2027 Salary Guide · Technology
BLS has no DevOps category, and most DevOps engineers are classified as software developers, an occupation of about 1.7 million people with a median of $135,980 in May 2025. DevOps roles usually sit in the upper half of that range, from the median to $214,670 at the 90th percentile. In 2027 terms, that band runs from about $144,500 to $228,000.
Why the band is high
DevOps engineers are counted with all software developers, from new graduates to architects. Several features of the job push it toward the top of that range.
Most DevOps roles expect experience as a developer or systems administrator first. Employers are paying for both skill sets in one person.
DevOps engineers own the deployment pipeline and often the on-call rotation. When releases or infrastructure fail, they fix it.
O*NET lists tools such as GitLab, Atlassian Bitbucket, Red Hat OpenShift and AWS CloudFormation for software developers. DevOps engineers usually work across all of them, plus monitoring and security tooling.
Faster, safer releases and lower cloud bills are visible results that make it easier to justify pay at the 75th percentile, $171,980 nationally.
Pay distribution
The bar shows national BLS percentiles for software developers. The shaded band, the median to the 90th percentile, is where DevOps roles typically fall, because most require production and infrastructure experience on top of coding.
Typical for the DevOps Engineer title: $135,980 to $214,670 (50th to 90th percentile of Software Developers)
| Percentile | BLS, May 2025 | 2027 planning estimate |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $82,460 | $87,500 |
| 25th percentile | $105,210 | $112,000 |
| Median | $135,980 | $144,500 |
| 75th percentile | $171,980 | $183,000 |
| 90th percentile | $214,670 | $228,000 |
BLS has no DevOps category. This guide benchmarks DevOps engineers to Software Developers and places them in the upper half.
Career path
BLS does not publish pay by experience. These stages map common DevOps levels onto the national software developer percentiles.
About $105,000 to $136,000 (25th percentile to median)
Maintains CI/CD pipelines, writes deployment scripts and handles routine infrastructure changes. Often a first move for developers or sysadmins.
About $136,000 to $172,000 (median to 75th percentile)
Designs pipelines and infrastructure as code, runs container platforms and joins the on-call rotation.
About $172,000 to $215,000+ (75th to 90th percentile)
Sets platform standards for many teams, leads reliability and security work, and mentors other engineers.
Local pay
The Bay Area leads at $186,640, followed by Seattle, New York and Boston near $166,000. At the other end, Pittsburgh's median is $124,500, only about $11,500 below the national figure. New York is the largest market by far, with about 121,000 software developers. These are figures for all software developers, not DevOps alone.
| Metro area | Median | 10th – 90th | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco Bay Area | $186,640 +37% | $128,090 – $273,400 | 69,030 |
| Seattle | $167,280 +23% | $99,190 – $257,960 | 92,770 |
| New York City | $166,830 +23% | $101,690 – $224,590 | 121,000 |
| Boston | $166,090 +22% | $102,950 – $214,100 | 42,310 |
| San Diego | $163,270 +20% | $95,420 – $223,260 | 20,610 |
| Los Angeles | $160,920 +18% | $98,270 – $223,150 | 55,540 |
| Portland | $156,000 +15% | $94,040 – $213,540 | 18,260 |
| Washington, DC | $154,930 +14% | $96,450 – $213,660 | 69,060 |
| Baltimore | $138,900 +2% | $87,290 – $223,550 | 16,850 |
| Denver | $137,610 +1% | $99,700 – $209,300 | 27,010 |
| Metro area | Median | 10th – 90th | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charlotte | $135,920 +-0% | $93,690 – $172,360 | 20,820 |
| Chicago | $134,380 -1% | $83,820 – $203,410 | 40,370 |
| Austin | $134,120 -1% | $96,110 – $209,890 | 31,960 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | $133,290 -2% | $85,920 – $179,400 | 67,030 |
| Philadelphia | $133,040 -2% | $82,960 – $190,180 | 28,480 |
| Atlanta | $132,960 -2% | $83,400 – $178,330 | 36,300 |
| Raleigh | $132,770 -2% | $80,080 – $185,110 | 12,580 |
| Miami | $132,650 -2% | $80,440 – $199,280 | 18,900 |
| Hartford | $132,520 -3% | $86,800 – $176,390 | 6,010 |
| Phoenix | $131,750 -3% | $82,500 – $180,460 | 29,380 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul | $130,920 -4% | $83,020 – $170,060 | 27,410 |
| Detroit | $130,760 -4% | $82,720 – $167,490 | 24,870 |
| Providence | $130,690 -4% | $84,130 – $172,090 | 5,020 |
| Tampa | $130,450 -4% | $78,480 – $207,330 | 14,230 |
| Houston | $129,440 -5% | $80,400 – $181,770 | 22,940 |
| Albany | $127,910 -6% | $80,800 – $178,120 | 3,280 |
| Buffalo | $127,850 -6% | $79,080 – $172,730 | 3,960 |
| Nashville | $126,610 -7% | $78,410 – $169,070 | 7,750 |
| Pittsburgh | $124,500 -8% | $76,030 – $191,710 | 10,320 |
BLS metro estimates, May 2025. Percent compares the metro median with the national median. "Jobs" is BLS estimated employment in the metro; blank where BLS does not publish it.
For hiring managers
An offer under $135,980 competes with general software developer roles that ask for less. Most experienced DevOps candidates expect more.
Rotation frequency and pay for after-hours work are among the first things candidates ask about.
Name the cloud, container platform and CI/CD tools. Experience with the same tools shortens ramp-up and is worth paying for.
A migration or new platform build is a defined project. Contract-to-hire lets both sides confirm the fit before a permanent offer.
Outlook
BLS projects software developer employment to grow 10% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average. DevOps is a specialty inside that occupation, so it shares in the growth, though BLS does not forecast it separately.
BLS Employment Projections via O*NET OnLine. Projections cover Software Developers as a whole.
Compare
Site reliability engineers and software engineers share the software developer median because BLS counts them in the same occupation. Cloud engineers are counted in a broader group with a lower median, and systems administrators lower still.
| Role | BLS median | 2027 estimate | Outlook |
|---|---|---|---|
| DevOps Engineer | $135,980 | $144,500 | Much faster than average |
| Site Reliability Engineer | $135,980 | $144,500 | Much faster than average |
| Software Engineer | $135,980 | $144,500 | Much faster than average |
| Cloud Engineer | $116,580 | $124,000 | Faster than average |
| Systems Administrator | $99,130 | $105,500 | Decline |
FAQ
BLS counts most DevOps engineers as software developers, whose median was $135,980 in May 2025. DevOps roles typically sit between that median and the 90th percentile, $214,670, which is about $144,500 to $228,000 in 2027 terms. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the software developer median was $186,640.
True entry-level DevOps jobs are uncommon because most roles expect development or systems experience. For first DevOps roles, the software developer 25th percentile, $105,210 in May 2025, to the median, $135,980, is a reasonable guide. Engineers moving over from systems administration or development often start near the median.
Senior DevOps and platform engineers usually fall between the 75th and 90th percentiles for software developers: $171,980 to $214,670 nationally in May 2025. In the Bay Area, the 90th percentile for software developers was $273,400. Platform leads at large employers can earn above these figures.
The software developer median equals $65.38 an hour, with the 75th percentile at $82.68 and the 90th at $103.21. DevOps contractors usually bill hourly, often above employee rates because they pay their own benefits. The 25th percentile was $50.58 an hour.
Largely, though SRE has its own emphasis. Both automate infrastructure and own production reliability; SRE tends to focus more on service-level objectives and incident response. BLS counts both as software developers, so they share the same occupation figures in this guide. Many engineers move between the two titles over a career.
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