If you use AWS CLI [0], you can embed JMESPath [1] queries via the --query switch, i.e. you don't ned jq. I was a loyal supporter of it, but switched to JMESPath [1], and I love its query languages more.
Azure also uses this in their new CLI [0]. The biggest advantage of JMESPath over jq is that JMESPath is a spec, and thus can be implemented in several languages [1].
[0]: https://aws.amazon.com/cli/
[1]: http://jmespath.org/