Side-by-side distribution
Cloud Architect
$174,687
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 25.5%
- Live roles
- 231
Platform Engineer
$195,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.3%
- Live roles
- 4,041
Highest-paying jobs
Staff Technical Architect, Product Management (AWS/Azure)
Cloud Infrastructure Architect, Okta Federal
AWS Solution Architect
Salesforce Solution Architect, Sales Cloud
AWS Technical Architect
Salesforce Solution Architect, Service Cloud Voice
AWS Solution Architect
Salesforce Solution Architect, Revenue Cloud
Cloud Architect/Technical Lead
Principal Data Cloud Architect - Apps
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 |
|---|---|---|
| CA Caylent | $208,000 | 5 |
|
Accenture Federal Services
|
$184,700 | 5 |
| NP NeuraFlash, Part of Accenture | $180,350 | 5 |
|
Snowflake
|
$204,656 | 4 |
3Cloud
|
$158,350 | 3 |
MetroStar
|
$197,000 | 2 |
Valtech
|
$182,500 | 2 |
Cloudscaler
|
$174,687 | 2 |
Speechify
OpenAI
Nuro
Palantir
Databricks
Coinbase
Reddit
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 |
Cloud Architect vs Platform Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Cloud Architect is $174,687 per year (typically $146,950–$195,000), versus $195,000 for Platform Engineer ($166,525–$230,000). That puts Platform Engineer about 12% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Cloud Architect 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.