Side-by-side distribution
SRE
$156,750
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 37%
- Live roles
- 2,080
System Administrator
$116,052
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 50.8%
- Live roles
- 1,207
Highest-paying jobs
Staff Software Engineer, AI Reliability Engineering
Staff Security Reliability Engineer
Staff+ Site Reliability Engineer, Safeguards ML Infra
Staff Software Engineer, AI Reliability
Forward Deployed Site Reliability Engineer - TS/SCI (CI Poly)
Forward Deployed Site Reliability Engineer - TS/SCI (Full Scope Poly)
Data Center Engineer, Reliability & Infrastructure Management – Compute Supply
Member of Technical Staff, Production Site Reliability Engineer
Software Engineer, Site Reliability (SRE)
Principal Site Reliability Engineer, Platform Engineering: Dedicated
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Cyber Systems Administrator
Federal HPC Linux System Administrator, (Clearance required TS/SCI with Poly) On-Site, Maryland
Systems Administrator 3
Oracle Linux Systems Administrator - TS/SCI with Polygraph
Windows Systems Administrator - TS/SCI w/Polygraph
Systems Administrator 2 - Linux/CI/CD/Ansible/Terraform/DevOps
Systems Administrator 3 (On-Call) - Linux/Bash/Python/STE/STN/Docker/Kubernetes
System Administrator, Senior
Linux Systems Administrator
Systems Administrator - Level 5 Active Polygraph Required
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
SpaceX
|
$145,000 | 45 |
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 19 |
| SE Sezzle | $87,000 | 15 |
Okta
|
$206,500 | 14 |
|
Northrop Grumman
|
$121,700 | 12 |
Air Apps
|
$68,929 | 11 |
Vast
|
$166,000 | 10 |
Cisco
|
$206,450 | 9 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
GDIT
|
$115,000 | 60 |
Leidos
|
$129,575 | 50 |
|
CACI
|
$116,650 | 41 |
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$126,800 | 24 |
Amentum
|
$142,500 | 22 |
|
Northrop Grumman
|
$117,700 | 21 |
Saalex
|
$92,500 | 20 |
| PA Parsons | $142,300 | 17 |
SRE salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $211,878 | 86 |
| New York | $194,250 | 72 |
| Los Angeles | $189,081 | 22 |
| Seattle | $188,081 | 22 |
| Austin | $187,000 | 21 |
| Dublin | $182,130 | 5 |
| Chicago | $180,000 | 37 |
| Denver | $168,850 | 12 |
| Boston | $165,500 | 21 |
| Atlanta | $151,000 | 7 |
System Administrator salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Denver | $152,500 | 3 |
| Seattle | $139,410 | 6 |
| San Francisco | $130,000 | 8 |
| Boston | $124,252 | 5 |
| Los Angeles | $112,500 | 5 |
| Atlanta | $102,860 | 3 |
| Chicago | $102,500 | 11 |
| New York | $97,500 | 13 |
| Austin | $95,000 | 3 |
| Toronto | $89,065 | 6 |
SRE vs System Administrator: which pays more?
The median for SRE is $156,750 per year (typically $121,000–$195,857), versus $116,052 for System Administrator ($94,800–$139,260). That puts SRE about 35% 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.