cloud DevOps engineer
Snapshot
Are you fascinated by automation and cloud technologies? As a cloud DevOps engineer, you'll be at the forefront of streamlining software delivery, ensuring applications are deployed efficiently and reliably.
Cloud DevOps engineers are vital in modern software development, bridging the gap between development and operations teams. Your work focuses on automating and optimizing the software release lifecycle, particularly within cloud environments. You'll leverage infrastructure as code, automated testing, and continuous delivery pipelines to ensure rapid, reliable, and repeatable deployments. This role requires a strong understanding of both development practices and operational infrastructure.
- • Managing and configuring code repositories and build services.
- • Automating testing and deployment processes using DevOps tools and methodologies.
- • Defining and deploying infrastructure as code for cloud-based workloads.
Where this occupation is in demand
Reported labour shortages and surpluses, by year. Published for occupation groups, not for individual job titles.
Deeper colour: reported the same way in more consecutive years.
Figures cover Information and communications technology professionals — 75 jobs including this one.
In shortage: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia and 9 more.
Longest-running shortage: Czechia, 4 years.
Select a place on the map to see its figures.
About this source›
Source: ELA/EURES labour shortages and surpluses. Readings are published at occupation-group level, and cover Europe. Editions differ in annex layout and country coverage, so a change between years does not always mean the labour market changed. Countries in grey were not reported, which is not the same as being in balance.
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Find your career path and explore the science behind our recommendations.
Could cloud DevOps engineer fit you?
Answer three quick questions. This is not a full assessment — it is a teaser to help you decide whether to compare your profile.
Do you enjoy tasks that require Attention to Detail?
Do you enjoy tasks that require Dependability?
Do you enjoy tasks that require Analytical Thinking?
Future Outlook for cloud DevOps engineer
The outlook for cloud DevOps engineer reflects a balanced mix of automation exposure and durable, human-led work.
How are these scores calculated?
The Resilience Score (0–100) estimates how structurally protected this occupation is from automation and AI disruption, based on task-level analysis. Higher scores mean more human-judgment-intensive tasks. AI Exposure shows the estimated percentage of task hours that current AI capabilities could affect. These are model-derived structural indicators, not predictions about individual job security.
How could cloud DevOps engineer change as AI adoption grows?
This role is likely to change gradually, with AI supporting selected tasks rather than replacing the whole occupation.
Illustrative scenario based on task automatability — not a forecast. Values are rounded the further ahead you look.
How could cloud DevOps engineer change as AI adoption grows?
This role is likely to change gradually, with AI supporting selected tasks rather than replacing the whole occupation.
Illustrative scenario based on task automatability — not a forecast. Values are rounded the further ahead you look.
How AI may change this role
Deterministic, model-based interpretation of current role signals — not a guarantee of replacement.
What still depends on people
- automate cloud tasks
- design for organisational complexity
- manage disaster recovery plans
Where AI may become a co-pilot
- implement cloud security and compliance
- plan migration to cloud
- do cloud refactoring
Tasks most exposed to automation
- manage cloud data and storage
Vital Signs & AI Vectors
AI Exposure Vectors
0-100%Exposure to AI-assisted analysis, pattern recognition, and predictive modelling tasks
Exposure to content generation, creative augmentation, and large language model tools
Exposure to workflow automation, decision-support software, and process digitisation
Exposure to physical automation, robotics, and sensor-driven task displacement
Technical Details
NexFuture v3.0 estimates automation exposure natively from ESCO essential-skill groups, weighted by skill mass and calibrated against expert anchors. Scores are probabilistic estimates, not guarantees. See the NexFuture Methodology White Paper for full details.
Measures automation exposure. It does not measure pay, demand, or how many jobs exist near you.
What people in this role usually do
Digital Technology
A typical day as a cloud DevOps engineer
09 09:00 · Morning automate cloud tasks
10 10:30 · Mid-morning deploy cloud resource
12 12:00 · Midday design cloud architecture
14 14:00 · Afternoon design cloud networks
15 15:30 · Late afternoon design database in the cloud
17 17:00 · Wrap-up design for organisational complexity
Task order is illustrative. Individual days vary.
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cloud monitoring and reporting
The metrics and alarms utilizing cloud monitoring services, in particular performance and availability metrics.
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cloud security and compliance
Cloud security and compliance concepts, including shared responsibility model, cloud access management capabilities, and resources for security support.
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cloud technologies
The technologies which enable access to hardware, software, data and services through remote servers and software networks irrespective of their location and architecture.
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DevOps
The DevOps development approach is a methodology to design software systems and applications focused on the collaboration and between software programmers and other ICT professionals and automation.
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ICT system programming
The methods and tools required to develop system software, specifications of system architectures and interfacing techniques between network and system modules and components.
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integrated development environment software
The suite of software development tools for writing programs, such as compiler, debugger, code editor, code highlights, packaged in a unified user interface, such as Visual Studio or Eclipse.
- computer engineering
- system backup best practice
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design cloud architecture
Design a multi-tier cloud architecture solution, which tolerates faults and is fit for the workload and other business needs. Identify elastic and scalable computing solutions, select high-performing and scalable storage solutions, and choose high-performing database solutions. Identify cost-effective storage, computing, and database services in the cloud.
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design cloud networks
Apply cloud networking concepts and implement connectivity services of cloud. Given customer requirements, define network architectures on cloud, propose optimized designs based on the evaluation of an existing implementation. Evaluate and optimize cost allocations given a network design, its cloud resources, and application data flow.
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design database in the cloud
Apply design principles for an adaptive, elastic, automated, loosely coupled databases making use of cloud infrastructure. Aim to remove any single point of failure through distributed database design.
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do cloud refactoring
Optimise application to best use cloud services and features, migrate existing application code to run on cloud infrastructure.
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develop with cloud services
Write code that interacts with cloud services by using APIs, SDKs, and cloud CLI. Write code for serverless applications, translate functional requirements into application design, implement application design into application code.
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automate cloud tasks
Automate manual or repeatable processes to minimize management overhead. Evaluate cloud automation alternatives for network deployments and tool-based alternatives for network operations and management.
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design for organisational complexity
Determine cross-account authentication and access strategy for complex organizations (for example, an organization with varying compliance requirements, multiple business units, and varying scalability requirements). Design networks and multi-account cloud environments for complex organizations.
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plan migration to cloud
Select existing workloads and processes for potential migration to the cloud and choose migration tools. Determine a new cloud architecture for an existing solution, plan a strategy for migrating existing workloads to the cloud.
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deploy cloud resource
Identify and execute steps required to provision cloud resources, such as networks, servers, storage, applications, GPUs, and services. Define the cloud global infrastructure and remediate deployment issues.
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manage disaster recovery plans
Prepare, test and execute, when necessary, a plan of action to retrieve or compensate lost information system data.
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implement cloud security and compliance
Implement and manage security policies and access controls on cloud. Differentiate between the roles and responsibilities within the shared responsibility model.
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manage cloud data and storage
Create and manage cloud data retention. Identify and implement data protection, encryption, and capacity planning needs.
Skill DNA
Work personality traits and values that define this role
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Scan to continue on mobileGrowth Pathways & Similar Roles
Explore typical career progression paths, adjacent skills, and similar roles to plan your next transition.
Where does cloud DevOps engineer fit?
Similarity scores based on skill overlap from ESCO data.
Frequently asked questions
- What skills are most important for a cloud DevOps engineer?
- Strong proficiency in cloud platforms (like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud), scripting languages (Python, Bash), configuration management tools (Ansible, Chef, Puppet), containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes), and CI/CD pipelines is essential. Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform or CloudFormation is also highly valuable.
- How does this role differ from a traditional system administrator?
- While system administrators traditionally manage infrastructure manually, a cloud DevOps engineer focuses on automating infrastructure management and the software delivery pipeline. DevOps emphasizes collaboration and continuous improvement, while system administration often focuses on maintaining existing systems.
- Is this a good career path for someone transitioning from a development or operations background?
- Absolutely! Developers can leverage their coding skills to automate deployments, while operations professionals can apply their infrastructure knowledge to build robust and automated systems. The combination of both skillsets is highly sought after in this field.
- Cloud DevOps Engineer — is there a shortage in Europe?
- Yes. In the 2025 ELA/EURES edition, a shortage was reported in 13 of the 17 European countries that assessed this occupation group: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia and 9 more. Czechia has reported one for 4 consecutive years. These assessments are published per occupation group rather than per job title.
- Cloud DevOps Engineer — what does it pay in the United States?
- $133,080 a year at the median, as of 2025-05. State medians run from $79,380 to $174,410. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a United States figure and not a projection for Europe.