Side-by-side distribution
Network Engineer
$152,500
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.6%
- Live roles
- 714
Platform Engineer
$198,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.7%
- Live roles
- 4,102
Highest-paying jobs
Sr. Network Engineer
RTL Design Engineer – Interconnect & Network Datapath
Network Engineer - ML Infrastructure (High-Speed Interconnects)
Software Engineer - Network (C++)
Network Engineer
Senior Network Engineer
Network Engineer
Network Engineer
Network Engineer
Principal Network Engineer
Highest-paying jobs
Data Infrastructure Engineer, Pre-training
Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform
Platform Engineer
Staff Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure
Staff Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Senior Security Platform Engineer I
Staff Software Engineer, Environments Infrastructure
Staff+ Software Engineer, Safeguards Infrastructure
Staff Software Engineer, Infrastructure (Distributed Systems)
Principal Security Engineer, Infrastructure Security
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Saalex
|
$115,000 | 15 |
SpaceX
|
$170,000 | 10 |
Fluidstack
|
$198,250 | 8 |
Rocket Lab Corporation
|
$192,500 | 7 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$139,350 | 7 |
|
OpenAI
|
$292,000 | 5 |
AGE Solutions
|
$100,000 | 5 |
|
xAI
|
$244,500 | 4 |
Speechify
Palantir
Nuro
Anduril Industries
Elastic
Coinbase
Network Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $201,500 | 32 |
| Chicago | $190,000 | 5 |
| Seattle | $189,900 | 18 |
| Austin | $185,000 | 13 |
| Toronto | $180,000 | 3 |
| New York | $176,750 | 40 |
| Denver | $175,000 | 4 |
| Los Angeles | $150,000 | 9 |
| Dublin | $115,478 | 3 |
| London | $105,170 | 4 |
Platform Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $232,250 | 422 |
| New York | $215,000 | 357 |
| Seattle | $215,000 | 125 |
| Boston | $203,000 | 52 |
| Los Angeles | $196,250 | 46 |
| Austin | $194,750 | 36 |
| Toronto | $188,000 | 59 |
| Atlanta | $183,975 | 7 |
| Denver | $183,500 | 31 |
| London | $182,500 | 52 |
Network Engineer vs Platform Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Network Engineer is $152,500 per year (typically $125,625–$190,000), versus $198,000 for Platform Engineer ($166,888–$234,375). That puts Platform Engineer about 30% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Network 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.