When Amazon Web Service (AWS) was first unveiled five years ago, no one could foresee how fast the platform would rise in importance. Within such a short time, AWS has grown steadily to become one of the most in-demand cloud platforms. Throughout 2018, AWS remained the most dominant cloud service provider and exited Q4 of the same year in the same position. The latest market share reports show that Amazon Web Service continues to outpace the market.
Consequently, demand for AWS professionals continues to rise steadily. With each release of surveys such as the Global Knowledge IT Skills and Salary Report, AWS certifications feature prominently.
Figure: AWS has the highest market share, ahead of services like Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure
AWS has different roles (Amazon offers certifications for each of these roles, in multiple languages), and each position attracts a lucrative salary.
The average salary of an AWS Solutions Architect, the most prevalent AWS certification, earns an average salary of $159,033 in the United States in 2022. Professionals in the cloud IT industry have become increasingly interested in achieving an AWS certification.
What is AWS?
Amazon Web Services is a cloud computing service offered by Amazon. Cloud services provide the necessary computing power, on-demand delivery of content, and storage space that allow businesses to scale at a low cost. With AWS, companies can:
- Host websites on cloud-based servers
- Safely store files. Files saved in the cloud are accessible from any location
- Store information on managed databases like SQL, Oracle, and MySQL
- Use a content delivery network on AWS to deliver content around the world
- Send bulk emails
Some of the world’s largest companies such as General Electric, SPLUNK, Samsung, Unilever, Netflix, Kellog’s, ESPN, Twitter, among others, use AWS for the purposes mentioned above. Medium-sized companies in industries such as media, medical, tech, retail, and manufacturing also leverage the functionalities of AWS. They use AWS to host their services, for big data management, and to predict user behavior.
Read more: Top 10 Reasons to Learn AWS
AWS offers 165 services, far more than any other cloud service platform. Each service has more in-depth functions, allowing for faster, easier, cost-effective app building, and active migration. For instance, AWS’ Kubernetes, Farage, and ECS all provide different ways of running containers. Another example is the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). Amazon EC2 offers a wide variety of “instance types” to cater to different use cases and balance memory, cost savings, and speedy handling of workloads.
What is an AWS Solutions Architect?
AWS solutions architects are responsible for the vision underlying AWS solutions. They sit on a development team to ensure that technical decisions made by developers result in systems that are aligned with business visions and outcomes. To achieve this goal, a solutions architect should have the necessary business acumen needed to:
- Appreciate the role played by software and hardware systems in achieving business objectives
- Understand end-users’ problems and their work processes, and translate the same into solutions that increase efficiency
- Explain technical aspects of a project to end-users and management teams to get buy-in
- Solve scalability issues
- Work out integration challenges with third-party programs
In addition to the business skills mentioned above, an AWS solutions architect should possess the technical knowledge necessary to oversee the architecting and deployment of applications within AWS platforms. These include:
- Planning for the adoption of cloud services
- Management and monitoring of cloud platforms
- Application design and building on the cloud
- Software development: Proficiency in Java, Python, C++, and JavaScript, including BASH scripting
- Data security and compliance laws
- Networking
- Linux OS: Executing Unix commands and performing containerization with Docker
- Understand tools used in the AWS environment, such as Ansible, Chef, Docker, Jenkins, among other tools necessary for application building and deployment.
- Complex project management, using tools like Jira.
An AWS solutions architect course is a significant first step towards building proficiency in the areas mentioned above.
Read more: How to Become an AWS Solutions Architect?
What is the Average Salary of an AWS Solutions Architect?
In 2018, the 2018 IT Skills and Salary Survey sourced 16,000 professionals, of which, 807 were AWS certified.
In the USA, AWS solutions architect certification is reported to be the highest-earning certification, at an average annual salary of $118,266.
Outside of the US, countries such as Canada, Australia, UK, Malaysia, Singapore, UAE, and India are great places for AWS solutions architects to work. Below is a series of tables showing AWS solutions architect salary for beginners, intermediary, manager, and late-career levels in the countries mentioned above. This data is compiled from Payscale.
For more details on the salary trends of AWS Solution Architects, you can also check out this salary calculator.
AWS Solution Architects Salary Summary Table
|
Beginner (1-4 years) |
Mid-career (5-9 years) |
Experienced (10-19 years) |
Late career (20+ years) |
|
|
Malaysia |
RM. 116,000 |
RM 146,290 |
RM 164,983 |
|
|
Singapore |
S$ 53,000 |
S$110,538 |
S$109,293 |
S$179,399 |
|
India |
Rs 674,000 |
Rs 13,85,844 |
Rs 19,49,574 |
Rs 24,93,285 |
|
United Kingdom |
£48,527 |
£57,232 |
£64,013 |
£65,747 |
|
Australia |
AU$103,410 |
AU$124,514 |
AU$130,584 |
AU$141,361 |
|
UAE |
AED 155,000 |
AED 212,958 |
AED 305,070 |
AED 478,895 |
|
Canada |
C$89,247 |
C$99,395 |
C$103,896 |
C$114,138 |
AWS Solutions Architect Salary by Country
AWS Certification Salary In US
AWS Solutions Architects earn an entry-level salary of $138,000 per year in the United States. In the United States, the average salary for an AWS Senior Solutions Architect is $276,000 per year.
The following is a sample of the average US salary for positions that require AWS certification in 2022.
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner = $171,000
AWS certified solutions architect = $159,033
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator = $158,777
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer = $125.000
AWS Solutions Architect Salary in Malaysia
Figure: Average Salary of AWS Solutions Architect in Malaysia
AWS Solutions Architect Salary in Singapore
Figure: Average Salary of AWS Solutions Architect in Singapore
AWS Solutions Architect Salary in India
Solution Architects in India earn an average salary of $24,55,000 per year.
Figure: Average Salary of AWS Solutions Architect in India
AWS Solutions Architect Salary in the United Kingdom
Figure: Average Salary of AWS Solutions Architect in the UK
AWS Solutions Architect Salary in Australia
Figure: Average Salary of AWS Solutions Architect in Australia
AWS Solutions Architect Salary in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Figure: Average Salary of AWS Solutions Architect in the UAE
AWS Solutions Architect Salary in Canada
Figure: Average Salary of AWS Solutions Architect in Canada
AWS Certifications
To earn the salaries as mentioned earlier, you must first obtain a certification for maximum earning potential.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect
An AWS Solutions Architect certification has two tiers:
Associate Level
At this level, you should understand concepts such as:
- Design and deployment of scalable systems on Amazon Web Services
- AWS services and their suitability for fulfilling different requirements such as security, data, computation, etc.
- On-premise app deployment to AWS
- Data egress from and ingress to AWS
- Best practices for using AWS architecture
- Cost estimation and working out mechanisms for cost control
To get certified, you need to take the relevant course, then sit for the associate exam. The exam is a multiple-choice type and timed for 80 minutes. You will need to recertify every two years, and you can do this by:
- Taking a recertification exam for the same level
- Passing the professional level exams for solutions architect or DevOps engineer
Professional Level
After you get your experience as an associate, you should consider advancing to the professional level. At this level, in addition to the skills mentioned in the associate level, you should know how to:
- Design dynamic and scalable applications on AWS that are reliable and fault-tolerant
- Migrate complex applications
- Enterprise-wide deployment of operations
Once you take the professional-level course, you will sit for a multiple-choice exam timed for 170 minutes. Below are prerequisites for taking the AWS solutions architect certified professional level exam:
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Level certification
- Two years of work experience on the AWS platform
- Demonstrate practical knowledge of using AWS
You have to recertify every two years. Six months before certificate expiry, you will receive an email notifying you that your certificate is almost expired. Be sure to activate email notifications so as not to miss relevant emails.
Conclusion
Now that you know more about the AWS platform and AWS solutions architect salary, you can map your career path to your desired job.
As with all certifications, AWS Solutions Architect Certification Training is significant and essential only when you can demonstrate your practical skills. Apart from certificates, during your interviews, you need to show that you know how to work within AWS and understand its application within companies.
Don’t just read books, watch videos and stop there; work inside the AWS console, break multi-tier applications, and solve them. Testing architecture in an environment that mimics a real production environment is the only way you can demonstrate that you are adept at setting up applications that are:
- Highly available
- Fault-tolerant, and
- Scalable
To achieve that level of proficiency, ensure to take your course from a credible course provider that emphasizes practical knowledge of the AWS platform. After that, with persistence, patience, and focus, you can work your way up to higher certifications that will earn you an AWS solutions architect salary for managers.
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Watch out this video to know more about the roles and responsibilities of an AWS Solution Architect and how to become one.
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