Top 12 Infrastructure Engineer Skills to Put on Your Resume

Infrastructure engineers keep the lights humming. They stitch together compute, storage, and networks so teams can ship software without tripping over cables—real or virtual. A sharp, current toolset isn’t optional; it’s a career accelerant. Curate the right skills, show proof you’ve used them, and you’ll punch through the noise.

Infrastructure Engineer Skills

1. Kubernetes
2. Terraform
3. AWS
4. Docker
5. Ansible
6. Azure
7. Python
8. VMware
9. CI/CD
10. PowerShell
11. Linux
12. Git

1. Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open-source platform for orchestrating containers—deploying, scaling, and healing workloads across clusters, squeezing every ounce of reliability and efficiency from your compute.

Why It's Important

It standardizes how applications run at scale. Declarative configs, automated rollouts, self-healing, and resource controls turn fragile deployments into sturdy, elastic systems.

How to Improve Kubernetes Skills

1. Right-size resources: Set requests/limits, use Vertical and Horizontal Pod Autoscalers, and watch node pressure signals.
2. Strengthen security: Enforce Role-Based Access Control, Pod Security Standards, image signing, and secrets encryption. Isolate with NetworkPolicies. Keep control planes and nodes patched.
3. Harden clusters: Prefer multi-control plane architectures, spread nodes across zones, and back up etcd routinely with tested restore procedures.
4. Ship confidently: Package with Helm or Kustomize, use health probes, progressive delivery (blue/green, canary), and admission policies to gate risky changes.
5. Observe everything: Metrics, logs, and traces—Prometheus-style metrics, structured app logs, cluster events, and distributed tracing. Alert on SLOs, not noise.
6. Optimize networking: Choose a CNI that fits (performance, policy), tune kube-proxy mode, consider a service mesh if you need traffic shaping and mTLS.
7. Automate the platform: GitOps workflows, cluster autoscaler, node auto-repair, and managed node upgrades. Keep configs and policies in version control.

Well-run clusters are boring in the best way—predictable, resilient, and cost-aware.

How to Display Kubernetes Skills on Your Resume

2. Terraform

Terraform defines infrastructure as code so you can plan, provision, and track changes across clouds and services with versioned, reviewable workflows.

Why It's Important

Repeatable environments. Auditable changes. Safer deployments. Terraform shrinks toil and slashes drift.

How to Improve Terraform Skills

1. Structure for reuse: Build clean modules, pin provider and module versions, and generate docs for inputs/outputs.
2. Tame state: Use remote backends with locking, separate state per environment or workload, and protect sensitive values.
3. Validate early: Format, validate, and lint (tflint). Add policy-as-code checks (e.g., for tagging, encryption). Scan for misconfigurations.
4. Automate the lifecycle: Plans in pull requests, targeted applies, and ephemeral review environments. Keep drift detection on a leash.
5. Choose the right engine: Be aware many teams now run OpenTofu (an open fork) alongside or instead of Terraform; align with your org’s standards.
6. Guardrails: Use workspaces sparingly; prefer distinct states. Lock down credentials and rotate often. Keep secrets out of code.

Small, composable stacks beat sprawling monoliths—faster reviews, fewer surprises.

How to Display Terraform Skills on Your Resume

3. AWS

AWS delivers elastic compute, storage, databases, networking, and managed services you can assemble into globally resilient platforms.

Why It's Important

It scales with you. From scrappy prototype to worldwide footprint, with guardrails and observability built in.

How to Improve AWS Skills

1. Spend with intent: Use Savings Plans or Reserved Instances for steady loads. Adopt Graviton where possible. Rightsize relentlessly and turn things off on schedule.
2. Secure by default: Tight IAM roles, least privilege, VPC segmentation, WAF and Shield for edge protection. Audit with CloudTrail, Config, and access analyzer. Detect with GuardDuty.
3. Automate infrastructure: Define with CloudFormation or CDK, orchestrate with Step Functions, manage fleets through Systems Manager. Bake immutable images.
4. Watch performance: CloudWatch metrics and alarms, distributed tracing, load balancing strategies, and caching layers like ElastiCache. Keep latency budgets visible.
5. Resilience first: Multi-AZ for critical data planes, cross-region replication where needed, AWS Backup policies, tested recovery drills.
6. Govern at scale: AWS Organizations, Control Tower, and Service Control Policies to keep accounts tidy and compliant.

Cost, security, speed—pick all three if you design with discipline.

How to Display AWS Skills on Your Resume

4. Docker

Docker packages software into portable containers so the same build runs the same way everywhere—from a laptop to a fleet.

Why It's Important

Consistency kills bugs. Containers slash “works on my machine” drama and speed up pipelines.

How to Improve Docker Skills

1. Lean images: Multi-stage builds, minimal bases, distroless/alpine when appropriate. Trim layers. Verify SBOMs.
2. Security posture: Run as a non-root user, enable user namespaces or rootless mode, scan images, and pin digests. Keep secrets out of images.
3. Faster builds: Enable BuildKit, mount caches, and leverage remote cache. Consolidate RUN steps smartly.
4. Resource discipline: Set CPU/memory limits and tune ulimits. Understand how your orchestrator schedules.
5. Logs and metrics: Standardize logging drivers, propagate correlation IDs, and export container metrics.
6. Orchestrate wisely: Use Kubernetes for production scheduling and rollouts; reserve Compose for dev and lightweight cases.

Small images ship quicker and surface fewer vulnerabilities. Aim there.

How to Display Docker Skills on Your Resume

5. Ansible

Ansible automates configuration, provisioning, and application deployment with human-readable playbooks and agentless execution.

Why It's Important

It turns repetitive setup into reliable, versioned code. Fewer snowflake servers. More sleep.

How to Improve Ansible Skills

1. Design for reuse: Break playbooks into roles and collections. Keep inventories and vars tidy with clear precedence.
2. Idempotence or bust: Write tasks that converge cleanly. Use check mode and diff to verify behavior.
3. Secrets safe: Store with Ansible Vault or an external secret store. Never commit plaintext credentials.
4. Dynamic inventories: Pull hosts from cloud APIs and CMDBs. Tag resources for precise targeting.
5. Quality gates: Test roles with Molecule, lint with ansible-lint, and enforce style pre-commit. CI runs syntax checks and dry-runs.
6. Scale operations: Use Ansible Automation Platform or AWX to schedule, RBAC, and audit automation at team scale.

Readable playbooks age well. Treat them like product code.

How to Display Ansible Skills on Your Resume

6. Azure

Azure offers compute, storage, data, networking, identity, and managed services across a global footprint with deep enterprise hooks.

Why It's Important

Hybrid-friendly, identity-centric, and enterprise-ready—Azure slots into complex organizations without drama.

How to Improve Azure Skills

1. Performance: Use Azure Advisor for recommendations, instrument with Azure Monitor, and tune storage/compute SKUs to workload patterns.
2. Security: Centralize with Microsoft Defender for Cloud, enforce Azure Policy, segment with NSGs and Azure Firewall, and review Identity governance regularly.
3. Cost: Analyze with Cost Management, apply budgets and alerts, rightsize VMs, adopt reservations/savings plans, and hibernate dev/test.
4. Resiliency: Multi-Region when necessary, Availability Zones by default, Azure Backup for data protection, and Azure Site Recovery for failover.
5. Automation: Standardize with Bicep or ARM templates, orchestrate with Azure Automation and Logic Apps, and manage at scale with Blueprints.
6. Networking: Use Private Endpoints, plan address spaces up front, and consider ExpressRoute or VPN Gateway for stable hybrid links.

Govern before you grow—policy and RBAC up front save headaches later.

How to Display Azure Skills on Your Resume

7. Python

Python is a clean, expressive language that excels at scripting, automation, and stitching services together through APIs.

Why It's Important

It glues ecosystems. From quick CLI tools to orchestrating clouds, Python removes friction.

How to Improve Python Skills

1. Fundamentals first: Data structures, OOP, exceptions, virtual environments, packaging. Write readable code with type hints.
2. CLI and tooling: Build robust CLIs with argparse or Typer. Format with black, lint with ruff/flake8, test with pytest.
3. Automation focus: Interact with cloud SDKs (AWS, Azure, GCP), SSH with Paramiko, and manage infra APIs. Cache and retry sensibly.
4. Concurrency: Use asyncio for I/O-heavy tasks, threads/processes for parallelism, and queues for backpressure.
5. Reliability: Structured logging, rich error messages, and metrics exporting. Feature-flag risky ops.
6. Distribution: Package modules cleanly, pin dependencies, and ship containers with slim runtimes.

Small utilities, big leverage—Python pays dividends across the stack.

How to Display Python Skills on Your Resume

8. VMware

VMware’s virtualization platform (vSphere: ESXi and vCenter) consolidates workloads, boosts availability, and simplifies lifecycle management.

Why It's Important

Virtualization won’t go out of style. It squeezes more from hardware and underpins reliable private clouds.

How to Improve VMware Skills

1. Keep current: Stay on supported vSphere releases, update firmware and VMware Tools, and track compatibility across components.
2. Balance compute: Use DRS for intelligent placement and EVC for vMotion flexibility. Tune reservations and limits, avoid noisy neighbors.
3. High availability: Enable HA, test host failure scenarios, and validate admission control. Practice recovery steps, not just plan them.
4. Storage sanity: Right-size datastores, monitor latency and queue depths, and consider vSAN where it fits. Trim and align regularly.
5. Network hygiene: Design distributed switches cleanly, segment with VLANs, and monitor east-west traffic. Enable NIC teaming with sensible hashing.
6. Observe and automate: Use operations tooling for health, capacity, and forecasting. Automate with PowerCLI and templates/host profiles.

Predictable clusters, calm nights—virtualization done right.

How to Display VMware Skills on Your Resume

9. CI/CD

CI/CD wires code integration, testing, and deployment into a swift, reliable pipeline. Less ceremony. More shipping.

Why It's Important

Automation reduces risk and cycle time. It turns releases from cliff jumps into careful steps.

How to Improve CI/CD Skills

1. Pipelines as code: Version everything. Reusable pipeline templates, clear stages, and fast feedback.
2. Shift left on security: Static and dependency scans, container image checks, secret scanning, SBOMs, and signed artifacts.
3. Infrastructure in the loop: Provision and configure with IaC during pipeline runs. Ephemeral test environments on demand.
4. Smart strategies: Blue/green, canary, and feature flags to de-risk deployments. Automatic rollbacks tied to health signals.
5. Speed without fragility: Cache dependencies, parallelize tests, quarantine flaky suites, and keep runtimes lean.
6. Secrets and identity: Short-lived credentials, OIDC federation to clouds, and strict secret storage.

The best pipelines are invisible until they save you.

How to Display CI/CD Skills on Your Resume

10. PowerShell

PowerShell is a cross-platform shell and scripting language built for admins. It automates the dull and repeats the precise—on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Why It's Important

Infrastructure moves fast; manual steps can’t keep up. PowerShell glues systems together and keeps them in line.

How to Improve PowerShell Skills

1. Modern PowerShell: Use PowerShell 7+, modules for reuse, and robust parameter validation. Splatting and advanced functions for clarity.
2. Test and verify: Write Pester tests for scripts and modules. Mock external calls, assert idempotence.
3. Security-minded: Code signing where required, SecretManagement for credentials, and least-privilege remoting (WinRM or SSH).
4. Error handling: Embrace try/catch/finally, set strict mode, and fail fast with actionable messages.
5. Performance: Parallelize with ForEach-Object -Parallel or runspaces. Streamline pipeline operations and avoid unnecessary objects.
6. Distribute cleanly: Version your modules, publish to internal galleries, and document commands with comment-based help.

Readable scripts are operational superpowers—make them boring and bulletproof.

How to Display PowerShell Skills on Your Resume

11. Linux

Linux is the backbone of servers, clouds, and networks. Stable, flexible, and endlessly scriptable.

Why It's Important

Most infrastructure runs on Linux. Knowing it deeply pays off everywhere—from kernels to containers.

How to Improve Linux Skills

1. Measure first: Use htop, iostat, vmstat, and eBPF tools like bpftrace to pinpoint hotspots. Tune via /etc/sysctl.conf, not guesses.
2. Lock it down: Enforce SELinux or AppArmor, nftables/firewalld for policy, and regular patching. Separate duties. Audit logs.
3. Resource control: Leverage cgroups v2 and systemd resource limits. Cap runaway processes and reserve headroom.
4. Automate: Manage fleets with Ansible, Puppet, or Chef. Immutability and golden images reduce drift.
5. Observability: Journald for logs, metrics exporters, and alerting on SLOs. Keep runbooks close.
6. Backup and restore: Modern tools like restic or BorgBackup. Test restores on a schedule.
7. Networking: Understand mtu, offloading, routing rules, and TCP tuning. Track packet loss and tail latency.
8. Lifecycle: Kernel/live patching where supported, secure boot, and reproducible builds. Verify supply chain.

Linux rewards curiosity. Trace a system call once; you’ll never look at performance the same way again.

How to Display Linux Skills on Your Resume

12. Git

Git tracks changes and coordinates collaboration. It’s the memory of your infrastructure code.

Why It's Important

History, review, and rollback—Git makes changes safer and teams faster.

How to Improve Git Skills

1. Branch smart: Trunk-based or Git Flow—pick intentionally. Keep branches short-lived and rebased. Protect main.
2. Automate checks: Use pre-commit hooks for formatting, linting, and secret scanning. Block bad commits before they land.
3. Sign and verify: Signed commits and tags increase trust. Enforce in repos that matter.
4. Handle big assets: Git LFS for large binaries, or move them out of the repo entirely. Keep clones lean with sparse checkout.
5. Clean history: Squash where it helps, tag releases, and prune stale branches. Run periodic maintenance (gc) on large repos.
6. Document the dance: Conventional commits or clear messages, CODEOWNERS, and templates for issues/PRs to smooth reviews.

Version control is a team sport. Make good habits contagious.

How to Display Git Skills on Your Resume