News

How Much Do AWS Certifications Pay Off?

• By David Ramel
• 02/13/2019

IT training company Global Knowledge released a report on top-paying IT certifications for 2019, with two AWS certs making the top five.

The firm culled data from its annual IT skills and salary report (coming later this year) to compile this year's cloud-heavy list.

"This year's highest-paying certifications reveal a strong emphasis on particular topics, such as cloud computing, cybersecurity, networking and project management," the company said in a Monday (Feb 11) blog post. "In fact, cloud and project management dominate the top five spots."

And in those top five spots are two AWS certs with associated reported salaries both more than $130,000:

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate. This demonstrates "expertise in designing and deploying scalable systems on AWS" and is listed with a $132,840annual salary.
• AWS Certified Developer – Associate. This validates "technical expertise in developing and maintaining applications on AWS, as opposed to designing the solution with the Solutions Architect certification." It's reported associated salary is $130,369.

The top three certifications with higher associated salaries were:

• Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect - $139,529
• PMP - Project Management Professional - $135,798
• Certified ScrumMaster - $135,441

To qualify for the list, the company said, a certification must have at least 100 survey responses to be statistically valid.

According to a Forbes article least March, the five AWS certifications available at the time from Global Knowledge were associated with an average salary of $125,591.

"The shortage of AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associates continues in the U.S., driving up salaries and recruitment incentives," the Forbes article said. "AWS's dominance as a public cloud platform is the catalyst driving demand for all five AWS certifications to higher levels this year. Enterprises are also opting to create their cloud applications in-house, relying on AWS as their development platforms. IT teams are looking to recruit tech professionals with AWS Certified Developer – Associate certification, paying an average salary of $114,148 to gain the expertise needed to create new apps in-house. There's a shortage of certified AWS architects available today, as IT organizations often compete to hire IT professionals with this and more AWS certifications."

AWS also runs its own certification program, including some free exam readiness courses.