I'm curious about the intersection of automation and cloud infrastructure. For someone moving from a manual QA or Ops role, what salary can you expect after AWS certification in the DevOps Engineer Professional track? I’ve heard that combining automation skills with AWS can lead to some of the highest-paying individual contributor roles in the industry.
3 answers
DevOps is where the money is if you enjoy the technical side of things. The AWS DevOps Engineer Professional certification is notoriously difficult, but that's why it pays so well. In 2023 and 2024, the average salary for this role has hovered around $150,000, with many senior roles hitting $180,000+. If you can demonstrate proficiency in CI/CD pipelines, CloudFormation, and monitoring tools, you'll be at the top of every recruiter's list for high-growth startups and established tech giants alike.
Do I need to be an expert in coding like Python or Go to really hit those $150k+ numbers?
The transition from manual Ops to AWS DevOps was the best financial decision I ever made for my career.
I second that; the salary jump is real, but the work is also much more engaging and impactful for the business.
Edward, you don't need to be a software developer, but you definitely need a strong grasp of scripting. Python is the industry standard for AWS automation. If you can write scripts to automate infrastructure deployment and management, that is exactly what pushes you into that higher salary bracket. Without coding, you might get stuck in more traditional ops roles that pay significantly less than true DevOps positions.