DevOps Engineer is a highly sought after title and in-demand job. However, a few years back, this job title didn’t even exist!
In this article, we reveal DevOps Salaries around the world and explain why it might not be so simple as 1 single number that makes up the job’s pay.
What is DevOps?
We’re so glad you asked, in fact, so much so that we wrote an article titled…What is DevOps?
Don’t have time to read it? No worries.
DevOps is a set of practices that allow organizations to deliver software quicker and more reliably. That’s it.
What do DevOps Engineers actually do?
DevOps is a set of practices, but really, what DO DEVOPS ENGINEERS DO?
These folks are paid pretty well, how come?
Generally, DevOps Engineers help companies deliver software faster. How so? Every company has a different definition, but we’ll give our viewpoint:
DevOps Engineers typically work with Software Developers and IT teams to help build CI/CD pipelines to test and release code. These pipelines catch errors and bugs and alert teams before code is released to their customers.
They might also manage resources in Cloud Providers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Azure and others. DevOps Engineers might be responsible for managing thousands of virtual machines in the cloud, patching them, maintaining security and deploying code to those servers.
At many companies, DevOps Engineers are also expected to know how to write code. They usually write code in languages like Python, Golang, Javascript, Bash and others.
They probably know about Linux, since most of their systems runs on it. Knowing about Docker, Kubernetes and orchestrating containers is pretty common too!
We named a lot of tools and responsibilities, and this is just the tip of the iceberg!
Let’s take a look at a few data sources and what they say DevOps Engineers typically make in take-home salary.
Data Sources
We used a few different Data Sources for determining the average DevOps Engineer Salary: Glassdoor, Payscale, Blind and Reddit.
Glassdoor
According to Glassdoor, the average DevOps Engineer salary is $121,139 annually. They say this comes from $105,266 in base pay and $15,873 in “additional pay”, which we take to mean a bonus.
Payscale
Payscale separates DevOps Engineer salaries into years of experience:
Under 1 year: $76k
1-4 Years: $90k
5-9 years: $109k
10-19 years: $125k
20+ years: $133k
Reddit’s r/devops subreddit has a great thread where members share their salaries.
We didn’t painstakingly add these all together and average them out, but scrolling through can give a good idea for what users are making in different parts of the country. Here’s a few of the comments:
- $105k, First DevOps Job
- $110k working as a DevOps Engineer at a Tech Startup
- $150k Total Compensation, 6 Years of Experience
- $238k as a DevOps Engineer in Los Angeles
- $86k at current job, accepted an offer for $150k
Clearly, there is a wide range on that reddit thread! Hopefully, it gives an idea of how different salaries can be.
Other Data Sources:
Blind App
Blind is an app where tech professionals anonymously discuss salaries, culture and politics at tech companies. There is a TON of great data on Blind, but it does tend to be skewed towards specific Companies. Try joining Blind and searching for the company you’re considering joining to get some data on salaries and culture.
Levels.FYI
Levels.FYI has been operating for a few years now and opens up salary data for Software Developers, DevOps Engineers and other technical roles at FAANG Companies (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix). Generally, these companies have pay-bands, like L5, L6, etc that determine what engineers will make at that company.
Things to Keep in Mind About DevOps Engineering Salaries
There’s a lot of blog posts and articles out there that will have you believing that salaries for a DevOps engineer are one single number.
Be sure to take into account the various factors that can effect your compensation and enjoyment of your job: Work Life Balance, Benefits, Bonuses, Equity or Stock Benefits, Culture, Industry and any other benefits that may come with the role!
I personally wouldn’t take a job for a million dollars in an industry I hated. OK, maybe for a year or two…but you get the idea! Consider the whole picture before just lumping salary as one figure.
We hope this article helped you get some data on what DevOps Engineers can expect to take home as a salary.
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