Side-by-side distribution
SRE
$174,904
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 41.5%
- Live roles
- 1,164
System Administrator
$120,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 45%
- Live roles
- 458
Highest-paying jobs
Site Reliability Engineer - Frontend
Site Reliability Engineer
Software Engineer (Site Reliability)
Staff Software Engineer, AI Reliability Engineering
Staff+ Site Reliability Engineer, Safeguards ML Infra
Staff Software Engineer, AI Reliability
Forward Deployed Site Reliability Engineer
Forward Deployed Site Reliability Engineer (TS/SCI Required)
Advanced Packaging Reliability Engineer
Member of Technical Staff, Site Reliability Engineer
Highest-paying jobs
Systems Administrator 0-3 - Linux/KVM/Ansible/Slat/SSP/STE/STN/Scripting/AWS
Systems Administrator 2 - Linux/CI/CD/Ansible/Terraform/DevOps
Systems Administrator 2 - Linux
Systems Administrator 3 (On-Call) - Linux/Bash/Python/Ansible/SaltStack/Docker
Systems Administrator 1 - Linux
Windows Systems Administrator - McLean, VA - TS/SCI
IT Support Engineer, Application Administrator
System Administrator (SF)
Senior System Administrator (Storage Engineer)
Senior DevOps / System Administrator
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
SpaceX
|
$150,000 | 30 |
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 20 |
Okta
|
$206,250 | 18 |
| SE Sezzle | $87,000 | 15 |
MongoDB
|
$188,000 | 12 |
Air Apps
|
$70,940 | 11 |
mthree Recruiting Portal
|
$56,000 | 9 |
Vast
|
$198,996 | 8 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Saalex
|
$112,500 | 17 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$141,175 | 14 |
|
Air Apps
|
$62,289 | 11 |
| GR GRVTY | $153,000 | 8 |
|
Anduril Industries
|
$150,250 | 8 |
|
Captivation Software
|
$200,000 | 5 |
SMX
|
$116,800 | 5 |
| PI Pingwind | $87,750 | 4 |
SRE salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $215,500 | 69 |
| Los Angeles | $196,500 | 14 |
| New York | $190,000 | 70 |
| Chicago | $189,000 | 22 |
| Seattle | $186,500 | 14 |
| Denver | $182,500 | 8 |
| Austin | $180,750 | 12 |
| Boston | $174,525 | 16 |
| Dublin | $173,847 | 6 |
| London | $161,233 | 8 |
System Administrator salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $146,250 | 10 |
| Boston | $127,500 | 4 |
| New York | $121,719 | 11 |
| Los Angeles | $102,500 | 5 |
| Toronto | $61,027 | 4 |
SRE vs System Administrator: which pays more?
The median for SRE is $174,904 per year (typically $136,053–$205,000), versus $120,000 for System Administrator ($94,500–$144,375). That puts SRE about 46% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so SRE and System Administrator 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.