Field

Cloud

Build and operate computing environments across modern cloud platforms.

Cloud is the same infrastructure problems — compute, network, identity, storage — expressed entirely through APIs and code. That changes the job more than it sounds: you stop configuring boxes and start describing systems. Honest note: cloud is usually a second job, reached from support, systems or networking.

Inside cloud

Cloud Administration

Running what already exists in AWS or Azure — accounts, cost, access, uptime.

Cloud Engineer Systems Engineer

Cloud Engineering

Building the environment itself, in code, so it can be rebuilt tomorrow.

Cloud Engineer DevOps Engineer Platform Engineer

Cloud Architecture

Choosing the shape of a system, and living with the trade-offs you picked.

Cloud Architect Security Architect Cloud Engineer

Cloud Networking

VPCs, peering, transit and hybrid links between cloud and the office.

Cloud Network Engineer Network Engineer Cloud Engineer

Cloud Security

Identity-first security in an environment with no perimeter to defend.

Cloud Security Engineer Security Engineer DevSecOps Engineer

DevOps & SRE

The pipeline from a developer’s laptop to production, and the reliability of what lands.

DevOps Engineer Platform Engineer Site Reliability Engineer

All 11 roles in this field

Each page covers what you actually do, the technologies, where the work happens, the honest downside, and only then the certifications.

Cloud Architect

Choose the shape of a system, then live with the trade-offs you picked.

Cloud

A senior destination

Cloud Engineer

Build and run infrastructure that exists only as an API call.

Cloud

Usually a second role

Cloud Network Engineer

Solve routing problems that exist only as API calls.

Cloud Networking

Usually a second role

Cloud Security Engineer

Secure infrastructure that can be created, changed and destroyed in seconds.

Cloud Cybersecurity

Usually a second role

DevOps Engineer

Make shipping software boring — automated, repeatable and reversible.

Cloud Software & Automation

Usually a second role

Platform Engineer

Build the internal platform other engineers deploy onto, so they stop reinventing it.

Cloud Systems & Infrastructure Software & Automation

A senior destination

Site Reliability Engineer

Decide how reliable a system needs to be, and engineer it to stay there.

Cloud Support & Operations Software & Automation

A senior destination

DevSecOps Engineer

Put the security checks inside the pipeline, so nobody has to remember them.

Software & Automation Cloud Cybersecurity

A senior destination

Identity Engineer

Own the system that decides who everyone is and what they may reach.

Cybersecurity Systems & Infrastructure Cloud

Usually a second role

Security Architect

Decide the shape of defence before anything is built — then defend the decision.

Cybersecurity Cloud Networking

A senior destination

Zero Trust Engineer

Stop trusting anything for being "inside", and build what replaces that assumption.

Cybersecurity Networking Cloud

A senior destination

Roles that live here and somewhere else

These are listed under cloud because a real part of the job is cloud work — but their centre of gravity is in another field. If one of them keeps catching your eye, that tells you something.

Technologies you’ll meet here

Click any of them for a plain-English explanation.

BGP The protocol networks use to tell each other how to reach one another — it is how the internet decides where traffic goes.
Zscaler / SASE Cloud-delivered security that inspects and controls traffic wherever the user happens to be.
Microsoft Entra ID Microsoft’s cloud identity service — sign-in, MFA and the rules deciding when access is allowed.
Okta / SSO platforms One login that unlocks many applications, with the rules for who gets which.
Linux The operating system most servers, network devices and cloud workloads run on, driven from a command line.
VMware vSphere Software that runs many virtual servers on a smaller number of physical ones, and moves them around live.
AWS The largest cloud platform — servers, networks, storage and identity created through an API instead of a purchase order.
Microsoft Azure Microsoft’s cloud — deeply tied to Windows and Entra ID identity, which is why enterprises land there.
Kubernetes A system that runs containerised applications across many machines and restarts them when they fail.
Docker Packages an application with everything it needs so it runs identically anywhere.
Terraform Describes cloud infrastructure in files so an entire environment can be created, reviewed and rebuilt.
Ansible Applies a described configuration to many servers or network devices at once, repeatably.
Git Tracks every change to files, who made it and why — the backbone of reviewing infrastructure changes.
REST APIs The standard way one system asks another to do something, without a human in between.
See the full technology map →