So, the other day I’m standing in line at Dunkin’ (the one near Roosevelt Ave — you know the one that always pretends they’re out of hash browns even though you can literally see them behind the counter). I’m half-asleep, waiting for my iced coffee because I gave up pretending I like hot coffee years ago, and the guy behind me taps my shoulder like he’s about to ask me for the Wi-Fi password.
Instead he goes, “Yo, do you know if cloud engineer jobs are still a thing in 2025? My cousin’s kid wants to get into it.”
And I swear to you, I almost choked on nothing — like the air betrayed me — because that phrasing, “still a thing,” made it sound like cloud computing was a TikTok trend that peaked with Dalgona coffee.
But yes. Yes they are VERY much a thing.
Like, “your cousin’s kid will probably have recruiters DM-ing them at midnight” kind of thing.
H2: Okay, But Why Is Cloud Still Wildly in Demand?
Look — I’m not a fortune teller, though if I were I’d definitely use it only to avoid bad Amazon deals. But working in tech-adjacent stuff here and there, watching friends jump around between roles, and reading way too many articles at 1 AM when I should be sleeping… the pattern is obvious.
Cloud isn’t slowing down.
Cloud isn’t chilling.
Cloud isn’t taking a personal day.
If anything, demand for cloud engineer jobs in 2025 is going full gremlin mode after midnight — multiplying, popping up in places you didn’t expect, eating everything in sight.
Every company — from the small bakery that suddenly wants an app (why?) to massive fintech giants — is migrating or optimizing or re-architecting or re-everything-ing their cloud.
It’s like everyone collectively decided: “Hey, what if we moved literally everything to the cloud all at once?”
And cloud engineers are the poor souls and heroic wizards caught in the middle.
My Friend’s Brother (Who Swears He Invented Python) Said Something
Let me tell you a story.
My friend’s brother — let’s call him Sam because his real name is Sam and he’d be mad if I changed it — is one of those overconfident tech guys.
Like the kind who says “Kubernetes is easy” unironically.
Anyway, Sam transitioned into a cloud engineer role back in 2020 when everyone was baking sourdough and doom-scrolling. Back then, he told me:
“Cloud demand is gonna explode. People don’t get it yet.”
I nodded like yeah bro, totally, even though at the time I thought Kubernetes was maybe a Greek dessert.
Fast forward to now, 2025, and Sam has changed jobs three times because recruiters won’t leave him alone. The man switched companies more than I switched masks during 2021.
That’s when I realized:
Oh. Cloud engineer jobs aren’t just “in demand.” They’re “people will bid for you like sneakers on StockX” in demand.
H2: So What’s Actually Driving the 2025 Cloud Engineer Frenzy?
I’m gonna break it down like I’m talking to my cousin who still thinks iCloud is the cloud.
H3: 1. AI Ate Everything… and Needed a Place to Live
You know how everyone’s into AI now?
(Which is hilarious because half the people using it don’t even know what a server is.)
Well, AI models need massive cloud setups. Compute power. Storage. Networks that don’t choke. And those don’t run themselves.
Enter cloud engineers, like digital landlords making sure AI doesn’t burn the house down.
H3: 2. Companies Want to Save Money — Even When They Don’t
I swear every CEO wakes up and says, “We need to cut costs,” even if their company is printing money.
Cloud is their answer.
Except… it’s often way more complicated than that, and they need experts to prevent them from accidentally doubling their bill because someone forgot to turn off a dev instance.
Cloud engineers = cost-saving superheroes.
H3: 3. Hybrid Work Isn’t Going Anywhere
Even my aunt who barely checks WhatsApp now works from home once a week.
Companies need remote-access everything. Secure everything. Scalable everything.
Guess who’s on the hook?
Cloud engineers.
(To be fair, they’re also on the hook for every random outage that isn’t even their fault — like when someone spills coffee on the router.)
H3: 4. Startups Keep Sprouting Like Weeds in April
And almost all of them are cloud-first.
Which means the job pipeline isn’t just full — it’s overflowing, leaking, and probably making a weird hissing sound.
The Demand Numbers? Lemme Tell You — They’re Nuts
I’m not hitting you with textbook stats because you didn’t ask for a lecture, and also because I once tried reading an official cloud demand report and fell asleep so fast I woke up drooling on my phone.
But the vibe is this:
- Job postings for cloud engineers in early 2025? Way up.
- Salaries? Still spicy — $130k to $170k in NYC is normal now.
- Remote roles? Everywhere.
- Companies without cloud engineers? Basically cryptids. You hear about them but never see them.
Demand isn’t slowing. It’s… escalating.
Kinda like how every streaming service suddenly wants a subscription fee for features that used to be free.
But this escalation is good — for cloud folks anyway.
Real Talk — Is It Hard to Become a Cloud Engineer?
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: also yes, but in a different tone.
Most cloud engineers I’ve talked to have said stuff like:
- “The learning never stops.”
- “One day you’re fixing IAM permissions, the next day you’re trying to explain what serverless means to a VP who thinks ‘Lambda’ is a Disney character.”
- “I haven’t slept since 2021.”
But also:
- “It’s fun as hell.”
- “It pays well.”
- “It’s not boring.”
You ever meet someone who genuinely loves when things break because they get to fix them? That’s a cloud engineer.
What Skills Do You Actually Need in cloud engineer jobs?
If someone asked me this in a crowded 7 train, I’d probably yell “Terraform!” and scare everyone.
But here’s the slightly calmer version:
H3: Cloud Platforms
AWS, Azure, GCP.
Pick one, flirt with the others.
H3: IaC Tools
Terraform. CloudFormation. Pulumi if you’re quirky.
H3: Containers and Orchestration
Docker. Kubernetes. (Pretend you like it.)
H3: Networking and Security
Because everything is broken until proven otherwise.
H3: SRE-ish Mindset
Monitoring. Scaling. Not panicking during outages.
H3: Patience
You’ll need this more than Terraform.
So… Should People Still Get Into Cloud Engineering in 2025?
Let me put it this way:
If someone came to me and said, “Hey, should I learn cloud stuff?”
I’d ask them: “Do you enjoy puzzles? Chaos? Apocalyptic error logs?”
If they say yes — absolutely go for cloud engineering.
The demand is not just high — it’s borderline ridiculous. The job market is basically doing jazz hands, begging for more talent.
Even here in Queens I’m seeing it everywhere — overheard subway convos, people studying for certs in coffee shops, job postings flooding LinkedIn like no one has ever heard of a hiring slowdown.
Cloud engineer jobs aren’t “still a thing.”
They’re the thing.
And honestly, it doesn’t look like 2026 is going to be any calmer.
Optional Reading if You’re a Nerd Like Me
(Not formal sources, just fun/interesting stuff.)
- A tech-life blog that always cracks me up: https://www.troyhunt.com
- A chaotic-but-brilliant cloud humor site: https://devhumor.com
