Side-by-side distribution
DevOps
$190,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 36.3%
- Live roles
- 3,666
Software Engineer
$191,125
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.1%
- Live roles
- 15,329
Highest-paying jobs
Platform Engineer
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Senior Security Platform Engineer I
Principal .NET Software Engineer - Cloud Payments Platform
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
Senior Software Engineer, Growth
Intermediate Backend Software Engineer
Lead Software Engineer (Backend)
Staff Software Engineer (Backend)
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Software Engineer - Solana
Software Engineer - Stellar
Software Engineer - EVM
Software Engineer - Compliance
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Node Infra
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 | 298 |
OpenAI
|
$309,000 | 112 |
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 103 |
Databricks
|
$214,700 | 98 |
|
Roblox
|
$269,270 | 83 |
Applied Intuition
|
$180,000 | 83 |
Palantir
|
$167,500 | 74 |
SpaceX
|
$137,500 | 66 |
DevOps salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $225,500 | 251 |
| Seattle | $212,500 | 62 |
| New York | $209,500 | 210 |
| Los Angeles | $200,650 | 18 |
| Austin | $198,900 | 27 |
| Chicago | $195,000 | 31 |
| Denver | $186,000 | 26 |
| Boston | $182,500 | 59 |
| Toronto | $165,000 | 49 |
| Atlanta | $161,500 | 10 |
Software Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $225,000 | 1,403 |
| Sydney | $224,060 | 8 |
| New York | $213,300 | 1,160 |
| Seattle | $212,500 | 420 |
| Austin | $197,950 | 138 |
| Boston | $186,050 | 227 |
| Los Angeles | $182,500 | 165 |
| Bangalore | $181,219 | 4 |
| Chicago | $179,250 | 138 |
| Atlanta | $173,875 | 58 |
DevOps vs Software Engineer: which pays more?
The median for DevOps is $190,000 per year (typically $151,040–$225,000), versus $191,125 for Software Engineer ($152,900–$225,000). That puts Software 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 Software 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.