The pathway
How you actually get there, here
How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.
- 1
From Cloud Support Analyst (L2)
2-3 years as an L2Skills to master
- Leading P1/P2 incidents, advanced RCA techniques, mentoring junior staff, designing process improvements, deep diving into complex cloud issues.
You're ready to move on when
- Consistently resolving complex P2 tickets independently.
- Actively contributing high-quality knowledge base articles.
- Demonstrating leadership during minor incidents or troubleshooting calls.
- Proactively identifying and suggesting improvements to existing processes.
- 2
From Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) / DevOps Engineer
5+ years in SRE/DevOpsSkills to master
- Deep understanding of incident management frameworks (ITIL), strong customer communication skills, ability to translate operational insights into support processes.
You're ready to move on when
- Proven ability to troubleshoot complex production issues across the stack.
- Experience with on-call rotations and incident response.
- Strong scripting and automation skills, with a focus on operational efficiency.
- A desire to focus more on incident resolution, problem management, and direct support improvement.
- 3
From Senior Technical Support Specialist (non-cloud)
5+ years in technical support, plus 2-3 years focused on cloud technologiesSkills to master
- Deep cloud platform knowledge (AWS/Azure/GCP), cloud-specific security and networking, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles, cloud monitoring and logging tools.
You're ready to move on when
- Demonstrable expertise in a specific technical domain (e.g., networking, databases).
- Strong problem-solving and communication skills from previous support roles.
- Completed professional-level cloud certifications and personal projects in cloud environments.
- A clear passion for moving into a dedicated cloud operations role.