Side-by-side distribution
AWS
$167,810
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.3%
- Live roles
- 1,072
SRE
$174,904
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 41.5%
- Live roles
- 1,164
Highest-paying jobs
Staff Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Staff + Sr. Software Engineer, Cloud Inference
Staff + Sr. Software Engineer, Cloud Inference Launch Engineering
Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure)
Security Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Senior Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Staff Software Engineer, Replit Cloud
Software Engineer, Cloud Agents
Principal Software Engineer - Performance Engineering (Cloud Infrastructure)
Highest-paying jobs
Site Reliability Engineer - Frontend
Site Reliability Engineer
Software Engineer (Site Reliability)
Staff Software Engineer, AI Reliability Engineering
Staff+ Site Reliability Engineer, Safeguards ML Infra
Staff Software Engineer, AI Reliability
Forward Deployed Site Reliability Engineer
Forward Deployed Site Reliability Engineer (TS/SCI Required)
Advanced Packaging Reliability Engineer
Member of Technical Staff, Site Reliability Engineer
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Accenture Federal Services
|
$151,800 | 32 |
Captivation Software
|
$200,000 | 25 |
Crusoe
|
$166,500 | 12 |
TP-Link Systems Inc.
|
$170,000 | 8 |
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 7 |
Illumio
|
$183,000 | 7 |
Esri
|
$113,360 | 7 |
Oscar Health
|
$208,708 | 5 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
SpaceX
|
$150,000 | 30 |
|
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 20 |
Okta
|
$206,250 | 18 |
| SE Sezzle | $87,000 | 15 |
MongoDB
|
$188,000 | 12 |
Air Apps
|
$70,940 | 11 |
mthree Recruiting Portal
|
$56,000 | 9 |
Vast
|
$198,996 | 8 |
AWS salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Atlanta | $231,750 | 4 |
| San Francisco | $210,354 | 46 |
| Toronto | $196,500 | 6 |
| Boston | $195,000 | 11 |
| Austin | $187,500 | 8 |
| Seattle | $178,950 | 10 |
| Denver | $178,000 | 8 |
| New York | $177,500 | 41 |
| Chicago | $175,500 | 6 |
| Los Angeles | $174,000 | 15 |
SRE salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $214,628 | 64 |
| New York | $190,000 | 69 |
| Chicago | $189,000 | 22 |
| Seattle | $186,500 | 14 |
| Denver | $182,500 | 8 |
| Austin | $180,750 | 12 |
| Boston | $174,525 | 16 |
| Dublin | $173,847 | 6 |
| Los Angeles | $172,500 | 10 |
| London | $161,233 | 8 |
AWS vs SRE: which pays more?
The median for AWS is $167,810 per year (typically $137,588–$200,000), versus $174,904 for SRE ($136,053–$205,000). That puts SRE about 4% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so AWS and SRE 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.