An average engineer building and operating cloud infrastructure based on the open-source OpenStack architecture generally makes 36% more money then an average non-OpenStack cloud engineer.

That is according to the OpenStack Foundation, which cited the job-search website indeed.com as its source. Average yearly salary of an OpenStack engineer is US$133,000, compared to $98,000 an average non-OpenStack cloud engineer makes.

The average figures are derived from salaries in nationwide US job postings on the job-search site.

The number of OpenStack engineering jobs posted this year was double the number of similar job postings last year, according to a blog entry by Claire Massey, an OpenStack Foundation marketing coordinator. She cited a BSA Global Cloud Scorecard report that predicted that 14 million cloud jobs will be created by 2015.

To make those OpenStack jobs more accessible and to widen the pool of qualified OpenStack engineers in general, the foundation has launched a Training Marketplace where companies can advertise OpenStack training courses they offer. Massey announced creation of the marketplace in her blog post.

Jonathan Brice, executive director of the OpenStack Foundation, said the foundation's goal was to get rid of barriers to OpenStack adoption and create more experts in the open-source cloud architecture. “We want to grow the community, accelerate the availability of training programs worldwide and help close the OpenStack job gap,” he said.

The first companies to offer courses through the marketplace are Aptira, hastexo, the Linux Foundation, Mirantis, Morphlabs, Piston, Rackspace, Red Hat, SUSE and SwiftStack. There are dozens of courses available in 25 cities across 10 countries.

Companies that want to offer courses through the marketplace have to comply with the foundation's requirements. In addition to providing strong knowledge of OpenStack based on the software's current versions, a curriculum also has to cover governance and contribution processes of the open-source community.