Cloud Computing Job Market

Cloud computing technologies and the enterprise market for them have grown significantly over the past decade and show no signs of slowing down. Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, enterprises have adopted cloud platforms and applications at a quicker rate to accommodate an increasingly distributed workforce. 

The cloud computing job market has also grown to meet the development and regular maintenance needs of enterprise cloud infrastructure. Whether you’re a new high-tech graduate or an experienced engineer, recruiters are looking for candidates for a diverse range of locations, titles, and specialties in the cloud computing market.

Building a Career in Cloud Computing

• Cloud computing market
• Cloud computing job types
• Education for cloud computing roles
• Cloud computing open roles
• Cloud computing salaries
• Hiring and getting hired in cloud computing

Read more: Cloud Computing Market 2021

Cloud computing market

The global cloud computing market is one of the fastest-growing technology markets in the world. It reached $274.79 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.1%, reaching $1.25 trillion by 2028, according to Grand View Research.

This growing market includes several cloud platform and services vendors, but the market is overwhelmingly dominated by multimillion and billion-dollar enterprises. The following large cloud vendors hold a significant share of not only the cloud computing market, but the tech industry as a whole:

• AWS
• Microsoft Azure
• Google Cloud
• Alibaba Cloud
• Oracle Cloud
• IBM Cloud

More about the leaders: AWS vs. Azure vs. Google Cloud

Cloud computing job types

Although every company develops and implements cloud technologies in slightly different ways, most companies hire for cloud computing roles that build, monitor, and manage both cloud technologies and the data that powers them:

Cloud architect

Cloud architects design the infrastructure and ideas behind a cloud setup, thinking long-term and strategically about how the cloud can be improved.

Cloud engineer

Cloud engineers handle day-to-day management, monitoring, bug fixes, and other necessary solutions within cloud infrastructure. This person typically works closely with cloud architects.

Cloud developer

Cloud developers create and optimize applications to be hosted on public or private clouds. Although they don’t typically work directly on cloud infrastructure, they have to be very familiar with it in order to design compatible applications.

Cloud consultant

Cloud consultants are usually third-party vendor representatives who help clients deploy or customize cloud platforms and software. Although they likely have an engineering or coding background, many cloud consultants originally come from a sales or marketing background.

Data scientist

Data scientists work across a variety of tech fields, but in the cloud computing realm, they often focus on improving data quality and searchability as well as enabling machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions in the cloud.

More on data science careers: Today’s Data Science Job Market

Education for cloud computing roles

The majority of cloud computing employees have a master’s degree or a bachelor’s degree in one of the following technical fields: computer science, management information systems (MIS), or engineering. 

Some universities, such as Purdue University, have also started offering degree programs in cloud computing that are quickly gaining traction.

Since several companies are hiring for specific cloud skill sets, you can set yourself apart from other candidates if you build knowledge in the following specialty areas:

• Salesforce and customer relationship management (CRM) cloud development
• Programming languages (Python, Java, HTML, C/C++, SQL, NoSQL, and Linux are good places to start)
• Security best practices (consider widely recognized certifications like CISSP)
• Platform/brand-specific certifications and experience (Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, AWS, etc.)
• DevOps and agile best practices

Starting your job search: What Are CIOs Looking for in Current IT Grads? 

Cloud computing open roles

LinkedIn has several hundred thousand open positions listed for cloud computing roles. These are some of the most commonly listed job titles:

• Cloud engineer
• Solutions engineer
• Cloud/platform-specific administrator
• Cloud architect
• Cloud support engineer
• Cloud developer
• Cloud infrastructure engineer
• Sales engineer for cloud platforms
• Cloud networking security tech lead
• Cloud consultant
• Software developer/engineer/architect
• Back-end developer
• Data scientist (with specialization in AI/ML)

Although smaller companies are also hiring for cloud computing specialists, LinkedIn’s open positions are mostly posted by larger enterprises like:

• Google
• General Mills
• Rackspace
• NVIDIA
• Salesforce
• Akamai Technologies
• Zoom

Cloud computing salaries

While average salaries in most career fields are easier to identify based on job title, cloud computing salaries mostly hinge on the specific cloud skills and platform experience that candidates have to offer. 

It’s important to note that while many cloud computing salaries have remained fairly stagnant over the past couple of years, employees with marketing and sales cloud specialties have increased their average salaries significantly:

(Source: “The Dice Tech Salary Report: 2021 Edition”)

Hiring and getting hired in cloud computing

The cloud computing job market has been a strong one since its genesis, but with the growth of remote work and computing, more cloud computing vendors and enterprise customers are looking for cloud experts to join their team. 

The pool of cloud candidates, however, is limited. Recruiters are noticing an extreme shortage of skilled tech workers, making cloud computing roles highly lucrative for qualified candidates.

“Tech roles have the lowest supply of available talent of any occupation right now,” said Jay Denton, chief analyst at ThinkWhy, an AI-driven talent solutions company. 

“As of July, jobs in tech had a 1.5% unemployment rate, the lowest of any occupation. Additionally, the rate is approaching an all-time low, which was 1.3% in July 2019, the summer before the pandemic.”

If you’re a recruiter, consider pushing for an increased budget when hiring for cloud roles. If you’re a candidate in the cloud computing job market, continue to build on the skills and platform-specific knowledge that are in high demand right now and being rewarded.

Read next: Top Trends in Cloud Computing 2021