This article explains more about the demand for AWS consultants and their average salary across the world. In the last couple of years, the demand for AWS consults and their salary has sky rocketed to become one of the highest paying jobs in the market.
The popularity of AWS is prominent in the world of cloud computing. The wide range of services and flexibility for business make AWS the best choice. AWS Partner Network (APN) and AWS consulting companies help customers all over the world to realize their objectives of digital transformation. This shows the professional demand for AWS consultant services. So, if you want a high paying career in cloud computing, then AWS consultant jobs are the right bet!
This job role is one of the most sought-after jobs in cloud computing. In the following discussion, let us find out the different types of career opportunities as an AWS Cloud consultant. This will help in finding out the average salary estimates for cloud consultants on AWS platforms.
Credentials Determine Your Salary as an AWS Consultant
The following factors determine your salary as a AWS Consultant:
- Location
- Skill
- Certification
- Experience
- Company
Location
One of the most important factors that affect your salary is your location of the employment. Here the location has two things, one is country and a city within the country. For example, someone working in India (AWS Technical Consultant), has different salary if he work in Bangalore or Coimbatore. Because those who are working in bigger cities would have greater salary and one who is working in smaller cities draw lesser salary.
The similar way, if some one working in USA would earn more money then who is working in India. Because in USA AWS consultant jobs market is very huge and they earn in USD which is equivalent of 75INR for 1USD.
Skill
The actual role of an AWS consultant is to design, develop and implement the infrastructure to deploy the applications into AWS cloud. This requires various skills to perform these tasks.
If we talk about the salary, AWS consultant average salary would depend closely on the skill base of the consultant. The general estimate for an average annual salary for an AWS consultant is $116,419. The difference in the salary range can be validated based on the certifications they have. The higher adoption rate of AWS cloud services has been one of the reasons for the rising demand for AWS consultants.
Here I have posted a sample job description from one of the cloud company, which shows how diverse and variety of skills required to perform a cloud consultant role.
Certification
As a cloud consultant for the AWS platform, you would have to secure certifications in AWS. The four different levels of certifications vary in terms of AWS consultant salary. The AWS certification levels are practitioner, associate, professional, and specialty. The cloud consultant can provide their expertise in different areas such as architect, developer, administrator, SysOps/DevOps engineer, and others to help organizations as an AWS consultant.
Architects could help in the design and deployment of distributed systems on AWS. Developers can provide support in development and maintaining applications on AWS. The operations aspects would involve SysOps and DevOps roles for supporting the architecture and development aspects. In the cloud computing certification, consultants could learn the AWS cloud technologies and concepts as well as security. Cloud consultants on AWS could also specialize in particular technologies related to big data, networking, and security.
With a better certification portfolio, you could increase your chances for a better AWS consultant salary. So, let us take a look at the different type of certifications needed to become an AWS consultant. This can support our observation of the AWS consultant average salary in this discussion.
Different Types of Certification for AWS Consultant Roles
As the salary of an AWS consultant varies according to the role and certification. So, let’s consider different AWS certifications and the salary one can get with a particular certification.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate
As an architecting professional in AWS, you can receive better AWS consultant salary in 2019. The average salary estimate for an associate-level solutions architect in the US is $130,883. The associate level architecture professionals can serve as AWS consultants. They could provide insights into the following topics.
- Deployment of on-premises applications on AWS.
- Designing and deployment of scalable and highly available applications on AWS.
- Selection of right AWS services according to requirements.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional
The AWS consultant average salary for a professional solutions architect is $148,456 in the United States. You would have to cover the following areas in this job role as an AWS consultant.
- Experienced designing and deployment of dynamic applications on AWS.
- Skills for migration of complex and multi-tiered applications on AWS.
Also Read: How to become an AWS Architect?
AWS Certified Developer Associate
The AWS consultant salary for a professional with developer certification with AWS is $130,272 in the US. The job role as an AWS consultant with this certification includes the following:
- Skills in code-level application security.
- Strong knowledge of selecting the right AWS services for applications.
- Skills for writing code to optimize performance.
- Ability to use software development kits for interaction with services in an application.
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate
The next important certification fetching a better AWS Consultant salary in 2019 is the SysOps administrator certification. The average salary estimate for a consultant with SysOps administrator certification is $130,610. The job roles that a consultant fulfill with this certification can be presented as follows.
- Guidance on technical expertise for deployment, managing, and operations on AWS.
- Migration of on-premises apps to AWS.
- Implementation and control of data flow to and from AWS.
- Identification of operational cost control mechanisms.
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional
The AWS consultant salary for a certified DevOps engineer in AWS is $132,724 per annum. The job roles that an AWS consultant has to address with this certification are:
- Provisioning, operations, and management of distributed application systems on AWS.
- Guidance on security controls and governance processes.
- Implementation and management of continuous delivery systems and methodologies for AWS.
- Maintenance of tools for automation of operational processes.
Also Read: How to become an AWS DevOps Engineer?
Taking a Look at the Variations
An observation of AWS consultant salary trends in different certifications should be supported by estimates of AWS consultant salary per hour.
As per Ziprecruiter.com salary report, the average pay for an AWS consultant for an hour is $61. The highest hourly payments are estimated at $100.48, and the lowest hourly pay can be $10.58. The major share of AWS consultant salary per hour varies between $39 and $70. The variation in the salary is around $31, which shows a very little scope for an increase in pay.
A similar variation could be noted in the AWS consultant salary annual estimates. The minimum salary estimate for an AWS consultant is $22,000, and the highest estimate is $187,000. The annual salary varies between $81,000 and $145,500 with a variation of $64,500. This shows that you can earn better opportunities for earning a better annual salary. All you need to do is diversify your specialization and expertise with AWS certifications.
The Location-based Advantage for AWS Consultants in the UK
You could also take a look at the AWS consultant salary estimates in the UK for 2019. The average annual salary for an AWS consultant in the UK is estimated to be £72,500 in 2019. This presents a definite improvement over the £67,500 in 2018 and £65,000 in 2017. The average annual AWS consultant salary in the UK is also considerably higher than other IT jobs in the UK. The UK median annual salary for other IT jobs is estimated at £50,000. Interestingly, AWS was the topmost skillset in demand in the IT job market in the UK at 99.20%.
Proving Your Mettle as an AWS Consultant
In addition to the promising opportunities for higher AWS consultant salary, you can also focus on the validation checklist. The validation checklist helps in finding out your capabilities as a consulting partner for AWS migration and delivery. These aspects could improve your chances of fetching a better salary.
The checklist involves two components, such as prerequisites and criteria for technical validation. Prerequisites can include existing AWS certifications, customer cases studies, migrated workloads, dedicated migration practice, and partner self-assessment. The technical validation criteria include an overview of migration practices, demonstration of migration methodology, and realizing principles of AWS well-architected framework.
Preparing for an AWS Architect interview? Go through top AWS Architect interview questions and get ready to crack the interview.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that AWS certifications are essential for increasing your AWS consultant salary prospects. Also, you should focus on the location-based advantage that is available in the UK. The comparative difference between annual salary in other IT jobs and for AWS consultants provides proof for the same.
However, the most important fact in this discussion was the need to prove expertise in migration and delivery on AWS. Consultants with the ability to showcase their skills in migration experience and design of well-architected framework have better earning opportunities. The importance of the validation checklist for consulting partners is another highlight of the discussion.
It reflects on obtaining a trusted credential as an AWS consultant. This shows the need for a diverse and proven portfolio in the AWS platform to get better AWS consultant salary. On a final note, the whole AWS landscape is expanding rapidly. There could be no better time to secure a career as an AWS consultant than now!
