Cloud Engineer
Cloud engineers build and maintain the servers, storage and networks a business rents from a cloud provider instead of running in its own data centre.
- Median salary*
- $111,800
3.7%vs last year, before tax
- People employed
- 1,000
0.0%vs last year
- Projected growth*
- +14.2%
to 2035
- AI exposure*
- Moderate
- automation risk
- Average hours*
- 40/wk
matches all-jobs average
- Shortage status*
- In shortage
national
Cloud engineers work inside platforms such as AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, setting up the infrastructure that applications run on rather than writing the applications themselves. Most write that infrastructure as code, so an environment can be rebuilt automatically instead of configured by hand, and they spend real time on security settings and the monthly bill. The role sits close to software development and systems administration, and job ads sometimes blur the three, but a cloud engineer's main output is the platform other teams build on.
How much do cloud engineers earn?
The median full-time salary for a cloud engineer is $111,800 per annum, before tax, up $23,100 since 2018.
What you earn depends more on the platform skills you can demonstrate than on years served, so cloud certifications and specialisation in areas such as security or Kubernetes pull pay up quickly. The sector matters too, with finance, government and large technology employers typically paying above smaller businesses, and contract work paying a higher rate in exchange for no paid leave. On-call rotas usually carry an allowance or loading on top of the base figure.
What does a cloud engineer do day to day?
The list below is what fills most weeks; the exact mix shifts with seniority and whatever stage the current work is at.
- Writing infrastructure-as-code templates so environments can be rebuilt from scratch instead of hand-configured
- Getting paged when a service in production starts behaving strangely and working out whether it is the network, the platform or the code
- Reviewing the monthly cloud bill and figuring out which resources are quietly costing more than they should
- Locking down access, encryption and network rules across accounts so a security review does not turn up surprises
- Being pulled into conversations with developers, security and finance because cloud decisions touch all three
What skills do cloud engineers need?
Employers look for cloud infrastructure, programming and software development, networks and systems administration, backed by AWS (EC2, S3, VPC, RDS) fluency and strong problem solving.
Specialist skills
- Cloud infrastructure
- Programming and software development
- Networks and systems administration
- Cyber security
- Operations management
- Agile delivery
Software and tools
- AWS (EC2, S3, VPC, RDS)
- Terraform / CloudFormation
- Docker / Kubernetes
- Git / GitHub
- Prometheus / CloudWatch
General skills
- Problem solving
Is the job growing?
About 1,000 people work as cloud engineers in Australia, and employment is projected to grow 14.2% over the decade to 2035. That's healthy, above-average growth, and the role should stay in solid demand.
How do you become a cloud engineer?
Here's the path most cloud engineers take, step by step.
- 1Build an IT foundation
About 52% of people working as cloud engineers hold a bachelor degree, usually in IT, computer science or software engineering, and a TAFE diploma in a related field is a workable alternative for school leavers. What matters at the end is being comfortable with operating systems, networking and at least one programming language.
- 2Learn one cloud platform properly
Pick AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud rather than sampling all three, and work towards an associate-level certification such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate or Microsoft Azure Administrator. Employers read the certification as evidence you can navigate the console and the core services, though it is no substitute for having built something.
- 3Get hands-on with real infrastructure
Set up your own environments, break them, rebuild them with Terraform or CloudFormation and keep the work in a public Git repository. This is the part that separates candidates, because it shows you have handled the awkward bits: permissions, networking and cost.
- 4Enter through a nearby role
Many cloud engineers start as systems administrators, network engineers or IT support officers, or in a junior cloud operations or platform team where the work is paid and supervised. Those roles build the troubleshooting habits that cloud work runs on, and the step across usually takes a short course or a certification rather than another degree.
- 5Specialise as you go
Professional-level certification, Kubernetes, security or platform engineering is what moves you from maintaining environments to designing them, and it is usually the point where pay and responsibility step up.
Ready to apply as a cloud engineer?
Whether you're working toward becoming a cloud engineer or already are one and want a hand with the next step (sharpening your resume for ATS screening, tightening your cover letter, or knowing what you'll actually be asked at interview), here are examples grounded in this specific role, not generic templates.
What jobs can a cloud engineer move to?
Moving into Solutions Architect typically comes with the biggest pay rise, worth $26,000 a year more on average.
| Move to | Typical pay change | Overlap | Retraining |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solutions Architect Cloud engineers bring hands-on cloud design experience to architect scalable solutions for business needs. | +$26,000 | 12% | reskill |
| DevOps Engineer Cloud engineers bring infrastructure as code and automation skills to streamline deployment and operations. | +$20,100 | 64% | minimal |
| IT Operations Manager Cloud engineers bring technical oversight of infrastructure to manage IT operations and teams. | +$15,600 | 37% | reskill |
| Site Reliability Engineer Cloud engineers bring monitoring, scaling and reliability practices to keep services running smoothly. | +$10,400 | 64% | minimal |
| Cyber Security Engineer Cloud engineers bring knowledge of cloud platforms and networks to secure cloud environments. | +$5,200 | 50% | short course |
Moves are chosen from Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility, which follows income tax records between 2011-12 and 2020-21, together with entry requirements and skill overlap. A known move is one people were seen making in that data. Pay change compares median full-time pay for the two roles.
Who works as a cloud engineer?
The typical cloud engineer is 37 years old; 90% are men, 97% work full-time, and full-timers average 40 hours a week.
- 37
- Median age
- 10%
- Female share
- 97%
- Full-time
- +0h
- vs all-jobs avg
What's it like being a cloud engineer?
The work has a steady rhythm of building, improving and documenting, punctuated by incidents that need an answer quickly and a clear head. Cloud platforms change constantly, so part of the job is reading release notes and re-learning how something works now, and the responsibility for what runs in production is genuine. It suits people who like systems, automation and a bit of detective work when something breaks.
What people like
- Automation that removes a manual job for good. Building a template or pipeline that turns a two-day setup into a ten-minute one is the satisfaction at the centre of the role, and the benefit keeps paying off after you have moved on to something else.
- Production problems are puzzles with a finish line. When a service degrades, you trace it across network, platform and application until you find the cause, and there is a definite moment when the graph goes back to normal.
- Your work is the platform other teams stand on. Developers, data teams and analysts all build on what you set up, so the improvements you make are felt well beyond your own team's workload.
- The skills travel between industries. Banks, government agencies, hospitals and retailers all run workloads in the cloud, which means the same skills move between sectors and often support remote or hybrid arrangements.
What people find hard
- On-call weeks. Rotas mean some nights and weekends belong to the pager, and a production incident does not wait for business hours. Teams usually spread this fairly, but it is a real constraint on how you plan your week.
- The bill is never finished. Cost pressure does not go away once a system is running, so there is always another round of reviewing resources and rightsizing instances, and the savings you find get spent again as usage grows.
- You are expected to know a lot at once. Networking, security, development, operating systems and cost all land on the same desk, and the platforms rename or retire services faster than most people can keep up with.
- You sit between teams that want different things. Developers want to ship quickly, security wants everything closed off and finance wants the spend down, so some of the job is negotiating a workable middle rather than simply building.
Based on our synthesis of professional-body surveys and public accounts of the role, not first-person verified reviews.
Which industries employ cloud engineers?
Information Media and Telecommunications employs the largest share of cloud engineers, followed by Professional, Scientific and Technical Services.
Top employing industries
- 1Information Media and Telecommunications
- 2Professional, Scientific and Technical Services
- 3Financial and Insurance Services
- 4Public Administration and Defence
Ranked by employment share; the source doesn't publish an exact percentage per industry.
| Bachelor degree | 52% | |
|---|---|---|
| Postgraduate | 26% | |
| Diploma / Advanced Diploma | 13% | |
| Other | 9% |
Will AI replace cloud engineers?
AI tools are a working part of the job rather than a threat to it. Assistants draft a good share of the Terraform and CloudFormation templates cloud engineers write, and the cloud providers bundle scanning tools that flag misconfigured storage buckets or security groups before a human looks. That shifts the work towards reviewing, designing and deciding, and the parts that stay human are diagnosing a fault across several systems and knowing which trade-off a business can live with, which is why the role is moderately exposed rather than highly exposed.
Share of typical working time by exposure level
- Writing infrastructure-as-code templatesAI assistants generate a workable first draft of a Terraform module in seconds, but someone still has to check the networking and permission details before it goes near a live account.30%moderate
- Responding to production incidents and alertsWhen checkout slows down on a Saturday, the cause might be a database limit, a bad deployment or a network rule, and working that out from the graphs and logs is still a person's job.25%low
- Reviewing cloud costs and capacityCost tools and AI recommendations highlight idle instances and oversized databases, leaving the engineer to judge whether a suggested change will hold up under next quarter's traffic.25%moderate
- Configuring access, encryption and network rulesIdentity policies and security group rules can be drafted automatically, but the decision about who should reach a production database sits with the engineer and the security team.20%moderate
Common questions about becoming a cloud engineer
Straight answers to the questions people ask most.
How much do cloud engineers earn in Australia?
Cloud engineers earn $111,800 per year before tax at the median for full-time work. Experience running production environments and a professional-level certification are what move you up from there, and contract work usually pays a higher rate to offset the lack of paid leave.
How do you become a cloud engineer?
Most people start with a degree or diploma in IT, learn one cloud platform in depth, and then prove it with hands-on projects in a public repository. Many enter from a nearby role such as systems administrator, network engineer or IT support, where the troubleshooting habits transfer directly.
Do cloud engineers need to code?
Yes, though not in the same way a software developer does. Most of the coding is infrastructure as code in Terraform or CloudFormation, which describes servers, networks and permissions, plus scripting in Python, Bash or Go to glue processes together.
Are cloud engineers in demand?
Cloud engineers are currently in shortage nationally, and employment is projected to grow 14.2% over the decade to 2035. The openings come from organisations moving more of their systems onto cloud platforms, and from the ongoing maintenance, security and cost work that follows once those systems are live.
Will AI replace cloud engineers?
AI already drafts a share of the templates cloud engineers write and flags misconfigured storage or overly open security groups inside the cloud consoles. What it does not do is diagnose a fault that crosses several systems, weigh up an architecture trade-off against a business's constraints, or take responsibility for what runs in production, which is where the role is heading rather than disappearing.
What can cloud engineers move into?
DevOps engineers earn $20,100 more at the median, and the move is short because both roles lean on infrastructure as code and automation pipelines. Site reliability engineers earn $10,400 more, building on the monitoring and scaling work cloud engineers already do, while cyber security engineers earn $5,200 more and typically need a short course to add security depth. Some experienced engineers move into independent contracting or consulting, where the day rate is higher but the work is less steady.
Related roles
- DevOps Engineer
- Site Reliability Engineer
- Cyber Security Engineer
- Solutions Architect
- IT Operations Manager
- Systems Administrator
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