Side-by-side distribution
AWS
$167,810
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.3%
- Live roles
- 1,072
System Administrator
$120,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 45%
- Live roles
- 458
Highest-paying jobs
Staff Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Staff + Sr. Software Engineer, Cloud Inference Launch Engineering
Staff + Sr. Software Engineer, Cloud Inference
Software Engineer, Cloud Agents
Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure)
Security Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Senior Software Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure
Staff Software Engineer, Replit Cloud
Principal Software Engineer - Performance Engineering (Cloud Infrastructure)
Highest-paying jobs
Systems Administrator 0-3 - Linux/KVM/Ansible/Slat/SSP/STE/STN/Scripting/AWS
Systems Administrator 2 - Linux/CI/CD/Ansible/Terraform/DevOps
Systems Administrator 2 - Linux
Systems Administrator 3 (On-Call) - Linux/Bash/Python/Ansible/SaltStack/Docker
Systems Administrator 1 - Linux
Windows Systems Administrator - McLean, VA - TS/SCI
IT Support Engineer, Application Administrator
System Administrator (SF)
Senior System Administrator (Storage Engineer)
Senior DevOps / System Administrator
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Accenture Federal Services
|
$151,800 | 33 |
|
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 |
|---|---|---|
Saalex
|
$112,500 | 17 |
|
Accenture Federal Services
|
$141,175 | 14 |
Air Apps
|
$62,289 | 11 |
| GR GRVTY | $153,000 | 8 |
|
Anduril Industries
|
$150,250 | 8 |
|
Captivation Software
|
$200,000 | 5 |
SMX
|
$116,800 | 5 |
| PI Pingwind | $87,750 | 4 |
AWS salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Atlanta | $231,750 | 4 |
| San Francisco | $210,000 | 47 |
| 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 |
System Administrator salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $146,250 | 10 |
| Boston | $127,500 | 4 |
| New York | $121,719 | 11 |
| Los Angeles | $102,500 | 5 |
| Toronto | $61,027 | 4 |
AWS vs System Administrator: which pays more?
The median for AWS is $167,810 per year (typically $137,588–$200,000), versus $120,000 for System Administrator ($94,500–$144,375). That puts AWS about 40% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so AWS and System Administrator 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.