Cloud engineer (AWS)
Learn to design, secure and run workloads on AWS, working with AI coding tools from week 1 and running AI services on AWS by the end, in 24 weeks.
Coming soon · planned, not written yet
- 24
- weeks planned
- ~40 h
- a week
- 6
- milestone projects
- 1
- project, grown every week
These are planned figures. The weeks are written after we check the tools against current job postings and official documentation, so the final route may differ.
Built for the AI era
How AI fits this roadmap
AI coding assistants now draft much of the infrastructure code, IAM policies and scripts that cloud engineers used to write by hand, and they often get permissions, networking and cost wrong. So this roadmap teaches you to use an assistant every week and to check its output with plans, policy checks, tests and a read of the docs. In the later weeks you also run an AI feature on AWS with Amazon Bedrock, and learn to secure, monitor and budget for it, because cloud teams are now asked to host these workloads too.
The main project
SkyDesk
A small web service with an AI question-answering feature that you build and run on AWS, in several accounts, from a first deploy to a secured, monitored and budgeted production setup.
What you will be able to do
- 01
Build a multi-account AWS setup with least-privilege IAM roles, and prove with a policy review that no AI-drafted policy is wider than it needs to be.
- 02
Design a network with public and private subnets, and run the service on AWS in a way that survives the loss of one availability zone.
- 03
Define the whole setup as code with Terraform, and review every plan line by line before applying it, including plans an AI assistant drafted.
- 04
Ship every change through an automated pipeline that tests, scans and deploys, and roll a bad release back.
- 05
Add an AI feature with Amazon Bedrock, protect it with guardrails and access limits, and set alarms and a budget alert on its errors and cost.
01The route
Six months, one month at a time.
Each month ends in a milestone project, so you always have something to show for the work.
Month 1 · Weeks 1–4
Cloud basics, Linux, Git and AI-assisted work
Linux, networking basics, Git and scripting with the AWS CLI. You set up an AI coding assistant such as Kiro, learn to prompt it, read its diffs and test what it writes, and set up a safe account with budget alerts.
MilestoneA small service and scripts you can build and test from one command, plus a safe AWS account with a budget alert and a log of AI suggestions you accepted and rejected
Month 2 · Weeks 5–8
Identity, networking and core services
IAM roles and policies, VPCs and subnets, EC2, S3 and a managed database. You ask an AI assistant to draft policies and security groups, then tighten them and explain every line.
MilestoneSkyDesk running in a private network with least-privilege roles, reviewed against an AI-drafted version
Month 3 · Weeks 9–12
Infrastructure as code
Terraform for the whole setup, state and modules, and a look at AWS CDK as the other common route. You learn to read plans, catch drift and spot AI-written config that is too open.
MilestoneThe full SkyDesk setup created and destroyed from code, with every plan reviewed
Month 4 · Weeks 13–16
Containers, serverless and delivery
Containers on ECS with Fargate, Lambda functions, load balancing and an automated deploy pipeline with GitHub Actions. You use AI to draft pipeline steps, then add tests and a rollback.
MilestoneEvery push tests, builds and deploys SkyDesk, and a bad release can be rolled back
Month 5 · Weeks 17–20
AI on AWS, security and monitoring
Add an AI answer feature with Amazon Bedrock and Knowledge Bases, guard it with Bedrock Guardrails, and watch it with CloudWatch. Turn on CloudTrail and GuardDuty, and learn what threats to AI workloads look like in GuardDuty findings, such as odd model calls and cost abuse.
MilestoneSkyDesk answers questions from your own documents, with guardrails, alarms, audit logs and threat detection switched on
Month 6 · Weeks 21–24
Resilience, cost, capstone and job search
Backups and failover tests against the Well-Architected pillars, cost review, an incident write-up with an AI-assisted timeline you verify, a portfolio, interview practice and applications.
MilestoneA reviewed production setup, one incident review, a portfolio write-up and a working job-search pipeline
03What is inside
Everything a week comes with.
Every week is built the same way, so once you have done one you know how all of them work.
- 01
One project, SkyDesk
You grow one service from a first deploy to a secured production setup, with an AI feature inside it, so every AWS service lands in something real.
- 02
A day-by-day plan
Each week has a Learn part and a Do part, with a checklist so you know when you are done. Most weeks include a task to do with an AI assistant and a step to check its work.
- 03
A project in every milestone
Six milestones, each ending in something you can show and link to.
- 04
Reference topics
Short topic pages with check questions you can come back to.
- 05
A job track
Interview practice, portfolio and resume help, and an application plan.
- 06
Progress in your Study plan
Add weeks to your Study plan, give them dates, and finished days are counted for you.
04Is it for you
Who this is, and is not, for.
Better to know before you start than six weeks in.
It is for you if
- You can write small programs or scripts and want to work on cloud infrastructure.
- You are a developer, tester or system administrator moving into cloud engineering and want to be strong with AI tools.
- You can give about 40 hours a week for six months.
It is not for you if
- You have never written code or used a terminal. Do a beginner course first.
- You want a job guarantee. Nobody can promise that, and this roadmap does not.
- You want to work on Azure or Google Cloud. This roadmap is AWS only.
- You want to paste AI output into a live account without reading it. This roadmap trains you to check it.
?Questions
Before you start
- Is this roadmap ready?
- Not yet. This is the plan. The weeks are being written and checked against current job postings and official documentation. Leave your email and we will write to you when it opens.
- What will it cost?
- The price is not set. Roadmaps are bought once, with no subscription. We will announce it when this one opens.
- Will the plan change?
- It may. Before the weeks are written we check the tools against current job postings, so the lengths and months here are planned, not final.
- Will it get me a job?
- It will give you skills and proof of work. It cannot promise a job on a fixed date, because hiring depends on the market, your location and your past work.
- Will this prepare me for an AWS certification, and will I pay AWS bills?
- Some topics are the same as those on AWS associate-level exams, but this roadmap is built around a project, not the exam, and does not promise a pass. You will need your own AWS account. The roadmap will show how to use budget alerts and tear down resources so the bill stays small.
Not open yet
Leave your email and we will write once, when it opens.