As organizations everywhere embrace cloud tools and platforms, learning cloud-related skills can translate into lots of job opportunities for technologists. And as a new study makes clear, learning cloud skills can also prove intensely lucrative.
O’Reilly’s latest Cloud Salary Survey, based on responses from 778 “cloud professionals” (developers, architects, executives, and others), places the average salary for cloud-related professions at $182,000. That average salary has increased 4.3 percent over the past year.
Compensation is a major concern for these cloud professionals; some 25 percent told O’Reilly they plan on changing employers in order to secure a bigger paycheck. “By staying with their current employer, an employee may get an annual salary increase of 4 percent,” the report added. “But if they change jobs, they might get a significantly higher offer—20 percent or more—plus a signing bonus.”
In an interesting twist, O’Reilly’s survey also correlates remote work with higher salaries: “The average salary for people who work remotely 1–4 days a week is $188,000. It’s only slightly less ($184,000) for people who work remotely all the time. Salaries are sharply lower for people who never work remotely (average $131,000).”
What’s behind that twist? “Of all jobs in the computing industry, cloud computing is probably the most amenable to remote work,” the report continued. “After all, you’re working with systems that are remote by definition. You’re not reliant on your own company’s data center. If the application crashes in the middle of the night, nobody will be rushing to the machine room to reboot the server. A laptop and a network connection are all you need.”
That’s good news for cloud-inclined technologists who want to work from home and potentially maximize their salary. Current demand for those technologists remains high; those skilled in popular cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure can command superior compensation. Those who’ve mastered the complexities of cloud deployment and maintenance have the leverage to demand flexible (and/or remote) schedules, as well.
