Choosing a role
⚠️ Disclaimer: These are general, broad guidelines, with an inherent bias. There are exceptions to these "rules". The cloud industry is NOT standardised on roles and expectations.
| Role | Highly technical (e.g. 'coding')? |
Existing tech experience? |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Engineer | ⚫️ Often | 🔵 Sometimes |
| Devops Engineer | ⚫️ Often | 🔵 Sometimes |
| Solutions Architect - Associate | 🔵 Sometimes | 🔵 Sometimes |
| Support / Helpdesk | ⚪️ Rarely | ⚪️ Rarely |
| Solutions Architect - Traditional | 🔵 Sometimes | ⚫️ Often |
| Backend Engineer | ⚫️ Often | 🔵 Sometimes |
| Site Reliability Engineer | ⚫️ Often | 🔵 Sometimes |
| Data Engineer | ⚫️ Often | 🔵 Sometimes |
| Frontend Engineer | ⚫️ Often | ⚪️ Rarely |
| Security Engineer | ⚫️ Often | 🔵 Sometimes |
| Quality Assurance - Engineer | ⚫️ Often | 🔵 Sometimes |
| Quality Assurance - Manual | ⚪️ Rarely | ⚪️ Rarely |
| Product Manager | 🔵 Sometimes | 🔵 Sometimes |
| Data Scientist | ⚫️ Often | 🔵 Sometimes |
| Security Analyst | 🔵 Sometimes | 🔵 Sometimes |
| Business Analyst | ⚪️ Rarely | ⚪️ Rarely |
| Data Analyst | ⚫️ Often | ⚪️ Rarely |
| Consultant | ⚪️ Rarely | ⚪️ Rarely |
| Sales Engineer | 🔵 Sometimes | 🔵 Sometimes |
| Solution Engineering | ⚫️ Often | 🔵 Sometimes |
| Scrum Master / Agile coach | ⚪️ Rarely | ⚪️ Rarely |
| Project/Program Manager | ⚪️ Rarely | 🔵 Sometimes |
| Engineering Manager | ⚫️ Often | ⚪️ Rarely |
| Account Manager | ⚪️ Rarely | ⚪️ Rarely |
- ⚫️ Often - In MOST cases.
- 🔵 Sometimes - In SOME cases.
- ⚪️ Rarely - NOT in MOST cases.