Your BGP and OSPF Skills Are Worth $150K–$208K in Cloud Architecture — Here's the Career Map

If you're a network engineer who knows BGP path selection, OSPF area design, and IPsec tunnel negotiation — you already have 60–70% of what cloud network architect roles require. The rest is learning new interfaces to concepts you already own. Cloud network architects earn $148K–$208K median in 2026. Multi-cloud architects push past $250K. And the gap between "network engineer" and "cloud architect" is smaller than most people think. Here's the complete map: which skills translate, which certifications to stack, and which industries pay the most for your protocol knowledge. The Salary Landscape Cloud network architect compensation varies dramatically by location and platform: City Salary Range Median Seattle $145K–$299K $208K San Francisco $145K–$216K $180K Remote (US) $140K–$200K $170K New York $115K–$224K $160K Source: Glassdoor, CareerCheck (2026) Seattle dominates because AWS and Azure are both headquartered there. Washington's 0% state income tax means a Seattle architect takes ho