Side-by-side distribution
DevOps
$190,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 36.3%
- Live roles
- 3,666
Firmware Engineer
$191,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 54.3%
- Live roles
- 197
Highest-paying jobs
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Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
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Principal .NET Software Engineer- Cloud Payments Platform
Software Engineer, Platform
Infrastructure and Platform Development Engineer
Agent Platform Engineer
Principal Engineer, AI Platform
Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Inference & Training Platform)
Highest-paying jobs
Firmware Engineer, Robotics
ASIC Firmware Engineer, Modeling
Networking Operating System Firmware Engineer
Firmware Engineer, RTOS, Consumer Devices
Staff Embedded Firmware Engineer
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Founding Firmware Engineer
Firmware Engineer, Robotics and Surgery Engineering
Staff Embedded Software Engineer - Camera Firmware
Staff Firmware Engineer
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Accenture Federal Services
|
$151,800 | 29 |
Air Apps
|
$65,184 | 22 |
Captivation Software
|
$200,000 | 21 |
Reddit
|
$244,500 | 18 |
|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 15 |
Coinbase
|
$202,483 | 15 |
Airwallex
|
$162,878 | 13 |
Roblox
|
$265,138 | 12 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 14 |
|
OpenAI
|
$345,500 | 4 |
ALSO
|
$187,500 | 4 |
CoreWeave
|
$197,500 | 3 |
Mach Industries
|
$172,500 | 3 |
ALTEN Technology USA
|
$120,000 | 3 |
42dot
|
$228,000 | 2 |
Everpure
|
$216,250 | 2 |
DevOps salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $225,500 | 251 |
| Seattle | $212,500 | 62 |
| New York | $210,000 | 209 |
| Los Angeles | $200,650 | 18 |
| Austin | $198,900 | 27 |
| Chicago | $195,000 | 31 |
| Denver | $186,000 | 26 |
| Boston | $182,500 | 59 |
| Toronto | $165,000 | 50 |
| Atlanta | $161,500 | 10 |
Firmware Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $210,458 | 14 |
| New York | $197,500 | 7 |
DevOps vs Firmware Engineer: which pays more?
The median for DevOps is $190,000 per year (typically $151,040–$225,000), versus $191,000 for Firmware Engineer ($160,000–$215,000). That puts Firmware Engineer about 1% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so DevOps and Firmware 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.