Side-by-side distribution
Cloud Engineer
$166,696
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 35.1%
- Live roles
- 1,014
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
Staff + Sr. Software Engineer, Cloud Inference Launch Engineering
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 | 26 |
Crusoe
|
$142,500 | 21 |
TP-Link Systems Inc.
|
$170,000 | 8 |
LIGHTFEATHER IO LLC
|
$140,000 | 8 |
ClickHouse
|
$174,500 | 6 |
SMX
|
$110,950 | 6 |
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 5 |
Illumio
|
$213,500 | 5 |
Speechify
Nuro
Palantir
Databricks
Coinbase
Reddit
Cloud Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $225,000 | 42 |
| Seattle | $210,725 | 12 |
| New York | $194,250 | 34 |
| Austin | $192,400 | 10 |
| Atlanta | $178,825 | 4 |
| Boston | $174,000 | 8 |
| Chicago | $170,000 | 3 |
| Los Angeles | $167,500 | 16 |
| Denver | $156,250 | 6 |
| Toronto | $155,000 | 7 |
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 Engineer vs Platform Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Cloud Engineer is $166,696 per year (typically $135,500–$201,300), versus $195,000 for Platform Engineer ($166,525–$230,000). That puts Platform Engineer about 17% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Cloud Engineer 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.