Cloud Support Analyst

Role Purpose & Context

Role Summary

The Cloud Support Analyst is responsible for keeping our cloud services (AWS, Azure, GCP) up and running, which directly impacts our customers' ability to use our products and our internal teams' productivity. You'll work at the intersection of our infrastructure and our users, translating technical problems into clear solutions that help everyone get back on track. When this role is done well, our systems are stable, and our users are happy because their issues are resolved quickly and thoroughly. When it's not, well, things break, people get frustrated, and we lose money and trust. The challenge is that cloud environments are complex and always changing, so you're constantly learning and adapting. The reward is the satisfaction of being the person who saves the day, often under pressure, and knowing you're building a more resilient system for the future.

Reporting Structure

• Reports to: Cloud Support Manager
• Direct reports:
• Matrix relationships: Cloud Operations Specialist, Technical Support Engineer (Cloud), Platform Support Analyst, Cloud Reliability Engineer,

Key Stakeholders

Internal:

• Software Development Teams
• DevOps Engineers
• Product Managers
• Internal IT Support
• Security Team

External:

• Cloud Service Providers (AWS, Azure, GCP Support)
• Key Clients (for escalated issues)

Organisational Impact

Scope: This role is absolutely critical for maintaining our operational uptime and service reliability. You're directly responsible for resolving incidents that could otherwise halt business operations or impact customer experience. Your quick thinking and problem-solving skills mean our developers can keep building, our sales team can keep selling, and our customers can keep using our products without interruption. Essentially, you help keep the lights on and the business moving forward, which is a pretty big deal.

Performance Metrics

Quantitative Metrics

1. Metric: Time to First Response (TTFR)
2. Desc: How quickly you acknowledge an incoming ticket.
3. Target: < 30 minutes for P2 tickets, < 15 minutes for P1 tickets
4. Freq: Daily, reviewed weekly
5. Example: You pick up a P2 ticket about a slow application within 20 minutes of it being logged, letting the user know you're on it.
6. Metric: Ticket Resolution within SLA
7. Desc: Percentage of tickets you resolve before their service level agreement expires.
8. Target: > 95% of tickets resolved within SLA
9. Freq: Weekly, reviewed monthly
10. Example: If a P3 ticket has a 24-hour SLA, you close it within that timeframe, not letting it breach.
11. Metric: Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
12. Desc: How satisfied users are with your support, based on post-resolution surveys.
13. Target: > 4.5/5 average score
14. Freq: Per ticket, reviewed monthly
15. Example: A user gives you a 5/5 rating because you not only fixed their issue but also explained what happened in a way they understood.
16. Metric: Knowledge Base Contribution
17. Desc: Number of new articles or significant updates you add to our internal knowledge base (Confluence).
18. Target: > 2 new or updated runbooks per quarter
19. Freq: Quarterly
20. Example: You document a new troubleshooting process for a recurring database connection issue, saving future analysts time.

Qualitative Metrics

1. Metric: Proactive Problem Identification
2. Desc: Your ability to spot potential issues before they become critical incidents.
3. Evidence: You flag an unusual spike in error logs during a routine check, raising it to the team before users report an outage. You notice a 'flapping alert' and investigate the root cause, rather than just dismissing it.
4. Metric: Effective Communication During Incidents
5. Desc: How clearly and calmly you communicate during stressful situations, both technically and to non-technical users.
6. Evidence: You provide concise, factual updates in the incident Slack channel. You can explain a complex network issue to a Product Manager without using jargon, helping them understand the impact.
7. Metric: Collaboration and Mentorship
8. Desc: How well you work with your team and help less experienced colleagues.
9. Evidence: You actively participate in 'ticket swarms' to help resolve complex issues. You patiently walk a new joiner through a troubleshooting process, rather than just giving them the answer.
10. Metric: Root Cause Analysis Quality
11. Desc: The thoroughness and accuracy of your investigation into why an incident occurred.
12. Evidence: Your RCA goes beyond the immediate fix, identifying the underlying system or process flaw. You suggest preventative measures that actually get implemented.

Primary Traits

• Trait: Methodical Detective
• Manifestation: You don't just guess; you systematically eliminate possibilities. When a user says 'it's broken,' you're asking 'what's broken, when did it break, what changed, what error messages are you seeing?' You'll check the network, then the compute, then the application logs, following a logical path. You use logs and metrics as your evidence, not just a gut feeling.
• Benefit: Our cloud environments are like giant, complex puzzles. Jumping to conclusions or applying quick fixes without understanding the root cause often makes things worse, or means the problem just pops up again next week. We need someone who can truly diagnose the issue, not just treat the symptoms, especially when dealing with vague tickets.
• Trait: Calm Under Pressure
• Manifestation: When a P1 incident hits, and everyone else is flapping, you're the one who stays cool. You speak in clear, factual sentences, even when the CEO is breathing down your neck. You follow the incident management process, step-by-step, without skipping bits, because you know that's the fastest way to get things back to normal. You can filter out the noise and focus on the technical problem at hand.
• Benefit: Production outages cost us money and reputation, fast. Panic leads to mistakes, and mistakes compound the problem. We need someone who can be an 'Incident Commander' – someone who can lead the technical response, keep things organised, and restore service quickly without adding more errors to the mix. It's not for the faint-hearted.
• Trait: Empathetic Translator
• Manifestation: You understand that when a user reports an issue, they're probably frustrated, and it's impacting their work. You'll start with 'I get how critical this is for you,' before diving into the tech. You can take a really complex cloud concept, like a misconfigured security group, and explain its impact in simple terms to someone who just wants their application to work. You're good at giving proactive updates, even if it's just to say 'I'm still digging into this,' so people aren't left in the dark.
• Benefit: Technical issues often come with human frustration. If we just throw jargon at people, they feel unheard and unsupported. This trait helps de-escalate tension, builds trust with our internal and external clients, and turns a potentially negative interaction into a positive one. It's about being an ally, not just a fixer.

Supporting Traits

• Trait: Insatiably Curious
• Desc: You've got a genuine itch to understand how things work, even if it's not directly related to your current ticket. You'll poke around new cloud services, read documentation for fun (yes, really!), and want to know the 'why' behind every 'how'. This means you're often learning new things before a problem forces you to.
• Trait: Process-Minded
• Desc: You appreciate a good checklist and a well-written runbook. You understand that following a defined process, especially under pressure, helps prevent mistakes and ensures consistency. You're not afraid to suggest improvements to a process if you see a better way, but you respect the existing structure.
• Trait: Detail-Oriented
• Desc: You're the kind of person who spots the single incorrect character in a 20-line security group rule or the one anomalous spike in a Grafana dashboard that everyone else missed. You know that in cloud support, tiny details can cause massive outages, so you check and re-check your work.

Primary Motivators

1. Motivator: Solving Puzzles
2. Daily: You get a real buzz from taking a complex, ambiguous problem – like 'the app is slow' – and breaking it down, using logs and metrics, until you find the exact cause and fix it. It's like being a detective every day.
3. Motivator: Being the Hero
4. Daily: You enjoy the feeling of restoring service during an outage or unblocking a critical project for a frustrated colleague. You like being the person who can step in and make things right, often under pressure.
5. Motivator: Continuous Learning
6. Daily: The cloud landscape changes constantly, and you love that. You're always keen to pick up new services, learn new troubleshooting techniques, and deepen your understanding of how things work. Stagnation is your enemy.

Potential Demotivators

Honestly, this role isn't for everyone. You'll get vague tickets that make you want to pull your hair out, and you'll spend hours troubleshooting something only to find it was a simple typo. You'll sometimes feel like you're just putting out fires, rather than preventing them. Not every fix is glamorous, and some days are just about grinding through the queue.

Common Frustrations

1. The Vague Ticket: Getting a P2 ticket that just says 'The website is broken' with no URL, no error message, no user ID, and no screenshot. It's like finding a needle in a haystack, blindfolded.
2. Out-of-Date Runbooks: Wasting 45 minutes following a Confluence guide, only to discover the entire process was changed two months ago and never documented. It's infuriating.
3. The 'Shadow IT' Problem: Spending hours troubleshooting a system only to find out the user deployed it themselves, it violates every company standard, and they have no idea how it's configured. It's a nightmare.
4. Alert Fatigue: Being on-call and getting woken up at 3 AM by a flurry of non-actionable, low-priority alerts that drown out the one truly critical notification. It's exhausting.
5. The 'It's Urgent' Fallacy: Stakeholders who mark every single request as 'Urgent,' devaluing the meaning of priority and making it impossible to focus on what's actually a P1. It's a constant battle.

What Role Doesn't Offer

1. A predictable, quiet day where nothing breaks. Truth is, something always breaks.
2. The chance to build brand new systems from scratch every day. You're more about maintaining and fixing existing ones.
3. An escape from documentation. Yes, it's part of the job.
4. Complete autonomy to ignore processes. We have them for a reason, especially during incidents.

ADHD Positives

1. The fast-paced, incident-driven nature of support can be really engaging, providing constant novelty and quick problem-solving opportunities that suit a high-energy, quick-thinking mind.
2. The need to context-switch between different tickets and problems can be a strength, as you'll often be juggling multiple investigations simultaneously.
3. Hyperfocus can be a huge asset when deep-diving into a complex log file or a tricky network issue, allowing you to block out distractions and find the solution.

ADHD Challenges and Accommodations

1. Maintaining focus on repetitive documentation tasks or long-term problem management can be challenging; we can help by breaking these down into smaller, more engaging chunks or pairing you with a colleague.
2. Organising and prioritising a constantly changing ticket queue can be overwhelming; we use structured ticketing systems and daily stand-ups to help manage this, and your manager will provide clear guidance on priorities.
3. We can offer noise-cancelling headphones for focused work and encourage regular breaks to help manage energy levels.

Dyslexia Positives

1. Strong spatial reasoning skills, often found in individuals with dyslexia, are excellent for visualising complex cloud architectures and network topologies.
2. Great problem-solving abilities, especially for non-linear thinking, can help you find creative solutions to tricky technical issues that others might miss.
3. Excellent verbal communication skills are often a strength, which is vital for explaining complex technical issues clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders during incidents.

Dyslexia Challenges and Accommodations

1. Reading and writing extensive documentation, log files, or incident reports can be more demanding; we encourage the use of screen readers, dictation software, and tools like Grammarly, and we're happy to review your written work.
2. Parsing dense error messages or configuration files might take a bit longer; we can provide tools that highlight syntax and offer clearer visual formatting, and we prioritise visual dashboards and alerts where possible.
3. We support the use of assistive technologies and offer flexible approaches to documentation, such as verbal explanations or diagram-first approaches.

Autism Positives

1. A strong attention to detail is invaluable for spotting subtle anomalies in logs, configurations, or monitoring dashboards that others might overlook, preventing major incidents.
2. A methodical and logical approach to problem-solving, often a strength, is perfectly suited to systematically troubleshooting complex cloud issues and following runbooks precisely.
3. A preference for clear, direct communication is highly valued, especially during incident response where ambiguity can cause delays and confusion.

Autism Challenges and Accommodations

1. Navigating unexpected changes in priority or dealing with highly ambiguous, unstructured problems can be challenging; we provide clear prioritisation frameworks, structured incident response processes, and a supportive team to help deconstruct complex issues.
2. Sensory overload from a busy incident 'swarm' or open-plan office can be an issue; we offer quiet zones, noise-cancelling headphones, and encourage asynchronous communication where appropriate to reduce constant interruptions.
3. Social interactions, particularly with frustrated users, can be draining; we provide training on empathetic communication and clear guidelines for managing challenging conversations, and you'll have managers who can step in when needed.

Key Responsibilities

Experience Levels Responsibilities

1. Level: Mid-Level Professional (2-5 years)
2. Responsibilities: Independently pick up and resolve L1 and L2 cloud support tickets from our queue, from initial diagnosis to final resolution. That means you'll own the problem end-to-end, usually without much hand-holding.
3. Troubleshoot common issues across AWS, Azure, and GCP services, like 'why can't this EC2 instance connect to that database?' or 'why is this S3 bucket access denied?' You'll use monitoring tools and cloud consoles to dig into the problem.
4. Contribute to our internal knowledge base (Confluence) by writing clear, step-by-step runbooks for recurring issues. If you fix it, document it, so the next person (or future you) doesn't have to start from scratch.
5. Participate in incident response for P1 and P2 events, helping to diagnose the issue, communicate updates, and restore service. You'll be part of the 'ticket swarm' when things get really hairy.
6. Identify patterns in recurring issues and propose solutions or preventative measures to your manager or the wider engineering team. Don't just fix it; think about how to stop it happening again.
7. Provide informal guidance and support to newer team members or Associate Cloud Support Technicians. You'll be the person they come to when they're a bit stuck on a routine problem.
8. Keep our monitoring dashboards (Grafana, Datadog) in check, making sure alerts are firing correctly and that you can quickly pull relevant metrics when troubleshooting. If an alert is 'flapping', you'll investigate why.
9. Supervision: You'll have weekly check-ins with your Cloud Support Manager to discuss your workload, any blockers, and your development. For routine tasks, you're expected to work independently, but for novel or complex issues, you'll consult with your manager or a Senior Analyst.
10. Decision: You can make routine technical decisions within established guidelines, like choosing the best troubleshooting steps or applying known fixes. Any changes that impact production systems, require significant resource allocation (e.g., spinning up new, expensive VMs), or deviate from standard operating procedures need manager approval. You'll escalate anything outside your comfort zone or defined scope.
11. Success: You're doing well if you consistently meet your TTFR and SLA targets, your CSAT scores are high, and you're actively contributing to our knowledge base. We'll also be looking at your ability to independently resolve issues and your proactive approach to identifying and suggesting improvements.

Decision-Making Authority

• Type: Troubleshooting Steps for a Known Issue
• Entry: Follows documented runbook exactly, escalates if runbook fails.
• Mid: Chooses appropriate troubleshooting path from multiple options, adapts runbook if minor variations occur, escalates if problem is novel.
• Senior: Designs new troubleshooting paths for novel issues, identifies gaps in runbooks, mentors others on complex diagnostics.
• Type: Production System Changes (e.g., Firewall Rule)
• Entry: Cannot make changes. Informs supervisor of need for change.
• Mid: Proposes change with clear justification, requires manager approval. Can execute pre-approved, low-risk changes from a runbook.
• Senior: Approves low-to-medium risk changes within their domain, consults with engineering leads for high-risk changes, defines change management processes.
• Type: Prioritisation of Work
• Entry: Works on tickets assigned by supervisor, follows pre-defined priority queue.
• Mid: Manages own queue based on SLA and impact, consults manager for conflicting priorities or P1/P2 events.
• Senior: Sets priorities for a workstream or during an incident, re-prioritises team members' work, influences broader team priorities.
• Type: Knowledge Base Updates
• Entry: Suggests updates to supervisor, may draft content for review.
• Mid: Independently creates new runbooks or updates existing ones, seeks peer review for complex articles.
• Senior: Defines standards for knowledge base content, reviews and approves articles, champions knowledge sharing initiatives.

Competency Requirements

Foundation Skills (Transferable)

These are the bedrock skills that let you do the job well, no matter how technical it gets. They're about how you think, how you talk, and how you deal with the unexpected. You'll need to be sharp, clear, and able to roll with the punches.

• Category: Communication & Collaboration
• Skills: Clear Written Communication: You can write concise, easy-to-understand ticket updates, incident summaries, and runbooks, even when explaining complex technical issues. No jargon where plain English will do.
• Active Listening: You're good at really hearing what users are trying to tell you, even if their explanation is vague. You ask clarifying questions to get to the heart of the problem.
• Verbal De-escalation: You can calmly handle frustrated users or stakeholders during an incident, acknowledging their concerns while focusing on the solution.
• Teamwork: You actively participate in team discussions, offer help to colleagues, and know when to ask for help yourself. We're all in this together.
• Category: Problem Solving & Critical Thinking
• Skills: Systematic Troubleshooting: You approach problems logically, eliminating variables one by one, rather than jumping to conclusions. It's about being a detective, not a guesser.
• Root Cause Analysis: You don't just fix the symptom; you dig deeper to find out *why* something broke, using techniques like the '5 Whys' to get to the underlying issue.
• Analytical Thinking: You can look at a bunch of data (logs, metrics) and spot patterns, anomalies, or correlations that point to the problem.
• Decision Making Under Pressure: During an incident, you can make quick, informed decisions based on the available information, even when things are chaotic.
• Category: Adaptability & Resilience
• Skills: Learning Agility: The cloud changes constantly, so you're always keen to pick up new services, tools, and troubleshooting techniques. You embrace learning.
• Stress Management: You can handle the pressure of critical incidents and demanding stakeholders without burning out. You know when to take a break.
• Flexibility: You're comfortable with shifting priorities and unexpected urgent requests. Sometimes, the plan for your day goes out the window.
• Attention to Detail: You spot the small things that others miss – a misplaced comma in a config file, an unusual spike on a graph. These details often matter a lot.

Functional Skills (Role-Specific Technical)

These are the specific technical skills and knowledge you'll need to hit the ground running in our cloud environments. It's a mix of hands-on tool use, understanding cloud concepts, and knowing the frameworks that keep us organised.

Technical Competencies

• Skill: ITIL Framework (Incident & Problem Management)
• Desc: You understand the practical application of ITIL principles, especially how to manage incidents (get service back ASAP) and problems (find and eliminate root causes). It's not just about the certification; it's about knowing why we do what we do.
• Level: Intermediate
• Skill: Cloud Well-Architected Frameworks (AWS/Azure/GCP)
• Desc: You can recognise when a user's problem might stem from a design that goes against cloud best practices for things like reliability, security, or cost. You don't need to be an architect, but you should know what 'good' looks like.
• Level: Intermediate
• Skill: Networking Fundamentals (Cloud Specific)
• Desc: Beyond basic TCP/IP, you really get cloud networking: VPCs/VNets, subnets, route tables, security groups/NSGs, NACLs, and DNS resolution within AWS, Azure, or GCP. A huge number of issues are network-related.
• Level: Intermediate
• Skill: Identity & Access Management (IAM) Troubleshooting
• Desc: You understand the principle of least privilege, how IAM roles, users, and policies work, and you can troubleshoot why someone is getting an 'access denied' error. You can read a JSON policy and figure out what's going on.
• Level: Intermediate
• Skill: SLA/SLO Management
• Desc: You know the difference between a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and a Service Level Objective (SLO), and how these internal and external commitments dictate the urgency and priority of your work. This helps you prioritise your queue effectively.
• Level: Intermediate

Digital Tools

• Tool: Jira Service Management / ServiceNow / Zendesk
• Level: Intermediate
• Usage: Managing the full ticket lifecycle: logging, updating, escalating, and resolving issues. You'll use canned responses, follow workflows, and make sure all fields are updated correctly.
• Tool: Datadog / Grafana / AWS CloudWatch / Azure Monitor / GCP Cloud Monitoring
• Level: Basic
• Usage: Navigating pre-built dashboards to identify active alerts and pull basic metrics for a specific resource (e.g., CPU usage, network I/O) to help diagnose problems.
• Tool: AWS Management Console / Azure Portal / GCP Cloud Console
• Level: Intermediate
• Usage: Navigating to core services (EC2, S3, VMs, Blobs), checking resource status, viewing logs, and verifying permissions directly within the cloud provider's interface.
• Tool: Confluence / Slack / Microsoft Teams
• Level: Intermediate
• Usage: Actively using channels for communication during incidents, finding and following documentation in Confluence, and providing clear, concise ticket updates to colleagues.
• Tool: Bash / PowerShell / Python (basic scripting)
• Level: Basic
• Usage: Reading and understanding simple scripts to perform routine tasks. You might execute pre-written scripts from a runbook to check server status or parse a log file for specific errors.

Industry Knowledge

• Area: Cloud Service Provider Ecosystems
• Desc: A good understanding of the core services and offerings from at least one major cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP), and ideally a basic familiarity with the others. You should know what an EC2 is, or a Blob Storage, or a GKE cluster, even if you don't configure them.
• Area: Basic Linux/Windows Server Administration
• Desc: You should be comfortable with basic command-line operations on Linux (e.g., `ssh`, `top`, `grep`, `systemctl`) or Windows (e.g., RDP, Event Viewer, Task Manager) to troubleshoot issues on virtual machines.

Regulatory Compliance Regulations

• Reg: GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
• Usage: You understand the basic principles of protecting personal data and know when to escalate a potential data breach or privacy concern to the Security team. You'll ensure any data access during troubleshooting adheres to our internal policies.
• Reg: ISO 27001 (Information Security Management)
• Usage: You're aware of our information security policies and procedures. This means you understand the importance of secure access, data handling, and reporting security incidents, even if you're not directly managing the framework.

Essential Prerequisites

• Roughly 2-5 years of hands-on experience in a technical support, operations, or junior cloud engineering role, where you were actively troubleshooting cloud-based issues.
• Proven ability to independently resolve technical problems, not just follow a script. We want to see that you can think for yourself.
• Experience with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP) – you should be comfortable navigating their console and understanding their core services.
• A solid grasp of networking fundamentals, especially as they apply to cloud environments. If you don't know what a VPC is, this might be a stretch.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal. You'll be talking to people who are probably a bit stressed, so being clear and calm is key.

Career Pathway Context

These prerequisites mean you're not starting from zero. You've got some miles on the clock and understand the basics of cloud support. This role builds on that foundation, pushing you to take more ownership and tackle more complex problems. If you're coming from a traditional IT support role, you'll need to demonstrate your cloud-specific experience. If you're fresh out of a bootcamp, you might find our Associate Cloud Support Technician role (L1) a better fit to build up this experience first.

Qualifications & Credentials

Emerging Foundation Skills

• Skill: Prompt Engineering for Support Tasks
• Why: AI assistants are becoming incredibly powerful for drafting responses, summarising incidents, and even suggesting troubleshooting steps. Knowing how to ask the right questions to these tools will dramatically increase your efficiency.
• Concepts: [{'concept_name': 'Clear, Concise Prompts', 'description': 'Learning to write prompts that leave no room for ambiguity, ensuring the AI understands exactly what you need.'}, {'concept_name': 'Contextual Information', 'description': 'Knowing how much relevant context (logs, ticket history) to feed the AI to get accurate and helpful outputs.'}, {'concept_name': 'Iterative Prompting', 'description': 'Understanding that you often need to refine your prompts based on initial AI responses to get to the best solution.'}, {'concept_name': 'Output Validation', 'description': "Critically assessing AI-generated content for accuracy and 'hallucinations' before using it in a real-world scenario."}]
• Prepare: This month: Start using tools like ChatGPT or Claude to draft internal emails, summarise long documents, or brainstorm troubleshooting ideas. Get comfortable with the interface.
• Next month: Experiment with using AI to help draft initial responses to common L1/L2 tickets. Compare its output to what you'd write.
• Month 3: Try using AI to help you deconstruct a complex error message, asking it for potential causes and solutions based on provided logs.
• Month 4: Share your best AI prompts and tips with the team during a stand-up or a dedicated 'AI show-and-tell' session.
• QuickWin: Today, use an AI tool to summarise a long email thread or a complex technical article you need to read. It's a low-risk way to get started and see immediate time savings.

Advancing Technical Skills

• Skill: Cloud Cost Optimisation Principles
• Why: Cloud spend is a huge concern for businesses. As you get more senior, you'll be expected to not just fix problems, but to identify when a system is costing too much and suggest ways to optimise it without impacting performance.
• Concepts: [{'concept_name': 'Rightsizing Instances', 'description': 'Matching compute resources to actual workload needs to avoid over-provisioning.'}, {'concept_name': 'Reserved Instances / Savings Plans', 'description': 'Understanding how committing to usage can significantly reduce costs.'}, {'concept_name': 'Storage Tiering', 'description': 'Moving less frequently accessed data to cheaper storage classes.'}, {'concept_name': 'Serverless Architectures', 'description': 'Recognising opportunities where serverless (e.g., Lambda, Azure Functions) can reduce operational overhead and cost.'}]
• Prepare: This month: Read the AWS/Azure/GCP Cost Optimisation best practices guides. They're dense, but crucial.
• Next month: Start looking at the cost explorer in your preferred cloud console. Can you identify any obvious 'fat'?
• Month 3: Pick one recurring ticket type and think about how a cost-optimised solution might prevent it or make it cheaper to fix.
• Month 4: Propose one small cost-saving idea to your manager, even if it's just shutting down unused dev environments.
• QuickWin: Look for unused resources (old VMs, unattached volumes) in your cloud console and flag them for deletion. It's often easy money saved.
• Skill: Basic Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Reading & Interpretation
• Why: More and more infrastructure is defined in code (Terraform, CloudFormation). You won't be writing it yet, but you'll need to be able to read these files to understand how systems are built and troubleshoot misconfigurations.
• Concepts: [{'concept_name': 'Declarative vs. Imperative', 'description': 'Understanding that IaC describes the desired state, not the steps to get there.'}, {'concept_name': 'Resource Blocks', 'description': 'Identifying the different cloud resources (e.g., EC2, S3 bucket, database) defined in an IaC file.'}, {'concept_name': 'Variables & Outputs', 'description': 'Understanding how parameters are passed into and out of IaC templates.'}, {'concept_name': 'State Files (Basic Understanding)', 'description': "Knowing that IaC tools maintain a 'state' of your infrastructure and how that relates to deployments."}]
• Prepare: This week: Ask a DevOps engineer for a simple Terraform or CloudFormation file for a basic resource (like a VM or S3 bucket). Just read it.
• Next month: Try to trace a simple issue (e.g., a missing tag on a resource) back to the IaC definition. Can you find where it should have been defined?
• Month 3: Watch a few introductory videos on Terraform or CloudFormation. Focus on understanding the syntax and basic commands (e.g., `plan`).
• Month 4: Participate in a code review for an IaC change, focusing on identifying the resources being modified and their expected configuration.
• QuickWin: Familiarise yourself with the `git blame` command for IaC files. It's a quick way to see who last changed a particular line of infrastructure code, which can be useful during troubleshooting.

Education Requirements

• Level: Minimum
• Req: A-Levels or equivalent vocational qualification (e.g., BTEC Level 3/4) in a technical discipline (IT, Computer Science, Engineering).
• Alts: We're pragmatic. If you've got 2-3 years of solid, demonstrable experience in a relevant technical support role, we'll absolutely consider that as equivalent. We care more about what you can do than a piece of paper.
• Level: Preferred
• Req: A Bachelor's degree (or equivalent OFQUAL Level 6) in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a closely related field.
• Alts: While a degree is great, a strong portfolio of personal projects, significant open-source contributions, or a proven track record in a demanding technical role could also give you an edge.

Experience Requirements

You'll need roughly 2-5 years of hands-on experience in a dedicated cloud support, DevOps support, or technical operations role. This means you've spent time actively troubleshooting issues in AWS, Azure, or GCP environments, not just using them at a basic level. We're looking for someone who has moved beyond just following a script and can independently diagnose and resolve common cloud infrastructure problems. Experience participating in incident response for P1/P2 events is a big plus.

Preferred Certifications

• Cert: AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
• Prod: Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Usage: Shows a foundational understanding of AWS cloud concepts, services, security, architecture, pricing, and support, which is a great starting point for our multi-cloud environment.
• Cert: Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals
• Prod: Microsoft Azure
• Usage: Demonstrates a basic understanding of cloud concepts, Azure services, workloads, security, privacy, pricing, and support, which is useful given our Azure footprint.
• Cert: Google Cloud Certified – Cloud Digital Leader
• Prod: Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Usage: Validates your knowledge of core Google Cloud products and services, and how they contribute to digital transformation, which is helpful for understanding our GCP usage.

Recommended Activities

• Regularly engage with cloud provider documentation and release notes to stay updated on new services and features.
• Participate in online forums, communities (e.g., Stack Overflow, Reddit r/cloud), or local meetups to learn from peers and share knowledge.
• Take advantage of internal training sessions or workshops on new tools and technologies we adopt.
• Dedicate time each week (we encourage this!) to explore a new cloud service or troubleshoot a complex issue you haven't seen before in a sandbox environment.

Career Progression Pathways

Entry Paths to This Role

• Path: Associate Cloud Support Technician (L1)
• Time: 1-2 years
• Path: Traditional IT Support Engineer
• Time: 2-3 years (with cloud focus)
• Path: Junior DevOps Engineer
• Time: 1-2 years (with operations focus)

Career Progression From This Role

• Pathway: Senior Cloud Support Analyst (L3)
• Time: 2-3 years
• Pathway: DevOps Engineer / Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)
• Time: 3-5 years

Long Term Vision Potential Roles

• Title: Lead Cloud Support Engineer (L4)
• Time: 5-8 years
• Title: Cloud Support Manager (L5)
• Time: 8-12 years
• Title: Principal Cloud Engineer (L5/L6)
• Time: 10-15 years

How Zavmo Delivers This Role's Development

DISCOVER Phase: Skills Gap Analysis

Zavmo maps your current competencies against all requirements in this job description through conversational assessment. We evaluate your foundation skills (communication, strategic thinking), functional skills (CRM expertise, negotiation), and readiness for career progression.

Output: Personalised skills gap heat map showing strengths and priorities, estimated time to competency, neurodiversity accommodations.

DISCUSS Phase: Personalised Learning Pathway

Based on your DISCOVER results, Zavmo creates a personalised learning plan prioritised by impact: foundation skills first, then functional skills. We adapt to your learning style, pace, and neurodiversity needs (ADHD, dyslexia, autism).

Output: Week-by-week schedule, each module linked to specific job responsibilities, checkpoints and milestones.

DELIVER Phase: Conversational Learning

Learn through conversation, not boring modules. Zavmo uses 10 conversation types (Socratic dialogue, role-play, coaching, case studies) to build competence. Practice difficult QBR presentations, negotiate tough renewals, and handle churn conversations in a safe AI environment before facing real clients.

Example: "For 'Stakeholder Mapping', Zavmo will guide you through analysing a complex enterprise account, identifying key decision-makers, and building an engagement strategy."

DEMONSTRATE Phase: Competency Assessment

Zavmo automatically builds your evidence portfolio as you learn. Every conversation, practice scenario, and application example is captured and mapped to NOS performance criteria. When ready, your portfolio supports OFQUAL qualification claims and demonstrates competence to employers.

Output: Competency matrix, evidence portfolio (downloadable), qualification readiness, career progression score.