How to Become a Cloud Engineer & Get Hired in 2026

Ever wondered who builds and maintains all the infrastructure that keeps your favourite apps and websites running in the cloud? That’s the job of a Cloud Engineer!

It’s a highly rewarding career where you get to solve interesting problems, work with cutting-edge technology, and earn a seriously impressive paycheck while doing it.

Thinking about making the move? Well, you’re in the right place!

In this guide, I’ll walk you through exactly what a Cloud Engineer does, the skills you need, and the fastest path to landing the job.

You’ll be surprised how achievable it is, so let’s dive in…

How to become a Cloud Engineer without a degree!

Just a quick heads up. This guide is based on our Cloud Engineer career path:

In the future, feel free to check that and follow along as a fast-track cheat sheet.

For now, though, keep reading as I’ll go into more detail around each step, as well as how long it’ll take to learn each part, based on the average completion time of our students.

That being said, there is one thing you can do to cut this learning time down considerably…

Optional step. Speed up your learning

Because you’re going to be learning a lot of new skills, I recommend taking a slight detour and checking out this guide or, better still, this course:

Average time to learn: 5.5 hours

It will teach you how to learn using concepts you’ve never heard of before.

Why care?

Because it’ll help you learn faster, which will then reduce the total time it takes you to learn all these other skills you’ll need. (It’s kind of like stopping the car to fix a flat tire, because you know it will make the whole journey much quicker and smoother).

Then, once you’ve gone through that course and figured out how to learn faster, you can jump into learning all the skills to become a Cloud Engineer at a more accelerated pace.

Step #1. Learn the core cloud skills

Unlike some other tech roles, Cloud Engineer isn’t typically an entry-level position. Most people come to it having already worked in a related role like a sysadmin, DevOps engineer, or general IT role, and then specialise in cloud.

That said, if you’re starting from scratch, this path will show you how to get there.

Learn Cloud fundamentals

AWS is the world’s largest cloud provider, powering everything from Netflix to NASA, and it has the largest market share of any cloud platform by a significant margin. That means most companies hiring Cloud Engineers are hiring specifically for AWS skills, so this is where you want to start.

Go ahead and take my course so you can pass the AWS practitioner exam:

Estimated Time Required For This Step: 18 days.

Passing this particular certificate is great because you’ll learn the basics of working in the cloud at the same time, as well as start to understand why companies are moving everything there.

You’ll also be able to get a grasp on the core AWS services that power most real-world infrastructure, such as EC2, S3, and RDS, as well as how to keep systems secure and how to manage cloud costs.

Oh wow, budgeting you say! How exciting…

I know, I know, but the thing is, the engineers who can optimise cloud spend are genuinely hard to find and well compensated for it, which is why you need to know it.

Learn advanced Cloud Engineering

The Cloud Practitioner certification is a great start, but it’s essentially a foundational qualification. To get hired as a Cloud Engineer, you need to be able to actually design and build real cloud infrastructure, and that’s exactly what the AWS Solutions Architect certification is for:

Estimated Time Required For This Step: 28 days.

This is where things start to get really interesting for your career, because while the Cloud Practitioner teaches you what the cloud is, this course teaches you how to actually use it.

You’ll get into the real stuff that engineers deal with every day:

• How do you build a system that doesn’t fall over when traffic spikes?

• What happens when a server goes down at 2am?

• How do you store and move data at scale without it costing a fortune?

• Etc

Believe it or not, you’re now at a point where you can almost start applying for jobs!

Sure, you may come across some basic scripting skills on the job, particularly around automation. However, it’s something most Cloud Engineers pick up naturally as they go, so you don’t need it before you start applying.

However, this is something we need to do before then…

Step #2. Build a portfolio to prove you can do the work

Here’s the thing about tech jobs that catches a lot of people off guard and its the fact that tech companies don’t really care about your qualifications.

What they care about is whether you can actually do the work, and the way you prove that before you’ve had the job is with a portfolio.

So before you start applying, you’ll want to make sure three things are in order.

• Your LinkedIn profile is up to date and looking professional

• You have a one-page resume ready to go

• And you have a portfolio of project work that shows what you can do

The good news is that fellow ZTM instructor Dan Schifano goes through each of these tasks in detail in his course on personal branding, so that you can get hired, as well as some other great tips to help you stand out even further.

Average time to learn: 1-2 weeks.

You’ll have completed some project work in the past 2 courses to help you pass the AWS certifications, so feel free to add them to your portfolio. Then go a step further and complete this project, and add it in also:

Average time to learn: 1 day.

This project has you building a complete end-to-end web app using five different AWS services:

• Amplify

• Lambda

• IAM

• API Gateway, and

• DynamoDB

Why bother to make this?

Simply because it’s the kind of thing that makes a hiring manager sit up and pay attention, because it shows you can combine multiple services together into something real, which is exactly what the job involves.

Step #3. Apply for Cloud Engineer jobs

Alright, now it’s time to apply for jobs and get hired!

If you’re a ZTM member, then I HIGHLY recommend you check out Andrei’s new course on getting hired at your dream job:

Average time to learn: 12 days.

He covers the entire application and interview process in detail, including his technique, where he gets a 90% interview success rate!

Trust me, you’ll never feel 100% ready, but if you’ve followed along so far, you are ready to start working in the real world.

If you’re anxious, then understand this: The simple truth is that you don’t need to know every detail about everything to get hired. In fact, you’ll pick up a lot of skills and experience simply by doing the job. It’s about having the requirements to get started, and you already have that, so start applying already!

Start learning Cloud Engineering today!

So there you have it. The entire roadmap to becoming a Cloud Engineer within the next 6 months or sooner. (Assuming you already had some DevOps or Sysadmin skills under your belt beforehand).

The transition into Cloud Engineering isn’t that hard. It’s just a different skillset.

All you have to do now is simply start learning and follow the path. Time will pass either way, but your career could look very different if you set your mind to it!

P.S.

Want some good news?

All the courses I’ve mentioned in this guide are included in a single Zero To Mastery Academy membership. So once you join, you’ll have access to all of this and can get started right away.

Plus, as part of your membership, you’ll get to join me and 1,000s of other people (some who are alumni mentors and others who are taking the same courses as you) in the ZTM Private Discord:

Ask questions, help others, or just network with other Cloud Engineers, students, and tech professionals.

Make today the day you take a chance on YOU. There’s no reason why you couldn’t be applying for jobs in just a few months from now!