Side-by-side distribution
AWS
$155,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 32.6%
- Live roles
- 2,725
Platform Engineer
$185,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 41.6%
- Live roles
- 6,293
Highest-paying jobs
AWS Cloud Engineer (Infrastructure and Application)
Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Staff + Sr. Software Engineer, Cloud Inference Launch Engineering
Staff + Sr. Software Engineer, Cloud Inference
Software Engineer, Cloud Agents
Software Engineer, Cloud Computer
Senior Principal Presales Systems Engineer, Cloud and AI Networking
Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure)
Senior Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Security Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Highest-paying jobs
AWS Cloud Engineer (Infrastructure and Application)
Pre-training Data Infrastructure Engineer
Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform
Platform Engineer
Staff Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Staff Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure
Staff Software Engineer, Environments Infrastructure
Staff+ Software Engineer, Safeguards Infrastructure
Staff Software Engineer, Infrastructure (Distributed Systems)
Senior Staff Software Engineer, Identity Infrastructure Engineering
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$142,400 | 66 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$153,050 | 51 |
CACI
|
$168,100 | 31 |
Captivation Software
|
$200,000 | 27 |
GDIT
|
$148,282 | 23 |
Leidos
|
$151,475 | 18 |
Travelers
|
$144,750 | 17 |
Crusoe
|
$158,750 | 16 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 50 |
SpaceX
|
$145,000 | 41 |
|
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$126,750 | 40 |
|
OpenAI
|
$357,750 | 38 |
Palantir
|
$167,500 | 38 |
Nuro
|
$200,450 | 32 |
|
Anthropic
|
$445,000 | 30 |
Elastic
|
$105,820 | 29 |
AWS salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $213,500 | 54 |
| Seattle | $202,000 | 21 |
| London | $178,980 | 4 |
| Los Angeles | $175,000 | 21 |
| Chicago | $171,250 | 24 |
| New York | $170,000 | 59 |
| Boston | $165,000 | 25 |
| Austin | $162,050 | 21 |
| Berlin | $160,998 | 4 |
| Atlanta | $156,100 | 14 |
Platform Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $234,500 | 485 |
| New York | $210,000 | 427 |
| Seattle | $207,500 | 200 |
| Los Angeles | $195,000 | 51 |
| Boston | $190,000 | 75 |
| London | $185,000 | 43 |
| Austin | $182,300 | 91 |
| Singapore | $166,616 | 4 |
| Chicago | $160,000 | 88 |
| Toronto | $158,166 | 96 |
AWS vs Platform Engineer: which pays more?
The median for AWS is $155,000 per year (typically $126,800–$185,000), versus $185,000 for Platform Engineer ($145,000–$225,000). That puts Platform Engineer about 19% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so AWS and Platform Engineer are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.