Free Career Roadmap
Become a Cloud Engineer
Architect the invisible infrastructure of the internet
Duration
12 months
Salary Range
$80k – $220k+
Difficulty
challenging
Job Demand
very high
4
Phases
18
Skills to Learn
11
Projects
6
Certifications
1
Phase 1 · Months 1–3
Cloud Fundamentals
Master AWS deeply (recommended primary cloud).
Core Skills to Master
Recommended Projects
Deploy static site on S3 + CloudFront
Multi-tier VPC with subnets
EC2 automation scripts
Industry Certifications
AWS Cloud Practitioner ($100)
Key Milestones (3)
AWS Cloud Practitioner certified
3+ AWS deployments
Deep IAM understanding
2
Phase 2 · Months 4–6
Infrastructure as Code
Terraform, containers, and automated deployments.
Core Skills to Master
Recommended Projects
3-tier app via Terraform
GitHub Actions pipeline
Auto-scaling application
Industry Certifications
AWS Solutions Architect Associate ($300)
HashiCorp Terraform Associate
Key Milestones (3)
Solutions Architect certified
3 Terraform projects on GitHub
IaC principles mastered
3
Phase 3 · Months 7–9
Advanced Cloud Architecture
Kubernetes, security, and multi-region design.
Core Skills to Master
Recommended Projects
EKS cluster with autoscaling
Serverless application
Multi-region disaster recovery
Industry Certifications
Kubernetes CKA ($395)
AWS Security Specialty
Key Milestones (3)
CKA certified
4 production cloud projects
Architecture blog posts
4
Phase 4 · Months 10–12
Land Your Cloud Role
Target cloud-first companies and top consultancies.
Core Skills to Master
Recommended Projects
Open source Terraform modules
Cloud architecture blog
Industry Certifications
AWS Solutions Architect Professional ($300)
Target Companies
Key Milestones (3)
50+ applications
5+ interviews
Cloud engineer role secured
Job Ready — Cloud Engineer
Completing this pathway equips you with verified projects, assessment scores, and the exact skills required by current hiring managers.