DevOps Engineer Salary, Skills & Requirements (2026)
Advertised pay, starting pay, skills and experience from 7,274 US job postings by 2,158 employers. Data as of October 2026.
What US employers post for devops engineers: advertised pay, the skills and experience they ask for, and the job titles they use, from 7,274 open job postings (October 2026).
- The median advertised pay for devops engineers in US job postings is $152,000 a year (1,888 postings from 696 employers, October 2026).
- The middle half of those postings offer $127,000 to $183,000.
- The skills that most set devops engineer postings apart are Terraform, Python, Kubernetes.
- Postings that state a minimum ask for a median of 5 years of experience.
DevOps Engineer job postings in the US, October 2026
- $152,000
- Median advertised pay (1,888 postings)
- $127,000–$183,000
- Middle 50% of postings
- 7,274
- US job postings from 2,158 employers
- 5 years
- Median experience asked
How much does a devops engineer make?
The median advertised pay is $152,000 a year, from 1,888 US job postings by 696 employers that state pay. One in ten postings offers $215,000 or more.
Advertised pay in 1,888 US devops engineer job postings: median $152,000 a year, middle half $127,000 to $183,000.
- Median: $152,000
- 25th percentile: $127,000
- 75th percentile: $183,000
The figures as a table
| Annual pay | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| $40K–$50K | 0.1% |
| $50K–$60K | 0.1% |
| $60K–$70K | 1.4% |
| $70K–$80K | 1.1% |
| $80K–$90K | 1.4% |
| $90K–$100K | 2.4% |
| $100K–$110K | 5.4% |
| $110K–$120K | 7.0% |
| $120K–$130K | 9.4% |
| $130K–$140K | 8.8% |
| $140K–$150K | 9.2% |
| $150K–$160K | 10.9% |
| $160K–$170K | 7.0% |
| $170K–$180K | 8.5% |
| $180K–$190K | 5.5% |
| $190K–$200K | 5.7% |
| $200K–$210K | 4.8% |
| $210K–$220K | 2.5% |
| $220K–$230K | 2.2% |
| $230K–$240K | 1.8% |
| $240K–$250K | 1.4% |
| $250K–$260K | 0.7% |
| $260K–$270K | 1.2% |
| $270K–$280K | 0.4% |
| $290K–$300K | 0.2% |
| $300K–$310K | 0.1% |
Midpoint of each posting's pay range, hourly pay × 2,080 hours; at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026.
| Median | Middle 50% | Postings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Postings that state an annual salary | $154,000 | $129K–$185K | 1,447 |
| All pay postings, annualised | $152,000 | $127K–$183K | 1,888 |
What is the starting salary for a devops engineer?
Figure withheld: fewer than 250 US postings list pay. How we decide.
Devops engineer levels and pay
Levels as they appear in job titles, ordered by the median experience asked. Senior devops engineers have a median advertised pay of $165,000 a year.
| Level in title | Share of postings | Median experience asked | Median pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| No level in title | 71.0% | 4 years | $145,000 |
| Senior | 19.1% | 5 years | $165,000 |
| Lead | 3.5% | 5 years | – |
Highest-paying devops engineer jobs
Specializations with at least 250 postings that state pay.
| Specialization | Median pay | Postings with pay | Employers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site Reliability Engineer | $160,000 | 318 | 173 |
| DevOps Engineer (general) | $158,000 | 325 | 177 |
| Cloud Engineer | $150,000 | 291 | 144 |
Devops engineer pay by state
Single-location US postings; states with at least 100 postings that state pay. States with pay-transparency laws (such as California, Colorado, New York and Washington) are over-represented among postings that state pay.
| State | Median pay | Middle 50% | Postings with pay | Share of postings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maryland | $176,000 | $145,000–$194,000 | 113 | 5.3% |
| California | $165,000 | $134,000–$210,000 | 191 | 15.9% |
| Virginia | $161,000 | $140,000–$180,000 | 149 | 10.8% |
Skills employers ask for in devops engineer job postings
| Skill | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| Python | 54% |
| Terraform | 44% |
| AWS | 43% |
| Kubernetes | 37% |
| Communication | 33% |
| Docker | 29% |
| Ansible | 27% |
| Azure | 27% |
| CI/CD | 26% |
| Bash | 26% |
Skills named in the posting text; at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026. Methodology.
Skills that set devops engineers apart
- Terraform87.5× as often as in all postings · 44%
- Python16.7× as often as in all postings · 54%
- Kubernetes54.4× as often as in all postings · 37%
- AWS29.7× as often as in all postings · 43%
- Ansible88.6× as often as in all postings · 27%
- Docker46.7× as often as in all postings · 29%
- Bash71.6× as often as in all postings · 26%
- Jenkins67.3× as often as in all postings · 24%
- CI/CD39.6× as often as in all postings · 26%
- DevOps73.9× as often as in all postings · 20%
- Azure26.4× as often as in all postings · 27%
- Grafana91.5× as often as in all postings · 14%
Skills named in at least 5% of these postings and at least 3 times as often as in job postings overall.
Have a devops engineer job posting in front of you? See which of its skills your resume is missing.
What does a devops engineer do?
Employers post these jobs as Site Reliability Engineer, Senior DevOps Engineer, DevSecOps Engineer, Cloud Engineer, Senior Site Reliability Engineer and other titles. The largest specializations are Cloud Engineer (14%), Site Reliability Engineer (14%), Azure DevOps Engineer (12%), DevSecOps Engineer (7%), Release Manager (3%), AWS DevOps Engineer (3%).
The closest official occupation is Computer Systems Engineers/Architects (15-1299.08). Its most important tasks:
- Communicate with staff or clients to understand specific system requirements.
- Investigate system component suitability for specified purposes, and make recommendations regarding component use.
- Provide customers or installation teams guidelines for implementing secure systems.
- Direct the analysis, development, and operation of complete computer systems.
- Direct the installation of operating systems, network or application software, or computer or network hardware.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (CC BY 4.0).
How much experience do you need to be a devops engineer?
Among 3,140 postings that state a minimum, the median is 5 years. 1% say 0 years and 6% ask for 1 year or less.
Minimum experience asked in 3,140 US devops engineer job postings: median 5 years, and 6% ask for 1 year or less.
The figures as a table
| Minimum experience asked | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| 0 yr | 1% |
| 1 yr | 5% |
| 2 yrs | 13% |
| 3-4 yrs | 27% |
| 5-7 yrs | 39% |
| 8-9 yrs | 8% |
| 10+ yrs | 7% |
Postings that state a minimum (required or preferred); at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026.
We do not show a degree figure: in our checks, degree requirements in posting text were found too rarely to publish one. Why.
Full-time 98% of the 465 postings that state working hours.
Other names for a devops engineer: job titles employers use
| Job title | Employers using it |
|---|---|
| DevOps Engineer | 330 (15.3%) |
| Site Reliability Engineer | 240 (11.1%) |
| Senior DevOps Engineer | 209 (9.7%) |
| DevSecOps Engineer | 151 (7.0%) |
| Cloud Engineer | 135 (6.3%) |
| Senior Site Reliability Engineer | 118 (5.5%) |
| Senior Cloud Engineer | 92 (4.3%) |
| Cloud Infrastructure Engineer | 73 (3.4%) |
| Release Manager | 70 (3.2%) |
| Senior Platform Engineer | 69 (3.2%) |
| Sr. DevOps Engineer | 65 (3.0%) |
| Senior DevSecOps Engineer | 48 (2.2%) |
| Cloud Platform Engineer | 45 (2.1%) |
| AWS Cloud Engineer | 44 (2.0%) |
| Cloud DevOps Engineer | 40 (1.8%) |
| Azure Cloud Engineer | 40 (1.8%) |
| Lead Site Reliability Engineer | 35 (1.6%) |
| Cloud Systems Engineer | 34 (1.6%) |
| DevOps Architect | 34 (1.6%) |
| Platform Engineer | 33 (1.5%) |
Titles read in our audit and used by at least 3 employers.
Devops engineer job titles compared
The titles people search for most, from the US job postings that use each exact title (October 2026).
| Job title | Open postings | Employers | Median pay | Median experience | Skills named most |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Site Reliability Engineer | 421 | 240 | – | – | Python, Kubernetes, Terraform |
| Cloud Engineer | 263 | 135 | – | – | AWS, Terraform, Python |
DevOps Engineer compared with similar careers
| Career | Median pay | Median experience | Postings | Shares N of top 25 skills |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DevOps Engineer | $152K | 5 years | 7,274 | – |
| Solutions Architect | $175K | 5 years | 7,307 | 13 |
| Engineering Manager | $200K | 5 years | 5,505 | 9 |
| Systems Administrator | $125K | 4 years | 8,047 | 11 |
| Software Engineer | $164K | 4 years | 66,571 | 12 |
Similar careers
| Career | Shares N of the top 25 skills | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Solutions Architect | 13 | $175K |
| Engineering Manager | 9 | $200K |
| Systems Administrator | 11 | $125K |
| Software Engineer | 12 | $164K |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | 11 | $157K |
| Sales Engineer | 7 | $140K |
Applying for devops engineer jobs?
- Devops engineer resume examples: one-page examples for these roles
- Match your resume to a job: paste a posting and see the skills your resume is missing
- Check your resume: see how an applicant tracking system reads it
- Find devops engineer jobs: search open postings
Frequently asked questions
How much does a devops engineer make?
Source and method
Open US job postings collected from employers' applicant tracking systems, de-duplicated, counted only when their job title was read in our audit. Shares count at most 20 postings per employer, and franchise locations of one brand count as one employer. Pay uses hourly and annual figures only; a figure is shown when leaving out the largest employer moves it by 10% or less. Every figure states its number of postings. Methodology and measured accuracy.
Accuracy check: we read 20 randomly chosen postings counted on this page in full; 19 of them were this career or a closely related one (October 2026).
Download the figures on this page (CSV): every number above with its count of postings. Aggregate figures are licensed CC BY 4.0; cite the page when you reuse them.