DevOps Engineer Salary in 2026: 6 Cities Compared (With Real Numbers)

DevOps engineering sits at the intersection of software development and infrastructure operations — and in 2026, it's more critical than ever. Every deployment pipeline, every Kubernetes cluster, every auto-scaling event, every 3 AM pager alert: that's DevOps.

The role has matured significantly. What started as "developers who also do ops" has evolved into a distinct discipline with its own career ladder, tooling ecosystem, and salary brackets. Platform engineering, SRE, and DevSecOps are all branches of the same tree.

Salaries reflect this maturity — and they vary wildly by market. A DevOps engineer in Berlin earns €67K–€96K. The same role in Seattle can reach $280K. Same skill set, same Terraform configs, vastly different paychecks.

Here's the real data across 6 major markets.

The Quick Comparison

The most striking thing about this data: Seattle has both the highest ceiling ($280K) and the lowest floor ($85K) among US cities. That's the DevOps market in a nutshell — enormous variance driven by company size, system complexity, and the gap between "maintains a CI pipeline" and "architects multi-region cloud infrastructure."

San Francisco: $125K–$243K

San Francisco leads on median DevOps compensation ($174K), and the reasons are straightforward: the densest concentration of companies running complex, high-scale infrastructure in the world.

Every major SaaS company, cloud provider, and tech startup in the Bay Area needs DevOps engineers. Netflix's deployment infrastructure, Uber's microservices orchestration, Stripe's payment processing pipeline — these systems require dedicated teams of DevOps engineers keeping them running.

The $125K floor represents mid-level DevOps roles at smaller companies or early-stage startups. At this level, you're likely managing a relatively straightforward cloud setup — maybe a few dozen services, standard CI/CD, basic monitoring.

The $243K ceiling is where things get interesting. Senior DevOps engineers and SREs at Big Tech and mature startups earn this for managing infrastructure at massive scale. Think thousands of microservices, global deployment pipelines, sub-second incident response requirements, and infrastructure budgets in the millions per month.

The distinction between "DevOps engineer" and "SRE" matters in SF more than elsewhere. Google-style SRE roles (with heavy software engineering components) tend to pay at the top of this range, while more traditional operations-focused DevOps roles sit in the middle.

Full breakdown: DevOps Engineer Salary in San Francisco

Seattle: $85K–$280K

Seattle has the widest salary spread on this list — $195K between floor and ceiling — and it tells a story about how different DevOps can look at different companies.

The $280K ceiling exists because of Amazon. AWS doesn't just sell cloud infrastructure — it runs the most complex cloud infrastructure on Earth. DevOps engineers (often titled "Systems Development Engineers" at Amazon) who work on AWS itself — designing the systems that other companies' DevOps engineers use — command exceptional compensation. These are roles where you're building tools used by millions of developers worldwide.

Microsoft Azure's DevOps infrastructure team similarly pays at the top of the market. Senior engineers managing Azure's global deployment pipeline or Windows Update infrastructure (serving billions of devices) earn $200K+ before equity.

The $85K floor reflects Seattle's broader market. Not every DevOps role is at Amazon or Microsoft. Smaller companies, agencies, and non-tech enterprises hire DevOps engineers at significantly lower rates. The talent competition from Big Tech means these companies struggle to hire, but the roles exist.

Washington's lack of state income tax makes Seattle's after-tax numbers compelling. A DevOps engineer earning $175K in Seattle takes home more than the same salary in San Francisco or New York.

Full data: DevOps Engineer Salary in Seattle

New York: $121K–$170K

New York's DevOps salary range is the tightest among US cities — only $49K between floor and ceiling. This reflects a more homogeneous market: most DevOps roles in NYC fall into a predictable band because the employer mix is more uniform than Seattle or SF.

The major employers are Big Tech NYC offices (Google, Amazon, Meta), financial institutions (Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citadel), and a strong SaaS/startup ecosystem (MongoDB, Datadog, Cockroach Labs). Datadog is particularly relevant — headquartered in NYC, it's literally a DevOps tooling company, so it hires extensively from the local DevOps talent pool.

Finance-sector DevOps is a distinctive niche in New York. Banks need DevOps engineers who understand compliance, audit trails, change management processes, and the reality that a deployment failure in financial infrastructure has regulatory consequences, not just customer complaints. This specialization commands a premium within the range.

The $145K median is solid but not spectacular compared to SF. Combined with New York's high state and city taxes (potentially 12%+), take-home pay is noticeably lower. The trade-off is access to both tech and finance career paths — a flexibility that SF and Seattle don't offer as readily.

See the numbers: DevOps Engineer Salary in New York

Remote (US): $125K–$174K

Remote DevOps engineering works exceptionally well — arguably better than any other engineering discipline for remote work. Infrastructure is managed through code and terminals, not whiteboards. Monitoring dashboards work the same from your home office as from a corporate desk. On-call rotations don't require physical presence.

The $125K–$174K range with a $150K median is competitive with in-office roles in most US cities. Many remote DevOps positions pay at or near New York rates regardless of the engineer's location, partly because DevOps talent is scarce enough that companies can't afford aggressive location adjustments.

The arbitrage play for DevOps engineers is particularly strong. A remote DevOps engineer earning $150K while living in a city with a $60K median household income has extraordinary purchasing power. Several DevOps engineers have leveraged this into semi-retirement lifestyles — working standard hours from low-cost locations while saving 50%+ of their income.

The main consideration for remote DevOps is on-call expectations. Many remote DevOps roles still require 24/7 on-call rotations, and the boundary between work and life blurs when your laptop is also your pager. Evaluate on-call policies carefully before accepting a remote DevOps offer.

Current ranges: DevOps Engineer Salary — Remote

London: £40K–£150K

London has the widest range outside of Seattle — £110K between floor and ceiling — reflecting the city's diverse DevOps market.

The £40K floor is surprisingly low. It represents junior DevOps roles at agencies, small companies, and enterprises that still view DevOps as "the person who manages the servers." These roles often involve more manual operations than infrastructure-as-code, and the low salary reflects that limited scope.

The £150K ceiling tells a different story entirely. Senior DevOps engineers and SREs at Google, Amazon, and top-tier fintech companies (Revolut, Monzo, Checkout.com) in London earn at this level. Equity and bonuses push total compensation higher. DeepMind's infrastructure team, while technically ML-focused, also pays at the top of this range for DevOps-adjacent platform engineering roles.

The £75K median sits in the middle — typical for mid-senior DevOps engineers at established tech companies, scale-ups, or financial institutions. At this level in London, you're managing Kubernetes clusters, maintaining Terraform configs, running CI/CD pipelines, and participating in on-call rotations.

London's DevOps market has a unique advantage: the time zone. UK working hours overlap with both US East Coast mornings and Asian evenings, making London-based DevOps engineers valuable for globally distributed teams that need follow-the-sun coverage.

Full data: DevOps Engineer Salary in London

Berlin: €67K–€96K

Berlin's DevOps market is compact and practical. The €67K–€96K range with a €74K median reflects a market where salaries are lower than the US and UK but quality of life is arguably higher.

An important context: DevOps in Germany often overlaps with what other markets call "platform engineering" or "infrastructure engineering." German companies tend to have broader role definitions — a DevOps engineer at Zalando or Delivery Hero might own everything from CI/CD to Kubernetes to monitoring to database administration. This breadth of responsibility at relatively modest salaries is the German tech market's defining characteristic.

The €67K floor is a livable salary in Berlin. After taxes and healthcare, that's roughly €3,400/month take-home. Rent for a one-bedroom in neighborhoods like Kreuzberg or Prenzlauer Berg: ~€1,000–€1,200. You're not rich, but you're comfortable — and you have 30 days of vacation, strong labor protections, and a work culture that actually logs off at 6 PM.

The €96K ceiling represents senior DevOps roles at well-funded scale-ups, Big Tech satellites (AWS Berlin, Google Berlin), or specialized infrastructure companies. Breaking above €96K typically requires moving into management or joining a US company with a Berlin office that pays at US-adjacent rates.

For DevOps engineers considering Europe, Berlin offers the best combination of tech scene quality, cost of living, immigration accessibility (EU Blue Card), and lifestyle. The salaries are lower than London in absolute terms, but purchasing power is comparable.

Details here: DevOps Engineer Salary in Berlin

What Drives DevOps Salaries Higher?

Three specializations command the biggest premiums:

1. Platform Engineering. Building internal developer platforms (IDPs) — the tools, workflows, and infrastructure that other engineers use to ship code. This requires both DevOps expertise and product thinking. Platform engineers at mature companies earn 15–25% more than general DevOps roles. 2. Security (DevSecOps). Integrating security into the deployment pipeline — container scanning, secrets management, compliance automation, zero-trust networking. As regulatory requirements tighten globally, DevSecOps expertise commands growing premiums. 3. Cloud Architecture at Scale. Managing multi-region, multi-cloud infrastructure with thousands of services. This is where DevOps overlaps with solutions architecture, and it's where the $200K+ salaries live. The complexity of keeping globally distributed systems reliable, cost-efficient, and compliant is enormous.

The DevOps Career Ladder

The biggest salary jumps happen at two points: the mid-to-senior transition (where you go from executing tasks to designing systems) and the senior-to-staff transition (where you go from designing systems to setting organizational infrastructure strategy).

The Bottom Line

DevOps engineering in 2026 is a mature, well-compensated career with consistent demand across every industry that ships software — which is every industry. The role has evolved far beyond "automates deployments" into genuine infrastructure architecture.

If you're maximizing compensation, San Francisco offers the highest median ($174K) while Seattle offers the highest ceiling ($280K with no state tax). For lifestyle optimization, Berlin (€74K with 30 days vacation) or a remote role paying US rates delivers the best balance.

The $85K–$280K spread across these 6 cities means your market and specialization matter enormously. Platform engineers and SREs earn at the top of every range. General DevOps roles with manual operations focus sit at the bottom. Choose your specialization deliberately.