How to Hire an AWS Engineers

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Overview

As a popular cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services (or AWS) enables data-centric companies to build and deploy their cloud applications. Effectively, the AWS cloud platform provisions on-demand resources like cloud storage, cloud computing, and cloud infrastructure to run your applications.

An AWS Engineer is a technical professional who is responsible for creating, deploying, and maintaining cloud-powered applications on the AWS platform. If you are looking to hire AWS Engineers for your business, here’s everything you need to know about how to hire the right one!

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Who is an AWS Engineer?

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As mentioned in the introduction, an AWS Engineer is proficient at building, deploying, and maintaining web applications on the AWS cloud platform. The role of an AWS Engineer is similar to any cloud application Engineer, except that they are skilled only for the AWS platform.

An AWS Engineer must know how to work with applications or software programs within the AWS cloud platform. Their primary role is to optimize AWS services in the organization, which includes code writing, data storage, and content delivery.

Next, let’s see when organizations need to hire an AWS Engineer

When You May Need an AWS Engineer

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Organizations need to hire AWS Engineers when they are planning to deploy their business applications on the AWS cloud platform. An AWS Engineer is skilled enough to integrate the AWS cloud environment into the overall application architecture.

Here are some of the essential AWS Engineer roles and responsibilities:

• Defining the right cloud migration strategy for both data and applications.
• Managing user authentication and access control between the on-premises and the cloud environment.
• Developing the necessary tools and mechanisms for migrating data to the cloud.
• Build cloud-compliant applications using managed services and AWS expertise.

Why Hire an AWS Engineer?

You can hire AWS Engineers in your company for various business objectives. This could be to create AWS-ready cloud applications or to migrate your existing applications to the AWS platform.

The AWS platform is quite complex and requires years of experience to be managed successfully. An experienced AWS Engineer can bring a variety of technical skills to successfully implement your cloud strategy.

Next, let’s see the skills and qualifications you should look for in an AWS Engineer.

‍Skills and qualifications to look for in an AWS Engineer

What are the technical skills and qualifications that hiring companies must look for in any AWS Engineer role? Let’s start with the technical skills:

• Advanced knowledge of AWS platforms, including Amazon EC2, ElastiCache, S3, and RDS
• Knowledge of database technologies including DynamoDB, RDS, and Aurora – along with RedShift (for data warehousing)
• Proficiency in programming languages like Java, Python, and PHP
• Expertise in AWS-related managed services like AWS Elastic Beanstalk and AWS OpsWorks
• Experience in working with third-party tools like Chef, Terraform, Puppet, Ansible, and SaltStack
• Experience in working with various Engineer tools such as AWS CLI, AWS Cloud9, and CodePipeline
• Basic knowledge of Elastic Computing along with familiarity with concepts like disaster recovery, design, and hibernation

Besides these technical skills, the AWS Engineer must be able to:

• Integrate DevOps-related processes using CloudFormation, Chef, or Puppet tools
• Understand the best practices and design principles to build a scalable AWS architecture
• Implement the best practices for ensuring AWS security
• Track inventory and configuration – and know how AWS resources were previously configured using the current AWS resource inventory
• Use predefined AWS-managed rules to evaluate AWS resources for compliance
• Create and manage AWS resources using predefined reusable infrastructure templates
• Deploy and scale web applications and integrate AWS services into the current IT infrastructure

AWS DevOps engineers must also possess advanced testing skills for testing automated code. Additionally, when hiring for the role of an AWS Engineer, organizations must look for the following soft skills:

• Problem-solving skills
• Effective communication skills
• Ability to work proactively in a team environment
• Enthusiastic and optimistic about the future of cloud computing technologies

To find the right candidate, companies can also look for certified AWS Engineers or experts with proficiency in AWS core features, cloud architecture, and working principles.

How Much Does it Cost to Hire an AWS Engineer?

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Are you looking for a full-time AWS Engineer in the U.S.? Depending on their experience level, a full-time AWS Engineer can cost anywhere between $90,000 to $150,000 per annum. 

Alternatively, organizations can hire a freelance AWS Engineer if they have a limited budget. The hourly cost of an AWS Engineer on Upwork ranges from a low of $20-25 to a high of $140. This price range is based on their overall work rating, years of experience, and the number of completed projects.

Next, let’s look at the top interview questions to ask to hire AWS Engineers.

Top Interview Questions to Ask When Hiring an AWS Engineer

Here are the top 15 interview questions to ask when you are hiring an AWS Engineer:

• Tell me what you know about the AWS platform.
• How do you go about splitting your workload between the public cloud and a private network?
• Which AWS services have you worked on in your previous companies?
• What are the latest trends in AWS development that you are excited about?
• What is your understanding of vertical scaling of an AWS instance?
• How do you work on a serverless AWS application model?
• Which are the leading programming languages used in cloud transformation?
• How is AWS CloudFormation different from AWS BeanStalk – and which is a better choice?
• Have you worked on AWS CloudFormation stacks and templates?
• Name a few AWS services that are not specific to a particular region.
• Which AWS functionality do you use to terminate unhealthy AWS instances – or replace them with new instances?
• What is the most important business problem you have addressed in your previous AWS cloud projects?
• How do you determine if an organization requires a public, private, or hybrid cloud solution?
• Which is the most common cloud storage problem that you have encountered – and how did you solve it?
• What is the toughest obstacle that you have faced when working on AWS cloud implementation?

Conclusion

As more companies adopt cloud and web applications, the industry's demand for qualified AWS Engineers will continue to grow. More enterprises are choosing to run their applications and workloads on the AWS platform thanks to features like cost efficiency, scalability, and agility.

We hope this guide can help you hire AWS Engineers that match your cloud requirements. We, at Cloudhero.es, can help you find the best AWS Engineers to meet your growing business needs. Call us to schedule an appointment.

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