For years, people asked me: “What’s the real DevOps salary range?”
And every time, the honest answer was: it depends — on country, company type, role scope, and whether you’re owning reliability outcomes or just tooling.
That’s why I built the BestDevOps Salary Hub — a single place to compare DevOps compensation across countries and roles without mixing apples and oranges.
The 2026 DevOps Salary Master Report (Global)
Current reality (2025–2026) + a 2026–2030 compensation outlook for DevOps, SRE, Platform & DevSecOps (in my voice)
Audience: DevOps/SRE/Platform engineers, hiring managers, and comp teams
What this is: a data-backed, slightly opinionated “master report + comprehensive blog” with explicit assumptions, role taxonomy, global salary bands, and practical negotiation/hiring guidance.
Executive summary (the parts that actually matter)
- DevOps comp is fragmenting into 3 pay markets:
(1) Big Tech / high-scale product orgs (equity-heavy), (2) enterprise / regulated (bonus-heavy), (3) services/outsourcing (rate-card driven). “DevOps Engineer” means different things in each. - The title inflation is real—but the leveling systems are getting stricter. “Platform Engineer” and “SRE” titles are increasingly mapped to SWE ladders in mature orgs; in less mature orgs they’re still “ops with automation.”
- The hot premiums (2025–2026): security platform + policy-as-code, incident command + resilience engineering, platform product thinking, and cost engineering (FinOps x DevOps).
- The flattening: generic “CI/CD engineer” roles and “Kubernetes operator-only” profiles—those are increasingly treated as baseline, not a premium.
- AI is not cutting DevOps headcount evenly. It’s shaving toil, shrinking L1/L2 ops queues, and raising the bar for senior ICs (architecture, distributed systems, governance, reliability ownership).
- If you can’t tie your work to reliability and cost, you’re leaving money on the table. (And if your employer can’t price reliability, they’ll churn people.)
- I’m seeing more comp tied to operational outcomes: on-call maturity, SLO adoption, and platform adoption metrics. Not everywhere—but it’s growing.
- Remote pay is bifurcating: top companies still pay near top-of-market for scarce skill profiles; mid-market firms are pushing stricter geo bands.
- The fastest way to raise your comp band in 2026: move from “pipeline implementer” → “platform owner” (internal product), and from “alerts responder” → “reliability engineer” (SLOs + error budgets + design reviews).
- This report includes 2026 base-salary bands for 15 countries with fully cited sources. I also include a clear template to extend the tables to 25–35 countries (because global public salary data is uneven and I won’t fabricate numbers).
I’ve seen this play out (20 years of patterns, without the fake war stories)
- DevOps pay tracks business risk, not tool knowledge. The minute your work is tied to revenue uptime, regulatory exposure, or gross margin (cloud bill), your comp ceiling changes.
- On-call is either a comp lever—or a retention bomb. If the org hasn’t invested in toil reduction and incident process, they “pay with burnout.” People leave, and the replacement cost dwarfs any comp savings.
- Titles are cheap; scope is expensive. A “Staff DevOps Engineer” with no design authority is just a senior engineer with a fancy badge. Great companies pay for decision rights.
- The best negotiators don’t argue market averages. They argue comp bands, leveling evidence, and specific scarcity (security platform, multi-region reliability, cost engineering).
- “Platform engineering” is just DevOps growing up. When an org treats its platform as a product with a roadmap, DevOps/SRE pay becomes more SWE-like and less IT-like.
Role taxonomy and title reality check
What companies say vs what they mean
The same work lands under different titles depending on org maturity:
- Early-stage / startup: “DevOps Engineer” = cloud + CI/CD + on-call + everything
- Mid-size SaaS: split into Platform, SRE, Security, Data Platform
- Big Tech / hyperscale: SRE/Platform often map to SWE ladders; DevOps is rarer as a title
Taxonomy of DevOps-related roles (practical definitions)
| Role / designation | What I expect you to own (in reality) | Typical comp premium vs baseline DevOps* |
|---|---|---|
| DevOps Engineer | CI/CD + infra automation + deployment reliability | baseline |
| Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) | SLOs, incident response, reliability engineering, reducing toil | +0–15% |
| Platform Engineer | Internal developer platform, paved roads, platform adoption | +5–20% |
| DevSecOps Engineer | policy-as-code, secure SDLC, pipeline security, secrets | +10–30% |
| Cloud Engineer | cloud landing zones, IAM patterns, infra delivery | -5–10% to +10% |
| Infra/Systems Engineer | compute/storage/network ops + automation | -15% to +5% |
| Release / CI/CD Engineer | pipeline delivery + release orchestration | -15% to 0% |
| Observability Engineer | telemetry architecture, logging/metrics/tracing, SLO tooling | +0–10% |
| Security Platform Engineer | scalable security controls + developer enablement | +15–35% |
| Site Operations / NOC | monitoring + runbooks + escalation | -20% to -40% |
| FinOps / Cost Engineer (DevOps-adjacent) | unit cost, governance, capacity economics | +5–25% |
| Incident Commander / Reliability Lead | major incident leadership, ops excellence | premium often via level |
*Premiums are typical market patterns; actual leveling can override premiums.
Seniority mapping (the ladder that actually drives pay)
| Level | What I look for in interviews | Common leveling equivalents (varies by company) |
|---|---|---|
| Junior | executes tasks, learns on-call basics | IC1–IC2 |
| Mid | independently ships infra/pipeline changes | IC3 |
| Senior | designs systems, leads incidents, mentors | IC4 |
| Staff | cross-team architecture, reliability strategy | IC5 |
| Principal | org-wide technical direction, standards | IC6 |
| Manager | team output + hiring + delivery | M1 |
| Director | multi-team strategy + budget + org design | D1 |
Salary benchmarks (2025–2026): methodology first, then numbers
What “salary” means in this report
- Primary metric: annual base salary (gross), full-time employee.
- Not consistently included: equity, signing, bonus, allowances. Those vary wildly by country and company.
- USD conversions:approximate, using mid-market rates from X-Rates at Feb 7, 2026 19:36 UTC for most currencies. ()
- Kenya (KES/USD): sourced separately (not covered in X-Rates table snippet). ()
- Nigeria: USD conversion omitted because I don’t have a clean, citable mid-market NGN/USD rate in the captured sources; NGN also commonly has multiple rate regimes.
How I generate MIN / MEDIAN / MAX (so you can audit it)
- For countries where the source provides entry-level / average / senior-level (SalaryExpert):
- Junior median = entry-level, Mid median = average, Senior median = senior-level
- For sources that provide only an average (PayScale Kenya/Nigeria):
- treat that as Mid median, and estimate junior/senior ratios using the observed cross-country pattern from the SalaryExpert dataset in this report (≈0.70× for junior, ≈1.24× for senior). I label those as modeled.
- MIN / MAX around each median:
- Min = 0.8× median, Max = 1.25× median
This matches the shape of real reported distributions (example: Glassdoor US shows 25th/75th percentiles around the median). ()
- Min = 0.8× median, Max = 1.25× median
FX reference table (USD conversions used)
1 USD ≈ currency units (and inverse) as of Feb 7, 2026 19:36 UTC from X-Rates for most currencies. ()
| Currency | 1 USD ≈ (currency units) | 1 unit ≈ USD |
|---|---|---|
| USD | 1.000000 | 1.000000 |
| EUR | 0.846101 | 1.181892 |
| GBP | 0.734584 | 1.361315 |
| CAD | 1.366697 | 0.731691 |
| CHF | 0.775737 | 1.289097 |
| SEK | 9.022668 | 0.110832 |
| PLN | 3.569292 | 0.280168 |
| AED | 3.672500 | 0.272294 |
| SAR | 3.750000 | 0.266667 |
| ILS | 3.119192 | 0.320596 |
| INR | 90.552069 | 0.011043 |
| SGD | 1.272162 | 0.786063 |
| JPY | 157.098446 | 0.006365 |
| KRW | 1466.984485 | 0.000682 |
| AUD | 1.426052 | 0.701237 |
| NZD | 1.662379 | 0.601548 |
| BRL | 5.222623 | 0.191475 |
| MXN | 17.263675 | 0.057925 |
| ZAR | 16.026458 | 0.062397 |
| CZK | 20.498616 | 0.048784 |
| RON | 4.310060 | 0.232015 |
| KES | 128.622800 | 0.007774 |
Table 1 — Country-by-country overview (flagship roles)
Interpretation: each cell shows USD min / median / max (base salary) and the local-currency median.
Roles: DevOps Engineer, SRE, Platform Engineer, DevSecOps Engineer.
| Country | Currency | DevOps Engineer | Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) | Platform Engineer | DevSecOps Engineer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | USD | $92,058 / $115,072 / $143,840 (local median 115,072 USD) | $99,422 / $124,278 / $155,347 (local median 124,278 USD) | $103,105 / $128,881 / $161,101 (local median 128,881 USD) | $108,628 / $135,785 / $169,731 (local median 135,785 USD) |
| Canada | CAD | $66,734 / $83,417 / $104,271 (local median 114,006 CAD) | $72,072 / $90,091 / $112,613 (local median 123,126 CAD) | $74,742 / $93,427 / $116,784 (local median 127,687 CAD) | $78,746 / $98,432 / $123,040 (local median 134,527 CAD) |
| France | EUR | $64,408 / $80,510 / $100,638 (local median 68,120 EUR) | $69,561 / $86,951 / $108,689 (local median 73,570 EUR) | $72,137 / $90,172 / $112,715 (local median 76,294 EUR) | $76,002 / $95,002 / $118,753 (local median 80,382 EUR) |
| Netherlands | EUR | $71,629 / $89,537 / $111,921 (local median 75,757 EUR) | $77,360 / $96,700 / $120,874 (local median 81,818 EUR) | $80,225 / $100,281 / $125,351 (local median 84,848 EUR) | $84,523 / $105,653 / $132,066 (local median 89,393 EUR) |
| Spain | EUR | $55,148 / $68,935 / $86,169 (local median 58,326 EUR) | $59,560 / $74,450 / $93,062 (local median 62,992 EUR) | $61,766 / $77,207 / $96,509 (local median 65,325 EUR) | $65,075 / $81,343 / $101,679 (local median 68,825 EUR) |
| Poland | PLN | $47,310 / $59,137 / $73,921 (local median 211,077 PLN) | $51,094 / $63,868 / $79,835 (local median 227,963 PLN) | $52,987 / $66,233 / $82,792 (local median 236,407 PLN) | $55,825 / $69,782 / $87,227 (local median 249,071 PLN) |
| Sweden | SEK | $57,782 / $72,227 / $90,284 (local median 651,680 SEK) | $62,404 / $78,005 / $97,506 (local median 703,814 SEK) | $64,715 / $80,894 / $101,118 (local median 729,882 SEK) | $68,182 / $85,228 / $106,535 (local median 768,982 SEK) |
| Switzerland | CHF | $114,682 / $143,353 / $179,191 (local median 111,204 CHF) | $123,857 / $154,821 / $193,526 (local median 120,100 CHF) | $128,444 / $160,555 / $200,694 (local median 124,548 CHF) | $135,325 / $169,156 / $211,445 (local median 131,221 CHF) |
| Israel | ILS | $62,517 / $78,146 / $97,682 (local median 243,752 ILS) | $67,518 / $84,398 / $105,497 (local median 263,252 ILS) | $70,019 / $87,523 / $109,404 (local median 273,002 ILS) | $73,770 / $92,212 / $115,265 (local median 287,627 ILS) |
| India | INR | $18,424 / $23,030 / $28,788 (local median 2,085,429 INR) | $19,898 / $24,873 / $31,091 (local median 2,252,263 INR) | $20,635 / $25,794 / $32,242 (local median 2,335,681 INR) | $21,740 / $27,176 / $33,969 (local median 2,460,806 INR) |
| Singapore | SGD | $71,319 / $89,149 / $111,436 (local median 113,412 SGD) | $77,025 / $96,281 / $120,351 (local median 122,485 SGD) | $79,878 / $99,847 / $124,809 (local median 126,? SGD) | $84,157 / $105,196 / $131,495 (local median 133,? SGD) |
| South Korea | KRW | $43,423 / $54,279 / $67,848 (local median 79,625,818 KRW) | $46,897 / $58,621 / $73,276 (local median 85,? KRW) | $48,634 / $60,792 / $75,990 (local median 89,? KRW) | $51,239 / $64,049 / $80,061 (local median 93,? KRW) |
| United Arab Emirates | AED | $63,247 / $79,059 / $98,824 (local median 290,345 AED) | $68,307 / $85,384 / $106,730 (local median 313,? AED) | $70,837 / $88,546 / $110,683 (local median 325,? AED) | $74,632 / $93,290 / $116,612 (local median 342,? AED) |
| Nigeria | NGN | — / — / — (local median 2,947,906 NGN) | — / — / — (local median 3,183,738 NGN) | — / — / — (local median 3,301,655 NGN) | — / — / — (local median 3,478,529 NGN) |
| Kenya | KES | $12,223 / $15,279 / $19,099 (local median 1,965,270 KES) | $13,201 / $16,502 / $20,627 (local median 2,122,? KES) | $13,690 / $17,113 / $21,391 (local median 2,201,? KES) | $14,424 / $18,030 / $22,537 (local median 2,319,? KES) |
Notes on Table 1
- US triangulation for DevOps: Glassdoor reports a US DevOps Engineer average around $142,883, with a “typical” range between ~$114,911 and ~$179,432 and top earners higher. () Levels.fyi reports average total compensation for DevOps Engineer in the US around $150,000 (TC, not base). ()
- For several countries, the base-salary dataset used here is SalaryExpert (ERI), which provides entry/average/senior estimates per country and is updated frequently (examples cited in the country sections below). ()
- Nigeria USD conversion is intentionally omitted in-table (I’m not going to invent a rate). Nigeria’s median shown is local currency from PayScale.
Tables 2–N — Per-country detailed salary tables (8 roles each)
How to read each table
- Columns show Mid and Senior base-salary bands as min / median / max in local currency and USD.
- “Mid” and “Senior” medians come from the cited source per country (or modeled where explicitly stated).
- Role medians are computed from DevOps baseline using typical market multipliers (explained earlier).
United States (USD) — 2025–2026 snapshot
Triangulation sources:
- Salary baseline shape: SalaryExpert (entry/avg/senior) ()
- Distribution check: Glassdoor percentiles ()
- TC context: Levels.fyi ()
- Another market signal: Indeed DevOps Engineer average ()
- Recruiter range example: Robert Half listing ()
| Role | Mid base (local min/med/max) | Mid base (USD min/med/max) | Senior base (local min/med/max) | Senior base (USD min/med/max) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DevOps Engineer | 92,058 USD / 115,072 USD / 143,840 USD | $92,058 / $115,072 / $143,840 | 114,349 USD / 142,936 USD / 178,670 USD | $114,349 / $142,936 / $178,670 |
| Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) | 99,422 USD / 124,278 USD / 155,347 USD | $99,422 / $124,278 / $155,347 | 123,497 USD / 154,371 USD / 192,964 USD | $123,497 / $154,371 / $192,964 |
| Platform Engineer | 103,105 USD / 128,881 USD / 161,101 USD | $103,105 / $128,881 / $161,101 | 128,071 USD / 160,089 USD / 200,111 USD | $128,071 / $160,089 / $200,111 |
| DevSecOps Engineer | 108,628 USD / 135,785 USD / 169,731 USD | $108,628 / $135,785 / $169,731 | 134,671 USD / 168,339 USD / 210,424 USD | $134,671 / $168,339 / $210,424 |
| Cloud Engineer | 94,819 USD / 118,524 USD / 148,155 USD | $94,819 / $118,524 / $148,155 | 117,780 USD / 147,224 USD / 184,031 USD | $117,780 / $147,224 / $184,031 |
| Observability Engineer | 96,821 USD / 121,026 USD / 151,282 USD | $96,821 / $121,026 / $151,282 | 120,137 USD / 150,171 USD / 187,714 USD | $120,137 / $150,171 / $187,714 |
| Security Platform Engineer | 115,072 USD / 143,840 USD / 179,800 USD | $115,072 / $143,840 / $179,800 | 142,936 USD / 178,670 USD / 223,337 USD | $142,936 / $178,670 / $223,337 |
| Infra/Systems Engineer | 87,455 USD / 109,318 USD / 136,648 USD | $87,455 / $109,318 / $136,648 | 108,628 USD / 135,785 USD / 169,731 USD | $108,628 / $135,785 / $169,731 |
Canada (CAD) — 2025–2026 snapshot
Source: SalaryExpert Canada DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
| Role | Mid base (local min/med/max) | Mid base (USD min/med/max) | Senior base (local min/med/max) | Senior base (USD min/med/max) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DevOps Engineer | 91,205 CAD / 114,006 CAD / 142,508 CAD | $66,734 / $83,417 / $104,271 | 113,290 CAD / 141,613 CAD / 177,016 CAD | $82,894 / $103,617 / $129,521 |
| Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) | 98,501 CAD / 123,126 CAD / 153,908 CAD | $72,072 / $90,091 / $112,613 | 122,353 CAD / 152,941 CAD / 191,176 CAD | $89,526 / $111,907 / $139,884 |
| Platform Engineer | 102,149 CAD / 127,687 CAD / 159,608 CAD | $74,742 / $93,427 / $116,784 | 126,200 CAD / 157,750 CAD / 197,188 CAD | $92,340 / $115,425 / $144,281 |
| DevSecOps Engineer | 107,622 CAD / 134,527 CAD / 168,159 CAD | $78,746 / $98,432 / $123,040 | 133,684 CAD / 167,105 CAD / 208,881 CAD | $97,829 / $122,287 / $152,859 |
| Cloud Engineer | 93,941 CAD / 117,426 CAD / 146,782 CAD | $68,725 / $85,906 / $107,383 | 116,690 CAD / 145,862 CAD / 182,327 CAD | $85,401 / $106,751 / $133,439 |
| Observability Engineer | 95,784 CAD / 119,730 CAD / 149,663 CAD | $70,074 / $87,592 / $109,490 | 118,994 CAD / 148,742 CAD / 185,928 CAD | $87,087 / $108,859 / $136,074 |
| Security Platform Engineer | 114,006 CAD / 142,508 CAD / 178,135 CAD | $83,417 / $104,271 / $130,339 | 141,613 CAD / 177,016 CAD / 221,270 CAD | $103,617 / $129,521 / $161,901 |
| Infra/Systems Engineer | 86,645 CAD / 108,306 CAD / 135,383 CAD | $63,397 / $79,246 / $99,057 | 107,622 CAD / 134,527 CAD / 168,159 CAD | $78,746 / $98,432 / $123,040 |
France (EUR)
Source: SalaryExpert France DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
| Role | Mid base (local min/med/max) | Mid base (USD min/med/max) | Senior base (local min/med/max) | Senior base (USD min/med/max) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DevOps Engineer | 54,496 EUR / 68,120 EUR / 85,150 EUR | $64,408 / $80,510 / $100,638 | 67,653 EUR / 84,566 EUR / 105,708 EUR | $79,958 / $99,948 / $124,935 |
| Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) | 58,856 EUR / 73,570 EUR / 91,962 EUR | $69,561 / $86,951 / $108,689 | 73,065 EUR / 91,331 EUR / 114,164 EUR | $86,355 / $107,944 / $134,930 |
| Platform Engineer | 61,036 EUR / 76,294 EUR / 95,368 EUR | $72,137 / $90,172 / $112,715 | 75,771 EUR / 94,714 EUR / 118,392 EUR | $89,553 / $111,942 / $139,927 |
| DevSecOps Engineer | 64,305 EUR / 80,382 EUR / 100,477 EUR | $76,002 / $95,002 / $118,753 | 79,830 EUR / 99,788 EUR / 124,735 EUR | $94,351 / $117,938 / $147,423 |
| Cloud Engineer | 56,131 EUR / 70,164 EUR / 87,704 EUR | $66,341 / $82,926 / $103,657 | 69,682 EUR / 87,103 EUR / 108,879 EUR | $82,357 / $102,946 / $128,683 |
| Observability Engineer | 57,586 EUR / 71,982 EUR / 89,978 EUR | $68,061 / $85,076 / $106,345 | 71,700 EUR / 89,625 EUR / 112,032 EUR | $84,741 / $105,926 / $132,408 |
| Security Platform Engineer | 68,120 EUR / 85,150 EUR / 106,437 EUR | $80,510 / $100,638 / $125,798 | 84,566 EUR / 105,708 EUR / 132,135 EUR | $99,948 / $124,935 / $156,168 |
| Infra/Systems Engineer | 51,771 EUR / 64,714 EUR / 80,893 EUR | $61,188 / $76,485 / $95,606 | 64,305 EUR / 80,382 EUR / 100,477 EUR | $76,002 / $95,002 / $118,753 |
Netherlands (EUR)
Source: SalaryExpert Netherlands DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
| Role | Mid base (local min/med/max) | Mid base (USD min/med/max) | Senior base (local min/med/max) | Senior base (USD min/med/max) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DevOps Engineer | 60,606 EUR / 75,757 EUR / 94,696 EUR | $71,629 / $89,537 / $111,921 | 75,238 EUR / 94,047 EUR / 117,559 EUR | $88,922 / $111,153 / $138,942 |
| Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) | 65,454 EUR / 81,818 EUR / 102,272 EUR | $77,360 / $96,700 / $120,874 | 81,257 EUR / 101,571 EUR / 126,964 EUR | $95,? / $120,? / $150,? |
| Platform Engineer | 67,878 EUR / 84,848 EUR / 106,060 EUR | $80,225 / $100,281 / $125,351 | 84,267 EUR / 105,334 EUR / 131,668 EUR | $99,? / $124,? / $155,? |
| DevSecOps Engineer | 71,515 EUR / 89,393 EUR / 111,742 EUR | $84,523 / $105,653 / $132,066 | 89,? EUR / 111,? EUR / 139,? EUR | $105,? / $132,? / $165,? |
| Cloud Engineer | 62,424 EUR / 78,030 EUR / 97,538 EUR | $73,? / $92,? / $115,? | 77,? EUR / 96,? EUR / 120,? EUR | $91,? / $114,? / $143,? |
| Observability Engineer | 63,? EUR / 79,? EUR / 99,? EUR | $74,? / $93,? / $116,? | 79,? EUR / 98,? EUR / 123,? EUR | $93,? / $116,? / $145,? |
| Security Platform Engineer | 75,757 EUR / 94,696 EUR / 118,370 EUR | $89,537 / $111,921 / $139,902 | 94,047 EUR / 117,559 EUR / 146,949 EUR | $111,153 / $138,942 / $173,678 |
| Infra/Systems Engineer | 57,576 EUR / 71,970 EUR / 89,962 EUR | $68,? / $85,? / $106,? | 71,? EUR / 89,? EUR / 112,? EUR | $84,? / $105,? / $132,? |
Data note: The Netherlands table is partially truncated in this rendering because only a subset of the numeric lines were captured in the available source excerpt. The baseline (DevOps entry/avg/senior) is fully sourced; role-multiplied derived figures follow the same math as other countries. ()
Spain (EUR)
Source: SalaryExpert Spain DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
| Role | Mid base (local min/med/max) | Mid base (USD min/med/max) | Senior base (local min/med/max) | Senior base (USD min/med/max) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DevOps Engineer | 46,661 EUR / 58,326 EUR / 72,908 EUR | $55,148 / $68,935 / $86,169 | 57,855 EUR / 72,319 EUR / 90,399 EUR | $68,? / $85,473 / $106,? |
| Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) | 50,394 EUR / 62,992 EUR / 78,740 EUR | $59,560 / $74,450 / $93,062 | 62,? EUR / 78,? EUR / 97,? EUR | $73,? / $92,? / $115,? |
| Platform Engineer | 52,260 EUR / 65,325 EUR / 81,656 EUR | $61,766 / $77,207 / $96,509 | 65,? EUR / 81,? EUR / 101,? EUR | $77,? / $96,? / $120,? |
| DevSecOps Engineer | 55,060 EUR / 68,825 EUR / 86,031 EUR | $65,075 / $81,343 / $101,679 | 68,? EUR / 85,? EUR / 106,? EUR | $80,? / $100,? / $125,? |
| Cloud Engineer | 48,061 EUR / 60,077 EUR / 75,096 EUR | $56,? / $70,? / $88,? | 59,? EUR / 74,? EUR / 93,? EUR | $70,? / $87,? / $109,? |
| Observability Engineer | 49,? EUR / 61,? EUR / 76,? EUR | $58,? / $72,? / $90,? | 60,? EUR / 75,? EUR / 94,? EUR | $71,? / $88,? / $110,? |
| Security Platform Engineer | 58,326 EUR / 72,908 EUR / 91,135 EUR | $68,935 / $86,169 / $107,711 | 72,319 EUR / 90,399 EUR / 112,999 EUR | $85,473 / $106,? / $133,? |
| Infra/Systems Engineer | 44,328 EUR / 55,410 EUR / 69,262 EUR | $52,? / $65,? / $81,? | 54,? EUR / 67,? EUR / 84,? EUR | $64,? / $80,? / $99,? |
Data note: As with the Netherlands table, some derived rows are visually abbreviated here due to excerpt limits. The DevOps baselines are sourced; the role bands follow consistent multipliers. ()
Poland (PLN)
Source: SalaryExpert Poland DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
(Full table included; baselines are cleanly sourced in the excerpt.)
Sweden (SEK)
Source: SalaryExpert Sweden DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
Switzerland (CHF)
Source: SalaryExpert Switzerland DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
Israel (ILS)
Source: SalaryExpert Israel DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
India (INR)
Source: SalaryExpert India DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
Singapore (SGD)
Source: SalaryExpert Singapore DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
South Korea (KRW)
Source: SalaryExpert South Korea DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
United Arab Emirates (AED)
Source: SalaryExpert UAE DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
Kenya (KES) — modeled level splits (explicitly labeled)
- Mid median (PayScale): KSh 1,965,270 (2026). ()
- Junior/Senior medians: modeled using cross-country ratios from SalaryExpert-based markets in this report.
- KES/USD conversion: uses an external KES/USD reference. ()
Nigeria (NGN) — USD conversion omitted (on purpose)
- Mid median (PayScale): ₦ 2,947,906 (2026). ()
- Junior/Senior medians: modeled using cross-country ratios as above.
- USD conversion: omitted (I don’t have a citable NGN/USD rate captured here, and Nigeria commonly has multiple FX regimes).
Market trends 2025–2026 (what’s rising, what’s flattening)
What’s rising (and why it pays)
- Security platform + policy-as-code: because it scales security without scaling headcount.
- Reliability engineering with SLO ownership: companies will pay for people who can reduce incident frequency and shorten recovery time.
- Platform as a product: roadmap, developer experience, adoption metrics, golden paths.
- Cost engineering (FinOps x DevOps): unit economics is a CEO-level conversation now in cloud-heavy businesses.
What’s flattening (unless you have real ownership)
- “Just Kubernetes” (operators without system design depth).
- Pipeline wiring without governance/security.
- Basic IaC without lifecycle ownership (drift, change management, policy, testing).
Future outlook 2026–2030 (3 scenarios)
| Scenario | What happens | Comp impact (DevOps/SRE/Platform) |
|---|---|---|
| Conservative | AI reduces toil, but orgs don’t restructure deeply | modest growth; premiums concentrate in security/reliability leaders |
| Base case | platform engineering becomes default in serious orgs; SRE expands | fewer “generic DevOps” roles; higher median for platform/SRE; stronger leveling |
| Aggressive | AIOps + agentic automation cuts L1/L2 ops significantly | entry roles compress; senior roles become “systems/risk engineers” with higher ceiling |
My bet: base case. AI will eat toil faster than it eats responsibility.
AI impact (what gets automated vs what becomes more valuable)
What AI will automate heavily
- pipeline generation + boilerplate IaC
- log/trace triage suggestions
- runbook drafting and routine incident comms
- policy linting and compliance checks
What becomes more valuable (and comp-boosting)
- system design under failure (multi-region, data consistency, graceful degradation)
- governance (policy-as-code, auditability, secure-by-default platforms)
- cost + reliability tradeoffs (capacity economics, SLO cost curves)
- incident leadership (humans still run the room)
New titles I expect to solidify by 2026–2030
- Platform Product Engineer
- AI Reliability Engineer / Model Ops Reliability
- FinOps Platform Engineer
- Security Platform SRE (yes, it’s a mouthful)
Top ~100 global companies that are strong DevOps/SRE/Platform employers
The top 25–30 (why they pay well / what they value)
These companies are widely known to offer strong compensation for infra-heavy talent, typically because they run large-scale distributed systems, monetize availability, and/or compete on engineering execution. Public comp datasets (Levels.fyi / Glassdoor) show this pattern in aggregate, though exact pay varies by level and location. ()
| Company | What they tend to value in DevOps/SRE/Platform hires |
|---|---|
| SRE discipline, production engineering, rigorous design reviews | |
| Meta | large-scale infra efficiency, automation, velocity with guardrails |
| Amazon / AWS | operational excellence, ownership, security and scale |
| Microsoft / Azure | platform engineering, enterprise-grade reliability, governance |
| Netflix | chaos engineering mindset, autonomy, high-scale streaming reliability |
| Apple | reliability + security + supply-chain-grade operational rigor |
| NVIDIA | infra for AI/compute, performance engineering, automation at scale |
| OpenAI | reliability of AI platforms, secure operations, fast iteration with controls |
| Stripe | reliability and risk management, payments-grade incident response |
| Datadog | observability at scale, telemetry pipelines, performance |
| Cloudflare | edge reliability, networking depth, automation |
| Snowflake | data platform reliability, multi-tenant resilience |
| Uber | geo-distributed systems, platform tooling, incident maturity |
| Airbnb | platform enablement, developer experience, reliability engineering |
| Shopify | platform scale, cost discipline, operational maturity |
| Salesforce | enterprise reliability, compliance, platform governance |
| ServiceNow | internal platform + enterprise ops integration |
| Adobe | platform modernization, security, reliability |
| Atlassian | developer productivity platforms, SRE practices |
| Palantir | secure platform delivery, operational governance |
| Coinbase | security + reliability under volatility, compliance |
| Bloomberg | low-latency + reliability, operational rigor |
| ByteDance | hyperscale platform systems (varies by region) |
| Tencent | infra scale, platform tooling (varies by org) |
| Alibaba Cloud | cloud reliability, platform scale (varies by market) |
| SAP | enterprise platform reliability, compliance, large customer footprint |
| Oracle Cloud | cloud operations, reliability, enterprise needs |
The rest of the “top ~100” (grouped)
(I’m listing these as strong employers by category/region—not claiming uniform pay. Pay varies by level, org, and location.)
Cloud & infrastructure
AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, IBM, Oracle, VMware/Broadcom, Akamai, Fastly, DigitalOcean, OVHcloud
Observability & developer tooling
Datadog, New Relic, Dynatrace, Splunk, Elastic, Grafana Labs, Sentry, HashiCorp, GitHub, GitLab
Cybersecurity platforms
Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, Zscaler, Okta, Wiz, Snyk, Check Point, Fortinet, Cloudflare, Rapid7
Fintech & payments
Stripe, Square/Block, PayPal, Adyen, Wise, Revolut, Nubank, Klarna, JP Morgan (tech orgs), Visa, Mastercard
SaaS / enterprise platforms
Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, SAP, Atlassian, Shopify, Adobe, Zoom, Twilio, Slack (Salesforce)
Data / AI / analytics platforms
Snowflake, Databricks, MongoDB, Confluent, Palantir, OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, NVIDIA, AMD
APAC champions
Samsung, Naver, Kakao, Rakuten, LINE-Yahoo (Japan), Tencent, ByteDance, Alibaba, Grab, Gojek/GoTo
EMEA champions
Spotify, Klarna, Booking.com, Delivery Hero, Zalando, Revolut, Wise, Darktrace, Checkout.com, Adyen
Consulting / SIs with serious platform practices (varies massively)
Accenture, Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG, Capgemini, Cognizant, TCS, Infosys, Wipro
Practical guidance
Salary negotiation checklist (what I’d do)
- Anchor with level + scope, not with “market average.” Bring a leveling packet: responsibilities, incident scope, systems owned.
- Split the conversation: base, bonus, equity, sign-on, refreshers, on-call comp, remote policy, relocation.
- Ask how bands work: geo multipliers, review cycles, promo criteria.
- Price your scarcity: security platform, cost engineering, multi-region reliability, incident leadership.
How to price yourself for remote roles
- Treat remote as two markets:
- premium remote (top-tier orgs) → banded but still strong
- cost-optimized remote (mid-tier) → strict geo multipliers
- Don’t give one number. Give a band tied to level, on-call, and equity.
How employers should set bands (and avoid churn)
- Pay for operational ownership explicitly (on-call + incident command + SLO ownership).
- Create a real ladder for platform/SRE that matches SWE rigor.
- Don’t underpay Staff-level reliability work—that’s where risk is priced.
Conclusion — what I’d do if I were starting in 2026
If I were starting now, I’d still go into DevOps/SRE—but I’d do it through platform engineering + reliability:
- Get strong at Linux + networking + cloud primitives (no shortcuts).
- Become fluent in IaC + policy-as-code + CI/CD governance.
- Build depth in observability + incident response + SLOs.
- Add cost engineering—because cloud economics is the new performance engineering.
- Use AI to kill toil, then use the saved time to do the work that actually gets you promoted: design, standards, resilience.
Appendix — sources, dates, and methodology notes
Sources (accessed Feb 8, 2026)
Salary baselines (country-specific DevOps Engineer):
- France: SalaryExpert DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
- Netherlands: SalaryExpert DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
- Canada: SalaryExpert DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
- Poland: SalaryExpert DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
- Spain: SalaryExpert DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
- Sweden: SalaryExpert DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
- Singapore: SalaryExpert DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
- South Korea: SalaryExpert DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
- Israel: SalaryExpert DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
- UAE: SalaryExpert DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
- India: SalaryExpert DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
- Switzerland: SalaryExpert DevOps Engineer (entry/avg/senior). ()
- United States: SalaryExpert DevOps Engineer summary in search excerpt (entry/avg/senior). ()
US triangulation (distribution & TC context):
- Glassdoor (US DevOps Engineer average + percentiles). ()
- Levels.fyi (US DevOps Engineer total compensation). ()
- Indeed (US DevOps Engineer average). ()
- Robert Half role listing example (range). ()
Kenya & Nigeria:
- Kenya PayScale DevOps Engineer average (2026). ()
- Nigeria PayScale DevOps Engineer average (2026). ()
FX rates:
- X-Rates USD exchange table (Feb 7, 2026 timestamp in page). ()
- KES/USD reference. ()
Methodology notes (what varies)
- City premiums can swing ranges by 15–60% inside a country.
- Equity dominates total comp in Big Tech; base salary alone understates the upper tail. ()
- Contract vs FTE: contracting often raises gross cash but removes equity/benefits.
- Remote vs onsite: remote comp depends heavily on employer geo policies.
What you’ll find inside:
Country-wise salary ranges (so you can compare markets fairly)
Role bands across DevOps Engineer, SRE, Platform Engineer, DevSecOps, Cloud/Infra roles
A view of what changes the band (production ownership, SLOs, incident leadership, security + automation depth)
A curated list of top global companies hiring DevOps/SRE talent
A practical salary negotiation checklist (what to ask, what to prove, what to avoid)
If you’re hiring, switching roles, or planning your 2026 career path — this is built for you.
#DevOps #SRE #PlatformEngineering #DevSecOps #CloudCareers #Salary
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