Side-by-side distribution
Cloud Architect
$172,925
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 25.2%
- Live roles
- 230
Platform Engineer
$195,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 43.4%
- Live roles
- 4,058
Highest-paying jobs
Staff Technical Architect, Product Management (AWS/Azure)
Salesforce Solution Architect, Service Cloud Voice
AWS Solution Architect
AWS Technical Architect
Salesforce Solution Architect, Revenue Cloud
Salesforce Solution Architect, Sales Cloud
Cloud Architect/Technical Lead
Principal Data Cloud Architect - Apps
Principal Data Cloud Architect - SI Partners
Specialist Solutions Architect - Google Cloud Platform & Infrastructure
Highest-paying jobs
Platform Engineer
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Staff+ Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure
Software Engineer, Research Infrastructure
Security Platform Engineer
Senior Security Platform Engineer I
Principal .NET Software Engineer - Cloud Payments Platform
Principal .NET Software Engineer- Cloud Payments Platform
SOC Emulation Engineer - Hardware Emulation Infrastructure
Infrastructure Engineer
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| CA Caylent | $208,000 | 6 |
| NP NeuraFlash, Part of Accenture | $180,350 | 5 |
|
Snowflake
|
$204,656 | 4 |
|
Accenture Federal Services
|
$179,325 | 4 |
3Cloud
|
$158,350 | 3 |
Stafford Gray
|
$168,480 | 2 |
CHAOS Industries
|
$150,000 | 2 |
|
Veeam Software
|
$357,750 | 1 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 79 |
OpenAI
|
$307,500 | 32 |
Nuro
|
$200,450 | 24 |
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 23 |
Palantir
|
$167,500 | 21 |
Coinbase
|
$219,873 | 20 |
|
Databricks
|
$222,325 | 19 |
Reddit
|
$244,500 | 18 |
Platform Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $230,000 | 405 |
| Seattle | $212,500 | 107 |
| New York | $210,000 | 319 |
| Austin | $202,000 | 33 |
| Los Angeles | $195,000 | 31 |
| Chicago | $195,000 | 19 |
| Boston | $195,000 | 67 |
| Denver | $185,000 | 31 |
| Atlanta | $183,975 | 7 |
| Toronto | $176,413 | 58 |
Cloud Architect vs Platform Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Cloud Architect is $172,925 per year (typically $140,000–$190,781), versus $195,000 for Platform Engineer ($167,500–$231,500). That puts Platform Engineer about 13% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Cloud Architect 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.