IT recruiter’s guide to hiring cloud engineers

Cloud engineers are one of the most sought after IT professionals. Their role involves building and maintaining cloud infrastructure, and they are required to have a working knowledge of one of the three major cloud providers – Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform. Skill assessment tests are the best way to hire for cloud developers (and any other technical role) as it helps make decision making process in hiring more objective.

Introduction

Today cloud technology is all-pervasive. Whether you are storing data or streaming music, you are using cloud-based technology. Seeing as the demand for the technology is high, so is the demand for Cloud engineers. As per a report by NASSCOM, the demand for cloud technology professionals is likely to touch 2 million by 2025. India has the required ecosystem to be a key player in the cloud computing market and can be a potential cloud solutions hub. Let’s now understand more about one of the key professionals in cloud technology – cloud engineer.

A cloud engineer’s role involves building and maintaining cloud infrastructure. They can have more specific roles including cloud architecting (designing cloud solutions), development (coding) and administration (cloud networks). Usually, a cloud engineer has an engineering degree in computer science and experience in one of three major cloud providers – Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform.

What is the role of a cloud engineer?

Cloud engineers can work in cloud architecting (cloud solutions), cloud development (coding), cloud administration (cloud networks), and cloud security. They work together with the engineering team to identify and deploy the most optimal cloud-based solutions for the organisation. They also manage application performance, uptime, and scale, while maintaining high standards of code quality and good design.

Another part of their work involves defining and documenting the best practices and strategies regarding application deployment and infrastructure maintenance. Overall, they manage cloud environments as per company security guidelines.

So essentially, a cloud engineer as an IT professional takes care of all the technical workload related to cloud computing including managing, planning, architecting and monitoring cloud systems.

Skills of a cloud engineer

The role of a cloud engineer includes software, architecture, designing and operations. They need to have the right combination of skills. Some of these skills are listed below:

Programming: Programming is an important part of their role. In their developer role, cloud engineers must be fluent in programming languages like SQL, Python, XML, .Net, etc.
Cloud service provider: A cloud engineer must have working knowledge of one of these cloud service providers – Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
Containers: Cloud engineers need to have a sound knowledge of container-based applications. Containers are a trustworthy way of moving software from one cloud computing environment to another.
DevOps: AWS DevOps is a relevant skill to have for cloud engineers as they work in software and operations.
Web services and API: A keen understanding of this is required to work with the architecture of the cloud services.
Security: Cloud security is a very important part of cloud services. So cloud engineers must know how to implement protective measures against malwares.
Linux: An open source software, Linux has features like easy customisation. Many servers that power Azure are Linux-based and Linux is widely used in cloud-based platforms.
Networking: Cloud networking is in high demand as users are looking for simpler ways to access networks using cloud-based services.

What are the steps to hiring a cloud engineer?

Identify & Screen: Integrate assessment links within the job posters when you post the job requirement. You have the option of hosting a hackathon online to screen and identify top candidates. You may also choose to give the applicants a home test in the job description itself.

Assess: Share technical assessments as per the skill proficiency required for the role with the screened candidates. Make these assessments domain-specific and project-based to check on-the-job skills. Coding proficiency can be measured by giving them coding assignments. The assessment round is important as it lends objectivity to the candidate’s profile in terms of skills and knowledge. With this round you can check their suitability for the job as these assessments mimic real-life problems.

You can either build these assessments in-house or with platforms like Yaksha.

Interview: You can use the assessment results to get a detailed report of the performance of each candidate. This will help you understand their strengths and skills. To follow up with the assessment round, you may decide to conduct multiple rounds of interview. You can choose to add coding assessments to the interview process to keep the process objective. The interview round can help you decide if the candidate is a good fit for the organisation. Team members can also hop on to a short interview to see if the candidate fits into the company culture.

Yaksha offers on-demand interview-as-a-service so that you can find the right candidates for different tech roles. Interview and screen candidates as per your needs with Yaksha’s IaaS to save time and make your hiring process 2X faster.

Onboard: Onboarding can go above and beyond admin tasks. Have an informal meeting of the candidates with the rest of the team so that they get a feel of the organisation’s culture. You may also give the candidate a technical assessment to find their skill gaps. This will help you chart out L&D plan so that they can upskill as per the requirement for their role.

Build customised technical assessments to measure skill gaps with Yaksha.