It can be hard to find cloud computing certifications that are recognized by employers and AWS is consistently one of the top businesses that hiring managers request; certification helps you stand out from the crowd. At AWS Solution Architect salaries can range from $78,000 to $142,000 with many workers receiving a $10,000 raise after gaining their certification.
How much is an AWS solution architect salary?
If you’re a solution architect in the cloud, you’re part of one of the fastest-growing job areas in IT. You’ll need to be able to keep up with the constant changes in this field, and also be able to communicate clearly and effectively with others who may not have as much experience with cloud technology.
According to Glassdoor’s data, entry-level salaries range from $70k to $90k, while experienced employees can make up to $150k.
Salary for aws solution architect
AWS Solutions Architect Salary in 2022 by Experience and Location
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.
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.
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.
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.
As the demand for professionals with Amazon web services certification continues to rise, so too do their salaries and benefits. In the USA, AWS solutions architect certification is reported to be the highest-earning certification, at an average annual salary of $118,266.
Outside of the US, countries such as Canada, Australia, UK, Malaysia, Singapore, UAE, and India are great places for AWS solutions architects to work. Below is a series of tables showing AWS solutions architect salary for beginners, intermediary, manager, and late-career levels in the countries mentioned above. This data is compiled from Payscale.
AWS Solution Architects Salary Summary Table
| Beginner (1-4 years) | Mid-career (5-9 years) | Experienced (10-19 years) | Late career (20+ years) | |
| Malaysia | RM. 116,000 | RM 146,290 | RM 164,983 | |
| Singapore | S$ 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 |
