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Cloud Engineer Job Description (2026): Duties, Skills and Salary

A cloud engineer designs, builds and runs infrastructure on public cloud platforms such as AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. The work covers networking, compute, storage, identity and access, and more and more often the internal platforms other engineers use to get environments and services without filing tickets.

Cloud engineers define infrastructure as code, automate provisioning, keep accounts secure and compliant, and watch the bill. The titles blur: cloud engineer, platform engineer, cloud infrastructure engineer and cloud architect often describe overlapping jobs, with architects spending more time on design and less on hands-on building.

Cloud Engineer job description template

Copy it, replace everything in [brackets] and cut what doesn't apply. Keep the requirements to what the job really needs.

Template · replace the [brackets]

Cloud Engineer

[Company] · [City and office days, or remote with the countries or time zones you hire in] · [Full-time]

About [Company]

[Two or three sentences on what your company does, who it serves and why this team matters now.]

About the role

[Company] is looking for a cloud engineer to design and run our [AWS / Azure / GCP] environment. You'll build the network, identity and platform foundations [number] engineering teams depend on, define it all in code, and keep it secure, reliable and cost-efficient.

What you'll do

  • Design and build cloud environments: VPCs, subnets, peering and DNS, compute, storage and identity.
  • Define infrastructure as code in [Terraform, Pulumi, Bicep or CloudFormation] with reusable, reviewed modules.
  • Build self-service pieces such as templates, golden paths and on-demand environments for development teams.
  • Manage identity and access with least privilege, in line with [security framework].
  • Monitor cost, right-size resources and report spending by team with tags and budgets.
  • Plan and carry out migrations from on-premises, or between cloud services.
  • Document architecture decisions and support teams adopting the platform.

What you'll bring

  • [X]+ years working hands-on with [cloud provider] in production.
  • Strong infrastructure-as-code skills with Terraform or the provider's native tooling.
  • Solid networking and identity knowledge: routing, firewalls, private connectivity, IAM policies.
  • Experience with containers and a managed Kubernetes service [EKS, AKS or GKE].
  • Scripting in Python, PowerShell or Bash.
  • An eye for security and cost trade-offs in design decisions.

Nice to have

  • A professional-level certification such as AWS Solutions Architect Professional or Azure Solutions Architect Expert.
  • Experience building an internal developer platform, for example with Backstage.
  • Multi-cloud or hybrid cloud experience.
  • FinOps practice.

What we offer

  • [Pay range: e.g. $X–$Y base salary, plus bonus or equity if offered]
  • [Certification exam fees, a training platform subscription, home-office budget]
  • [Health cover, retirement or pension plan, paid time off, parental leave]
  • [Work authorization: whether you can sponsor a visa or hire through an employer of record]

[Our process: a recruiter call, an architecture discussion about a realistic workload, a hands-on review of a Terraform change, and a meeting with the platform team.]

[Your equal opportunity statement, and how candidates can ask for adjustments during the process]

Put the pay range in the ad. Several US states, including California, Colorado, New York and Washington, require it in job postings, and the EU Pay Transparency Directive gives applicants the right to know the starting pay or its range before the interview.

What real cloud engineer job ads ask for

The skills named most often in the 506 newest cloud engineer job ads we analyzed (out of 2,035 live postings), as the share of ads that mention each. A skill most ads name is a fair must-have; one few ads name belongs under nice-to-have.

  1. 1CI/CD62%
  2. 2Infrastructure as Code57%
  3. 3AWS56%
  4. 4Terraform54%
  5. 5Kubernetes52%
  6. 6Python50%
  7. 7Azure45%
  8. 8DevOps44%

Degrees mentioned most: Bachelor's degree (29%), Computer Science (26%), Master's degree (7%).

From live job ads · computed November 2, 2026 · refreshed daily

Cloud Engineer duties by seniority

What the job usually looks like at each level. Pitch the ad at one level and say which in the title.

Junior

  • Builds and changes infrastructure from existing modules and patterns.
  • Handles access requests, small migrations and environment setup.
  • Often studies for an associate-level cloud certification.

Mid-level

  • Designs environments for new workloads and writes reusable modules.
  • Owns an area of the platform such as networking, identity or cost.
  • Leads migrations and documents the patterns for other teams.

Senior

  • Sets the cloud architecture, account structure and landing zone.
  • Makes build-or-buy and multi-cloud calls with security and finance.
  • Leads the platform roadmap and mentors engineers.

Cloud Engineer career path

  1. Junior Cloud Engineer
  2. Cloud Engineer
  3. Senior Cloud or Platform Engineer
  4. Cloud Architect or Head of Platform

Cloud engineers typically come from system administration, network engineering or DevOps, and certifications help with the move. Senior paths lead to cloud architect, platform engineering lead or cloud security, or to pre-sales roles such as solutions architect at a cloud provider or consultancy.

Advertised pay for cloud engineer jobs

Median advertised base salary in Cloud Engineer job ads in the United States: $177,500 (middle half: $145,500–$212,800), from 341 job ads with a published salary in the last 90 days.

This is advertised pay, not total compensation: bonuses, commission, equity and benefits aren't included, and many ads publish no pay at all.

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Cloud Engineer job description FAQ

What does a cloud engineer do?

Designs, builds and maintains infrastructure on cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud: networks, compute, storage, identity and the automation around them. Many also build self-service tools that let developers get infrastructure safely on their own.

Should a cloud engineer job description require certifications?

Usually as a plus, not a requirement. Associate-level certifications show baseline knowledge, and professional-level ones suit senior roles, but production experience matters more, so list certifications under nice-to-have.

What's the difference between a cloud engineer and a cloud architect?

A cloud engineer builds and operates the environment; a cloud architect designs it, sets the standards and makes the big decisions on structure, security and cost. In smaller companies one person often does both.