Side-by-side distribution
Cloud Engineer
$166,696
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 35.1%
- Live roles
- 1,014
SRE
$175,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 39.2%
- Live roles
- 1,195
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
Software Engineer (Site Reliability)
Staff Software Engineer, AI Reliability Engineering
Senior Site Reliability Engineer
Site Reliability Engineer
Site Reliability Engineer
Senior Site Reliability Engineer
Site Reliability Engineer
Site Reliability Engineer, Frontier Systems Infrastructure
Software Engineer, Reliability
Staff Software Engineer, AI Reliability
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 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
SpaceX
|
$148,750 | 22 |
|
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 21 |
Okta
|
$230,500 | 13 |
MongoDB
|
$187,500 | 12 |
Air Apps
|
$71,586 | 10 |
mthree Recruiting Portal
|
$56,000 | 9 |
Vast
|
$198,996 | 8 |
Advanced Technology Services
|
$115,127 | 8 |
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 |
SRE salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $225,000 | 65 |
| Dublin | $213,500 | 3 |
| Seattle | $210,000 | 14 |
| New York | $188,000 | 63 |
| Austin | $188,000 | 16 |
| Boston | $187,000 | 15 |
| Chicago | $180,000 | 19 |
| Denver | $180,000 | 8 |
| Atlanta | $178,500 | 10 |
| Los Angeles | $165,000 | 7 |
Cloud Engineer vs SRE: which pays more?
The median for Cloud Engineer is $166,696 per year (typically $135,500–$201,300), versus $175,000 for SRE ($134,225–$208,625). That puts SRE about 5% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Cloud Engineer 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.