Demand for cloud skilled professionals is higher than ever and if you think the cloud skills gap is closing, you’re wrong, says Microsoft.
Alex is a technical writer for Firebrand Training.
In a recent Cloud Skills Report, Microsoft found that 83% of businesses rank cloud as crucial for digital transformation, but organisations are struggling to fill cloud roles.
Hunger for cloud skills is driving salaries up. This is a massive opportunity for cloud professionals who can prove their skills to businesses struggling to find talent. These are the roles every cloud professional should aim for.
Cloud Engineer – £60,000
Cloud deployments – whether public, private or hybrid – need Cloud Engineers to design, plan, build and manage these complex services.
Cloud Engineers are often responsible for every aspect of a company’s cloud estate. These professionals will be expected to undertake optimisation, management, troubleshooting and support of an organisations cloud services and applications.
These skilled professionals will also need extensive knowledge of enterprise-class hardware, including servers, storage subsystems and network gear.
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To validate their skills on cloud platforms and services, many Cloud Engineers aim to achieve industry recognised certifications provided by the likes of Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform. Each vendor provides their own industry-recognised qualifications – Microsoft, for example, supports a large range of Azure courses and certifications.
Cloud Engineers earn a healthy median salary of £60,000 (ITJobsWatch) whilst senior professionals in this position can expect to earn more, typically over £75,000.
Cloud Solutions Architect – £77,500
Cloud Solutions Architects are responsible for the design, planning, deployment and management of enterprise cloud solutions. These professionals oversee cloud application design, architecture and deployment in cloud environments – including public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud.
Solutions Architects take enterprise requirements, like existing applications and data sets, to identify the best set of public/private/hybrid cloud technologies for their organisation. They also act as consultants to their organisation and are required to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and technologies.
Always in demand, these professionals can expect to earn a median salary of £77,500 (ITJobsWatch).
Cloud Infrastructure Architect – £72,500
Organisations hiring Cloud Infrastructure Architects are looking for professionals who can define their cloud infrastructure, from business requirements to cloud deployment.
This job requires strategic knowledge of most cloud computing technologies and providers, as well as the ability to manipulate cloud tech too fit enterprise goals or needs. The vast majority of Cloud Infrastructure Architects possess skills in Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure and VMware technologies.
Cloud Infrastructure Architects are highly skilled professionals and are hard to find in the current job market. Because of this high demand, these professionals can command great salaries – a UK average of £72,500 (ITJobsWatch).
Cloud Security Consultant – £70,000
Cloud Consultants are required to perform a number of technical cloud roles for their own company and for clients. Their expert cloud recommendations are considered by senior management with the aim of ultimately being introduced.
As with all consultants roles, professionals require strong technical skills and good verbal and written communications skills to communicate advanced technical cloud concepts with senior management.
Cloud Security Consultants are responsible for cloud security strategy, readiness and discovery assessments. These specialists must also be familiar with cloud security frameworks, compliance requirements and security operations.
Consultants that pursue certification can also expect to earn more – 86% of respondents to Microsoft’s UK Cloud Skills Report place a high importance on certifications for contractors. They’ll also earn up to £300 more per day than their uncertified peers.
A Cloud Security Consultant with (ISC)2’s Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) certification can expect to earn £70,000 (ITJobsWatch).
Cloud Data Engineer – £78,500
Cloud Data Engineers provide data-driven insight to organisations by collecting, analysing and presenting data. These professionals understand how to design, build and maintain data processing systems, machine learning and security/compliance.
This role requires knowledge of both cloud and non-cloud data-integration techniques, including how to integrate cloud data with on premise data.
As enterprises continue to migrate data to the cloud, these data integration skills are in increasingly high demand. In 2017, enterprises will be scrambling to fill these roles with Data Engineers that understand the cloud.
Knowledge of cloud database services is prized. Cloud Data Engineers with expertise in Cloud BigTable can command median salaries of £78,750 (ITJobsWatch). For those not in the know: Cloud Big Table is the NoSQL Big Data database service that powers core Google services like Search Analytics; Maps and Gmail are sought after.
