Side-by-side distribution
Platform Engineer
$195,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.3%
- Live roles
- 4,041
SRE
$175,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 39.2%
- Live roles
- 1,195
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
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
Speechify
Nuro
Palantir
Databricks
Coinbase
Reddit
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 |
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 |
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 |
Platform Engineer vs SRE: which pays more?
The median for Platform Engineer is $195,000 per year (typically $166,525–$230,000), versus $175,000 for SRE ($134,225–$208,625). That puts Platform Engineer about 11% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Platform 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.