You have an open cloud or DevOps req. It has been open a while. The resumes you do get want $180k, a remote-anywhere setup, and three competing offers. The market for AWS, Azure, and GCP talent is brutal. So is the market for the people who keep your pipelines running and your infrastructure stable.

There is a talent pool most hiring teams skip. Military IT and cyber operators. These are people who ran networks under fire. They kept systems up at 3 a.m. with no excuses. They locked down infrastructure that could not go down. That is the same instinct a good DevOps hire needs.

This guide is for the hiring manager or recruiter filling cloud and DevOps roles. It covers where these veterans come from and how to read a military tech resume. It covers how to interview them and how to keep them. We will stay in the cloud-platform and automation lane the whole way.

Why are cloud and DevOps roles so hard to fill?

The demand is real and it is not slowing down. Companies keep moving more workloads to the cloud. Every one of those moves needs people who can build it, automate it, and keep it stable.

The federal data backs this up. Computer network architects, the closest match for cloud and infrastructure design work, earn a median of $130,390 a year. The field is projected to grow 12 percent from 2024 to 2034. That is much faster than average. About 11,200 openings show up each year, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Software developers, which covers a lot of DevOps and platform engineering work, is projected to grow 15 percent over the same window. That is roughly 129,200 openings a year. The supply of trained people is not keeping up with that.

So you are fishing in a small pond against deep-pocketed rivals. Veterans widen the pond. The military trains people to run real infrastructure at scale. Many of them already hold the cloud and security skills you are screening for. Most hiring teams never look there.

Why do veterans fit cloud and DevOps work?

DevOps is not just a tool stack. It is a mindset. Keep the system up. Automate the boring stuff. Fix the root cause, not the symptom. Own the outcome when it breaks. Military IT operators live that mindset for years before they ever touch a civilian job posting.

Think about what a network operator does on active duty. They run mission systems that cannot fail. They patch and harden under strict security rules. They troubleshoot at all hours with people depending on the answer. They document everything because the next shift has to pick it up clean.

That maps almost one to one onto site reliability and DevOps work. Uptime discipline. Security baked in from the start. Calm under pressure. Clear handoffs. These are the soft skills that separate a good DevOps engineer from a fragile one.

Many of them also bring something rare. An active security clearance and real experience working in locked-down, audited environments. If you sell to government or run regulated workloads, that is a head start most civilian candidates cannot match.

Which military jobs map to cloud and DevOps roles?

The codes look like alphabet soup. But the work behind them is the work you need. Here are the main military jobs that produce cloud and DevOps talent. Treat this as a starting point, not a rule. Two people with the same code can have very different depth.

Want the full transition picture on any of these? Each one has a deep civilian-career page. Start with the Army 25B IT Specialist guide and the Army 17C Cyber Operations guide. On the other branches, look at the Air Force 3D0X2 Cyber Systems guide and the Navy CTN Cryptologic Technician guide.

Do not stop at the code. A 25B who spent four years scripting deployments and standing up virtual servers is a stronger DevOps fit than the code alone tells you. Read the duties. Map the field to your open req with our guide on mapping a military career field to your open reqs.

How do I read a military tech resume for cloud skills?

Good candidates get filtered out by accident here. A military resume is full of acronyms and modest language. The screener does not see "DevOps engineer." They see jargon. So they pass.

Train your screeners to read the work, not the labels. The same person who "administered the unit network enclave" was probably patching servers, managing access, automating routine tasks, and keeping uptime. That is the job.

Look for these signals on a military tech resume:

• Automation and scripting: PowerShell, Bash, Python, Ansible. Any sign they replaced manual work with code.
• Virtualization and infrastructure: VMware, Hyper-V, server builds, managing systems at scale.
• Cloud platforms: AWS, Azure, or GCP. The DoD runs heavy cloud now, so this shows up more every year.
• Security and compliance: STIGs, RMF, hardening, access control. This translates straight to DevSecOps.
• Certifications: Security+, AWS, Azure, or CompTIA stacks earned in service.

Many veterans earn cloud and IT certifications while still in uniform. The military funds them through programs you can verify on the DoD COOL site. So a candidate may already hold the AWS or Azure cert your job posting lists. Ask about it. Do not assume it is missing because the resume buried it.

Where do I find veterans for cloud and DevOps roles?

You do not have to wait for them to find your job board posting. There are direct channels that put you in front of these candidates early.

The DoD SkillBridge program is the strongest channel for a midsize company. You host a transitioning service member for a real project. They are still paid by the military, so your cost is low. By the time they separate, you both know if it works. For cloud and DevOps, that tryout is gold. Skills are easy to claim and hard to fake. A SkillBridge project shows you the real thing.

If your need is specifically security-focused, building a steady channel pays off. See our guide on building a cybersecurity veteran hiring pipeline for the longer play.

How should I interview a veteran for a DevOps role?

A standard DevOps interview can undersell a veteran. They tend to credit the team, not themselves. They use military terms you do not know. They may downplay work that was a big deal. Your job is to dig past that.

Run a practical interview. Give them a real problem. Ask them to design a deployment pipeline, debug a broken system, or talk through how they would scale a service. Watch how they think. The military trains people to break problems down under pressure. That shows up fast in a hands-on test.

For a full screening framework, use our recruiter checklist for screening veteran applicants. It keeps your team consistent across candidates.

What if the candidate has no degree?

A lot of strong military tech operators do not have a four-year degree. They have years of hands-on work and a stack of certifications instead. If your job posting says "degree required," you are screening out people who can do the job today.

Swap "degree required" for "degree or equivalent experience." Then weigh the real proof. Picture a 25B with six years of network and cloud work and a current AWS cert. That person is more ready than a fresh grad who has never touched production. The work history is the credential.

For the full method, read our guide on how to evaluate a veteran candidate with no civilian degree. The short version: judge the work, verify the certs, and stop letting the degree box hide good people.

How do I onboard and keep a veteran DevOps hire?

Hiring is half the job. Keeping them is the other half. The good news is veterans tend to stay when the work has meaning and a clear path. They are used to a mission and a chain. Give them both.

Set up day one with structure. Clear goals for the first 30, 60, and 90 days. Pair them with a senior engineer who can translate your tooling and your team norms. A lot of friction early is just culture, not skill. Help them bridge it.

Then give them room to grow. Map out what the next role looks like. Veterans respond to a defined ladder. They have spent years in a system where advancement is laid out. A vague "we will see" loses them. A real growth path keeps them.

You do not need a giant veteran-hiring program to start. One open req and a willingness to read past the acronyms is enough. The veterans are out there with the cloud and DevOps skills you are searching for. Most of your competition is not looking. That is your edge.

BMR connects employers with a growing pool of veteran tech talent. More than 1,000 new profiles join every month, with 60,000 resumes built to date. If you want to reach veterans ready for cloud and DevOps roles, partner with us to access the talent pool.