This article compiles the most attractive and most profitable job descriptions in the cloud computing space.
Cloud computing is a rapidly changing field—many experts argue that virtually every app will eventually run in a cloud environment.
As you’ll see in this article, there are some highly lucrative cloud computing jobs available today. I’ve roughly sorted them from obvious to not-so-obvious.
Without further ado, let’s get started with the most obvious cloud developer opportunity!
AWS Developer
⭐ Make no mistake: Learning AWS is one of the most important, most sought-after, and most profitable things you can do as a developer!
“Amazon Web Services offers a broad set of global cloud-based products including compute, storage, databases, analytics, networking, mobile, developer tools, management tools, IoT, security and enterprise applications.
These services help organizations move faster, lower IT costs, and scale. AWS is trusted by the largest enterprises and the hottest start-ups to power a wide variety of workloads including:
- web and mobile applications,
- game development,
- data processing and warehousing,
- storage,
- archive, and
- many others.”
The average annual income of an AWS Developer in the United States is $122,799 per year according to ZipRecruiter.
Another estimate is provided by Glassdoor that provides data supporting an annual income of AWS Developers of $115,000 per year.
🌍 Learn More: AWS Developer — Income and Opportunity [Full Guide on the Finxter Blog]
Azure Developer
“Azure is also commonly used as a platform for hosting databases in the cloud. Microsoft offers serverless relational databases such as Azure SQL and non-relational databases such as NoSQL. In addition, the platform is frequently used for backup and disaster recovery.” (source)
The average annual income of an Azure Developer in the United States is $122,031 per year according to Talent.com. Entry-level Azure Developers start with $107,250 per year. Top earners make $127,000 and more in the US according to Glassdoor!
🌍 Learn More: Azure Developer — Income and Opportunity [Full Guide on the Finxter Blog]
Database Administrator
A database administrator (DBA) is an IT professional responsible for maintaining the reliable, efficient, and secure execution of a database management system (DBMS).
In this way, a database administrator is responsible for providing the data infrastructure of a company or organization. This involves installing, configuring, debugging, optimizing, securing, troubleshooting, and managing database systems.
DBAs can either work as employees or as freelancers remotely or onsite.
Question: How much does a Database Administrator (DBA) in the US make per year?
The average annual income of a Database Administrator in the United States is between $83,533 and $131,056, with an average of $100,920 and a statistical median of $98,860 per year.
🌍 Learn More: Database Administrator — Income and Opportunity [Full Guide on the Finxter Blog]
DevOps Specialist
A DevOps engineer/specialist works with engineers, software developers, system operators (SysOps) and administrators (SysAdmins), and other production IT professionals to release and deploy code in the real world. — TechTarget
The average annual income of a DevOps Specialist in the United States is between $92,000 and $143,000 with a median of $120,000 per year according to our collection of data sources such as Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, and Salary.com.
Here’s the raw data about DevOps engineers income levels from various sources:
| Source | Annual Income (US) |
|---|---|
| Builtin.com | $126,301 |
| Glassdoor.com | $143,158 |
| PayScale.com | $98,103 |
| Salary.com | $120,871 |
| Kinsta.com | $103,253 |
| ZipRecruiter.com | $134,079 |
| Comparably.com | $92,777 |
🌍 Learn More: DevOps Specialist — Income and Opportunity [Full Guide on the Finxter Blog]
Distributed Systems Developer
A distributed systems engineer designs, implements, and debugs distributed systems for cloud computing, data storage, crypto & web3, or analytics.
The idea is to design a distributed system that can provide a service to users that couldn’t be provided by a centralized system (e.g., providing a decentralized, censorship-free monetary network).
Question: How much does a Distributed Systems Engineer in the US make per year?
The average annual income of a Distributed Systems Engineer in the United States is between $97,000 and $169,656, with an average of $126,894 and a statistical median of $130,000 per year.
🌍 Learn More: Distributed Systems Developer — Income and Opportunity [Full Guide on the Finxter Blog]
Docker Developer
Let’s have a look at the definition from the :
“Docker takes away repetitive, mundane configuration tasks and is used throughout the development lifecycle for fast, easy and portable application development – desktop and cloud.
Docker’s comprehensive end to end platform includes UIs, CLIs, APIs and security that are engineered to work together across the entire application delivery lifecycle.” — Official Docker Website
The average annual income of a Docker Developer — defined as a software developer or cloud engineer skilled in Docker — in the United States is $98,000 per year according to PayScale (source).
Top earners make $127,000 and more in the US!
If you decide to go the route as a freelance Docker Developer, you can expect to make between $15 and $89 per hour on Upwork (source). Assuming an annual workload of 2000 hours, you can expect to make between $30,000 and $178,000 per year.
Note: Do you want to create your own thriving coding business online? Feel free to check out our freelance developer course — the world’s #1 best-selling freelance developer course that specifically shows you how to succeed on Upwork and Fiverr!
🌍 Learn More: Docker Developer — Income and Opportunity [Full Guide on the Finxter Blog]
Elasticsearch Developer
Elasticsearch is a scalable and open-source full-text search and analytics engine to store, search, and analyze big volumes of data quickly. (Source)
An Elasticsearch Developer integrates Elasticsearch into apps and software projects — mostly for companies that require complex search features.
The average annual income of a US-based Elasticsearch Developer is between $90,000 (25th percentile) to $139,000 (75th percentile) according to Ziprecruiter. Top earners can make up to $165,000 annually (source).
🌍 Learn More: Elasticsearch Developer — Income and Opportunity [Full Guide on the Finxter Blog]
Google Cloud Developer
Google Cloud is a collection of cloud services such as storage, compute, scaling, and machine learning to provide a comprehensive IT environment to a wide range of businesses.
Here are some of — but by no means all! — Google’s cloud services:
- Google Cloud Connect is a plug-in to synchronize Microsoft Office documents to Google Docs
- Google Cloud Datastore is a NoSQL database service
- Google Cloud Messaging is a mobile notification service
- Google Cloud Platform is a suite of cloud-computing services
- Google Cloud Print is a service that lets users print from any device within a network cloud
- Google Cloud Storage is AKA Google Storage, a file-storage Web service
The average annual income of a Google Cloud Developer in the United States is $106,000 per year according to PayScale. Top earners make $130,000 and more in the US according to Glassdoor!
🌍 Learn More: Google Cloud Developer — Income and Opportunity [Full Guide on the Finxter Blog]
Hadoop Developer
“The Apache Hadoop software library is a framework that allows for the distributed processing of large data sets across clusters of computers using simple programming models.
It is designed to scale up from single servers to thousands of machines, each offering local computation and storage.
Rather than rely on hardware to deliver high-availability, the library itself is designed to detect and handle failures at the application layer, so delivering a highly-available service on top of a cluster of computers, each of which may be prone to failures.” — Hadoop website
The income of a Big Data Hadoop Developer in the US is between $73,445 and $140,000. The middle 50% of Hadoop Developers make $73,445 and the top 75% make $168,000. (source)
🌍 Learn More: Hadoop Developer — Income and Opportunity [Full Guide on the Finxter Blog]
Kubernetes Developer
“Kubernetes, also known as K8s, is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
It groups containers that make up an application into logical units for easy management and discovery. Kubernetes builds upon 15 years of experience of running production workloads at Google, combined with best-of-breed ideas and practices from the community.”
From the official Kubernetes website
The average annual income of a Kubernetes Developer in the United States is between $117,000 (25th percentile) and $174,000 (75th percentile) with an average of $147,000 per year according to Ziprecruiter (source). Top earners make $203,000 and more in the US!
🌍 Learn More: Kubernetes Developer — Income and Opportunity [Full Guide on the Finxter Blog]
Microsoft SQL Server Developer
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) to store and retrieve data on the same computer or across a network.
A Microsoft SQL Server Developer creates and connects applications that access the Microsoft SQL Server API. (Source)
The average annual income of a Microsoft SQL Server Developer is between $74,000 and $137,500 according to Ziprecruiter (source):
🌍 Learn More: Microsoft SQL Server Developer — Income and Opportunity [Full Guide on the Finxter Blog]
Network Engineer
A network consists of two or more connected computers that communicate with each other (e.g., chat apps), share resources (e.g., printing devices), exchange data (e.g., files or digital assets such as Bitcoin).
A network engineer plans, supervises, debugs, installs, and implements computer networks.
The required skill set of a network engineer includes a profound understanding of basic networking protocols such as TCP/IP and UDP, as well as basic hardware configurations such as Ethernet switches and routers.
The job description of a network engineer is to
- configure and install network hardware devices such as switches and routers,
- network software applications such as firewalls and load balancers, and
- set up security and network interfaces and protocols such as VPN, TCP/IP, and Wifi.
- A network engineer also maintains and optimizes existing computer networks or telecommunication networks and keeps them secure and updated.
The average annual income of a Network Engineer in the United States is between $68,000 and $104,000 with a median income of $87,000 per year according to multiple sources including Indeed, Glassdoor, and Talent.com.
🌍 Learn More: Network Engineer — Income and Opportunity [Full Guide on the Finxter Blog]
System Administrator
A system administrator (SysAdmin) is responsible for keeping a system, server, or server application running smoothly and without unexpected negative system behavior.
This involves tasks such as management, debugging, troubleshooting, licensing, and updating hardware and software systems.
A SysAdmin makes sure to proactively avoid negative system behavior such as security exploits, data loss, or system downtime.
How much does a System Administrator make per year?
The average annual income of a System Administrator in the United States is between $75,207 and $92,500, with an average of $83,088 and a statistical median of $84,031 per year.
🌍 Learn More: System Administrator — Income and Opportunity [Full Guide on the Finxter Blog]
Conclusion
You’ve learned the top job descriptions in the broad field of cloud computing.
There are plenty of additional opportunities because nowadays, more and more programmers operate in cloud environments.
For example, machine learning engineers often use cloud services to perform their model training on large GPU clusters.
Programmer Humor
❓ Question: How did the programmer die in the shower? ☠️
❗ Answer: They read the shampoo bottle instructions:
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.