Side-by-side distribution
AWS
$168,256
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 33.8%
- Live roles
- 1,173
Platform Engineer
$195,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.3%
- Live roles
- 4,041
Highest-paying jobs
Principal .NET Software Engineer- Cloud Payments Platform
Principal .NET Software Engineer - Cloud Payments Platform
Cloud Engineer
Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Staff + Sr. Software Engineer, Cloud Inference Launch Engineering
Staff + Sr. Software Engineer, Cloud Inference
Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure)
Senior Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Security Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Senior Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Highest-paying jobs
Platform Engineer
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Staff+ Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure
Software Engineer, Research Infrastructure
Senior Security Platform Engineer I
Principal .NET Software Engineer- Cloud Payments Platform
Principal .NET Software Engineer - Cloud Payments Platform
Staff+ Software Engineer, Safeguards Infrastructure
Infrastructure Engineer
SOC Emulation Engineer - Hardware Emulation Infrastructure
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Accenture Federal Services
|
$151,800 | 27 |
Captivation Software
|
$200,000 | 26 |
Crusoe
|
$142,500 | 21 |
TP-Link Systems Inc.
|
$170,000 | 8 |
LIGHTFEATHER IO LLC
|
$140,000 | 8 |
ClickHouse
|
$174,500 | 6 |
Esri
|
$113,360 | 6 |
SMX
|
$110,950 | 6 |
Speechify
Nuro
Palantir
Databricks
Coinbase
Reddit
AWS salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $225,000 | 43 |
| Seattle | $217,500 | 13 |
| New York | $203,500 | 35 |
| Austin | $197,300 | 11 |
| Atlanta | $178,825 | 4 |
| Boston | $174,000 | 8 |
| Chicago | $170,000 | 3 |
| Los Angeles | $167,500 | 16 |
| Denver | $156,250 | 6 |
| Toronto | $140,000 | 10 |
Platform Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $230,000 | 417 |
| Seattle | $216,000 | 111 |
| New York | $210,000 | 325 |
| Austin | $202,500 | 39 |
| Los Angeles | $188,750 | 30 |
| Chicago | $187,500 | 21 |
| Boston | $185,000 | 64 |
| Toronto | $185,000 | 59 |
| Denver | $180,200 | 28 |
| Atlanta | $176,988 | 8 |
AWS vs Platform Engineer: which pays more?
The median for AWS is $168,256 per year (typically $136,250–$200,000), versus $195,000 for Platform Engineer ($166,525–$230,000). That puts Platform Engineer about 16% 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.