Over recent years, the cloud has transitioned from a technological disrupter to a necessary component for business competitiveness.
Take Gartner’s latest projections, for example: all cloud segments are predicted to record double-digit growth in 2025, with 90% of organizations adopting hybrid cloud by 2027.
And with adoption and spending still on the rise, and trends shifting towards an increasing focus on distributed, hybrid, cloud-native, and multi-cloud environments, knowing how to find top specialist talent becomes critical. After all, your cloud engineers will help you successfully execute projects and leverage technologies like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to their full potential.
But of course, this also means competition is often ripe in the hiring market. The potential implications of this shouldn’t be understated—an imbalance in the supply and demand for the best talent can rapidly escalate competition, driving up the market rate of candidates and their expectations from a job offer. For example, in the Nigel Frank Careers and Hiring Guide: Microsoft Edition, hiring managers told us that the increased competition for talent was their top staffing challenge (43%), a sentiment also echoed across the AWS ecosystem (46%).
As a result of these challenges, knowing what to look for when hiring cloud engineers becomes vital to streamlining your hiring approach, giving you the advantage by ensuring you cut through the noise of your competition. This post will help you navigate the hiring process by outlining the key skills, certifications, red flags, and hiring strategies, empowering you to attract top cloud talent to your organization.
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Key Skills a Cloud Engineer Should Have
A great Cloud Engineer is more than just a technical expert—they’re problem solvers, innovators, and strategic thinkers who help businesses leverage the full potential of the cloud.
The ideal candidate should not only have hands-on experience with cloud platforms, but also possess automation skills, security expertise, and a strong understanding of best practices for scalability and performance optimization.
Of course, that’s not forgetting those key soft skills—cloud engineers must be effective communicators and team players, as they often collaborate with developers, security professionals, and business stakeholders.
When hiring cloud engineers, prioritize candidates with a dynamic mix of technical expertise and soft skills. Below are the core skills to evaluate when reviewing resumes and interviewing candidates:
Technical Skills
- Cloud Platform Expertise: Hands-on experience with leading platforms like AWS, Azure, or GCP is essential, with multi-cloud expertise across two or more technologies an added advantage to the many organizations adopting a hybrid cloud approach. Candidates should be familiar with cloud-native services such as AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, and Google Cloud Run, and understand how to optimize costs, performance, and security within these platforms.
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Cloud engineers should have a strong knowledge of Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, or Ansible for automating infrastructure deployment, and be able to demonstrate an ability to write modular and reusable infrastructure code while adhering to best practices for version control and configuration management.
- DevOps & CI/CD Pipelines: Candidates should have proven experience with Kubernetes, Docker, Jenkins, and GitOps practices. Understanding continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) strategies is crucial, as cloud engineers should be able to set up, maintain, and improve automated deployment pipelines.
- Networking and Security: Your Cloud Engineer should have a solid understanding of IAM (Identity and Access Management), firewalls, encryption, and cloud security best practices, demonstrating proficiency in designing secure VPCs (Virtual Private Clouds), implementing Zero Trust security models, and managing compliance with industry regulations.
- Scripting and Programming: Engineers should be capable of writing scripts to manage cloud resources, automate routine tasks, and integrate different services, with fluency in Python, Go, Bash, or PowerShell for automation and integration.
- Database Management: Experience with cloud-native databases such as AWS RDS, DynamoDB, Google BigQuery, or Azure Cosmos DB is key. Candidates should be skilled in designing and optimizing scalable database solutions and have knowledge of database replication, backup strategies, and disaster recovery planning.
- Monitoring and Performance Optimization: Cloud engineers should be familiar with cloud monitoring tools like AWS CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, or Google Cloud Operations (formerly Google Stackdriver), and be capable of setting up alerts, troubleshooting performance issues, and optimizing cloud resource usage to improve system reliability.
Hiring managers can look out for these key technical skills by reviewing resumes for relevant certifications (more on that here!) and cloud project experience, and requesting evidence through digital portfolios.
During interviews, technical assessments, real-world scenario-based questions, and coding challenges can help gauge a candidate’s ability to apply these skills effectively. Live problem-solving sessions, where candidates design and troubleshoot cloud architectures, provide deeper insights into their technical expertise and strategic thinking.
Soft Skills
- Problem Solving: To troubleshoot and optimize cloud solutions effectively, engineers should have strong problem-solving and analytical skills. Candidates should be capable of combining logical and technical thinking to diagnose complex system failures and implementing proactive measures to prevent future issues.
- Collaboration and Communication: Cloud engineers often work alongside developers, security experts, and business stakeholders, so clear communication and collaboration skills are critical to working with cross-functional teams and articulating complex concepts.
- Willingness to learn: Your ideal Cloud Engineer will demonstrate adaptability through their dedication to keeping up with evolving cloud technologies and industry trends. In fact, this willingness to learn came top of the main things hiring managers look for when interviewing AWS (65%) and Microsoft (57%) candidates. With the cloud landscape evolving rapidly this is little surprise, making it all the more important for top engineers to demonstrate a continuous learning mindset, engaging in ongoing certifications, training, and hands-on experimentation with new cloud services.
- Project Management and Documentation: Engineers should follow best practices in documentation to ensure seamless knowledge transfer across teams—this will prove fundamental to their ability to manage cloud projects efficiently and maintain clear documentation for configurations, workflows, and troubleshooting processes.
To assess these soft skills, employers and hiring managers should look for indicators in resumes, such as experience working in cross-functional teams and involvement in collaborative projects.
During interviews, dig into this soft skill set further with behavioral questions that prompt candidates to describe past challenges, teamwork experiences, and decision-making processes that can provide valuable insights. Role-playing exercises or situational problem-solving discussions can also reveal a candidate’s ability to communicate, collaborate, and think strategically in real-world scenarios.
Cloud Engineers: Certifications and Credentials To Look Out For
First things first: certifications are not the sole indicator of competence, meaning hiring managers should prioritize candidates who complement certifications with real-world experience, hands-on projects, and a strong problem-solving approach.
That said, certifications are useful benchmarks for assessing and validating a candidate’s cloud expertise and attitudes towards development. That’s why the majority of certified professionals across all the tech ecosystems surveyed in our Careers and Hiring Guide believe that holding them increases their value as candidates.
But which ones provide the most value to your organization when hiring a Cloud Engineer? Certifications and credentials to look out for include:
Multi-Cloud and Foundational Certifications
These are great for demonstrating overall cloud knowledge across platforms:
- Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) – Cloud security best practices
- Terraform Associate (HashiCorp) – Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) – Container orchestration
- Docker Certified Associate (DCA) – Container management
AWS Certifications
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner – Foundational knowledge
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate – Best for cloud design
- AWS Certified Developer – Associate – Focus on AWS development
- AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate – Cloud operations
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional – Advanced architecture
- AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional – DevOps & automation
- AWS Certified Security – Specialty – Cloud security expertise
- AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty – Networking in AWS
Microsoft Azure Certifications
- Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) – Intro to Azure
- Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) – Cloud operations
- Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204) – Cloud development
- Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) – Cloud architecture
- Azure DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400) – DevOps tools and practices
- Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500) – Cloud security
- Azure Networking Associate (AZ-700) – Network solutions
Google Cloud Platform Certifications
- Google Associate Cloud Engineer – Cloud basics and operations
- Google Professional Cloud Architect – Cloud design and architecture
- Google Professional Data Engineer – Data processing and AI
- Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer – Cloud security
- Google Professional DevOps Engineer – Automation and reliability
Hiring Cloud Engineers: Red Flags
Hiring the wrong cloud engineer can be costly. Not only is there the financial hit to consider, which the U.S. Department of Labor estimates to cost your business approximately 30% of the employee’s first-year earnings, but there’s also the added implications of security vulnerabilities, inefficient infrastructure, and project delays.
To avoid these pitfalls, it’s essential to recognize warning signs that indicate a candidate may not be the right fit for your organization. Some of the red flags to be aware of during the hiring process include:
- Over-reliance on Certifications: Candidates with multiple certifications but little real-world cloud deployment experience may lack problem-solving skills and confidence in practical, hands-on environments.
- Lack of Multi-Cloud Knowledge: Engineers who specialize in only one cloud provider may struggle in hybrid or multi-cloud environments, which are increasingly common in enterprise settings.
- Limited Understanding of Security Best Practices: Security is paramount in cloud computing. A weak grasp of IAM, encryption, compliance standards (such as GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2), and incident response strategies could cause major roadblocks and create critical project issues.
- Inability to Work in DevOps-Driven Teams: Cloud engineers must collaborate with developers, security teams, and operations. A rigid, siloed mindset is a drawback that can slow down innovation and efficiency.
- Poor Documentation and Knowledge Sharing: If a candidate does not prioritize documentation or knowledge sharing, it can create long-term operational challenges for cloud teams.
- Resistance to Continuous Learning: Engineers who do not actively pursue new skills, certifications, or emerging technologies risk failing to keep up with industry advancements, which can leave your organization behind in a rapidly changing tech landscape.
How to Find Top Cloud Talent
As you’ve no doubt picked up by now, finding the right cloud engineer requires a careful and considered approach that balances technical ability, business needs, and budget considerations. The process involves more than just scanning resumes for buzzwords—it demands a deep understanding of cloud technologies, hiring best practices, and the evolving talent market.
To start, define the specific skills and experience required for the role, considering whether your business needs expertise in AWS, Azure, GCP, or a multi-cloud environment. Look for candidates who demonstrate hands-on experience with cloud architecture, automation, security, and DevOps practices, and don’t forget about all-important soft skills like problem-solving, adaptability, and collaboration—these are equally important in ensuring long-term success.
While the hiring process can be complex, taking a structured and knowledgeable approach will ensure that you bring the right talent into your team—and the importance of this can’t be downplayed in such key areas of your business. By prioritizing both skills and strategic alignment, you can build a strong cloud engineering team that drives innovation and business growth.
You can achieve this through a number of ways—either by attending networking events regularly and engaging with those in the ecosystem online, or ensuring you have the right stakeholders involved throughout the recruitment phase. But that all takes time, and isn’t guaranteed to bring you success.
Our specialist recruitment team have deep expertise, unparalleled market knowledge, and unprecedented access to talent, which means we already know how hard it is to attract the cloud engineers you need.
But we also know the products we work with inside and out, and we understand what skill sets you need to get the job done, meaning we always find the right cloud engineering talent for your organization, and fast. So why not begin your hiring journey with us today?
