Cloud roles, salaries and interviews in India

The main cloud roles

Skills every role needs

• Linux: the command line, files and permissions, processes, services, logs, SSH. Most cloud servers run Linux.
• Networking: IP addresses and CIDR, subnets, routing, DNS, HTTP and TLS, ports and firewalls. Many cloud problems are network problems.
• Scripting: Python or Bash to automate tasks, plus reading JSON and YAML. PowerShell helps in Azure-heavy companies.
• One cloud, deeply: pick AWS, Azure or Google Cloud and know it well. Learning a second cloud is much faster once you know one, because the ideas map across.
• Infrastructure as code (Terraform or CloudFormation), Git, and basic containers.
• Communication: writing clear tickets, documents and incident updates. In support and consulting roles this matters as much as technical skill.

Honest salary ranges in India

Salaries are usually quoted as LPA (lakhs per annum, the yearly cost to company). These are typical ranges, not promises, and they vary by city, company, skills and how well you interview:

• Freshers in cloud support or associate roles: about ₹3.5–7 LPA. Mass recruiters in IT services sit at the lower end; product companies and some global capability centres pay more.
• Cloud engineers with 2–4 years of experience: about ₹7–15 LPA.
• Senior engineers, DevOps leads, security specialists and architects: higher, often well above ₹15 LPA, with wide variation.

Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Gurugram and Noida usually pay more than smaller cities, but living costs are higher too. Remote roles for overseas companies exist but are competitive.

Where the jobs are

• IT services companies: large employers that run cloud migrations and operations for clients worldwide. Good training and many fresher openings.
• Product companies: Indian and global software companies running their own platforms on the cloud.
• Global capability centres (GCCs): in-house technology centres of global banks, retailers and manufacturers, concentrated in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai.
• Startups: wide responsibility early, often AWS-first, less structure.
• Cloud consulting partners: firms certified by AWS, Microsoft or Google that deliver projects for customers; they value certifications highly because partner status depends on them.

How interviews usually run

Expect an online test or HR screening, one or two technical rounds and a manager or HR round. Technical rounds mix fundamentals (Linux, networking), cloud services, a scenario ("design a highly available web app"), troubleshooting ("an EC2 instance cannot reach the internet: what do you check?") and your projects. Answer in a structure: say what you would check first and why, then the next step. Saying "I do not know, but here is how I would find out" is better than guessing.

What to learn next

• The DevOps course on this site: CI/CD, Docker, Kubernetes, monitoring.
• Kubernetes in depth (EKS, AKS or GKE) and the Certified Kubernetes Administrator exam if you go the DevOps route.
• A security specialty, such as AWS Certified Security – Specialty, once you have associate-level experience.
• A second cloud at foundational or associate level, since many Indian companies are multi-cloud.