

The annual average salary of an AWS cloud developer is $132,055.

Network Engineer

Network Engineers help organizations build and maintain cloud-native and hybrid networking infrastructures. They also integrate existing networks with AWS cloud resources. Key responsibilities of an AWS network engineer include:

• Design complex solutions for the AWS network
• Support for performance maintenance and network optimization
• Monitor network performance and troubleshoot different issues as they arise
• Oversee installation, configuration and maintenance of end user workstation hardware and software
• Ensure network connectivity of all servers, workstations, VPN’s, and other network appliances
• Implement and document network asset management, including maintenance of network component inventory
• Monitor and evaluate network performance and provide network performance reports
• Lead all network security solutions
• Perform network and security audits, and system backup and recovery
• Develop infrastructure as code on AWS using best practices and implementation for non-production and production environments

The annual average salary of an AWS network engineer is $126,750.

Conclusion

AWS is widely adopted around the globe creating a growing number of job opportunities. In this article, we’ve listed a number of jobs for AWS certified professionals. So if you’re keen to increase your earning potential and enter the exciting world of cloud computing, getting AWS certified is a great first step towards reaching your career goals. Earning AWS certifications, helps you to showcase your skills and dedication to continued education. Check out our AWS training courses, which will help you get your desired AWS certification.