It seems that AWS is the underpinning of a lot of the technology we use today — websites, monitoring, data management, and more. What’s more, the prevalence of AWS cloud support engineers are more in-demand.

For the uninitiated, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud is Amazon’s cloud platform that offers over 175 applications, ranging from infrastructure and storage to blockchain and IoT. Many developers use AWS Cloud applications when building out their products.

For more information about AWS, check out our recent post, What is AWS?

With so many AWS applications and over 1 million customers, it takes a fleet of talented AWS Cloud Support Engineers to keep things moving. So what does being an AWS cloud support engineer entail?

A Day in the Life of an AWS Cloud Support Engineer

A day in the life of an AWS Cloud Support engineer involves a combination of helping customers with their AWS applications, debugging reported problems, building and maintaining AWS test instances, and working with AWS Cloud Developers to better understand and support the product.

Recently, Amazon’s AWS blog shared a day in the life of one of their AWS Support engineers to try and attract more support engineers to apply for jobs with them. This AWS Support Engineer worked on a large variety of different issues with various customers, from talking a new customer through launching their Amazon EC2 instance to assisting an existing customer with their massive data migration.

Even with the latest cloud training, there are new problems ready to be solved and sometimes there are even new products to learn and support. That’s where the testbed comes in. AWS Cloud Support Engineers generally own and maintain their own testbed.

This can be used to run automated tests, build out a new application in order to learn how to troubleshoot it better, and even try to simulate problems experienced by customers.

Since AWS Cloud supports applications on the web, they must be up and running all the time. If something goes wrong, there must be a support engineer available to help. This means that AWS Cloud Support Engineers typically work in shifts: a day shift and a night shift. The work is typically the same,  if you’re a night owl, this could be a really great job opportunity for you!

The Skillset of an AWS Cloud Support Engineer

AWS Cloud Support Engineers should have a solid understanding of AWS applications, cloud computing, networking, system administration, scripting, automated testing, security, system architecture, and network administration.

Since this role centers on supporting customers, it’s important for AWS Cloud Support Engineers to have proper cloud training, be tireless troubleshooters who can see both the big picture and get down to details. Expert knowledge of AWS applications is a must. Plus, experience in customer and technical support is a huge plus.

AWS Cloud Support Engineer Expected Salary

According to Paysa, AWS Cloud Support Engineers make an average of $155,000 a year, with the top percentile of earners making close to $200,000.

Keep in mind that Paysa’s numbers are based on salaries at Amazon. You can also be hired as an AWS Cloud Support Engineer at other companies — like Digital Island, Borland, or Pinnacle Systems. Those salaries average closer to $134,000.

Your Journey to Being an AWS Cloud Support Engineer

If helping customers with their AWS Cloud products, maintaining and monitoring your own testbed, and making well over six figures a year sounds like your dream job, then it’s time to get started adding those skills to your resume!

Fortunately, Udacity offers a variety of Cloud Computing Nanodegree programs and they just announced a partnership with Amazon to create the AWS Machine Learning Scholarship Program. Sign up today for a chance to complete the AWS Machine Learning Engineer Nanodegree program for free!

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Jennifer Shalamanov
Jennifer Shalamanov
Jennifer is a content writer at Udacity with over 10 years of content creation and marketing communications experience in the tech, e-commerce and online learning spaces. When she’s not working to inform, engage and inspire readers, she’s probably drinking too many lattes and scouring fashion blogs.