Without question, working as a DevOps engineer—an engineer who supports the DevOps culture in an organization is financially lucrative, difficult, and cutting-edge. A DevOps engineer is responsible for bridging the gap between software development and IT operations, with the goal of ensuring the timely and high-quality delivery of software products. Key tasks may include infrastructure automation, continuous integration, and delivery, monitoring and alerting, and collaboration with cross-functional teams. If a career in DevOps appeals to you, this article will tell you about the income of a DevOps engineer in the US, the main duties, and roles of a DevOps engineer, and how to bargain for higher pay as a DevOps engineer.
What is a DevOps Engineer?
Depending on the company, "DevOps engineer" might mean different things and have different associations. However, a DevOps engineer typically works with IT and operational teams and is skilled in coding and engineering. Depending on the skillset and experience, a DevOps salary in the USA is calculated.
To boost the efficiency of the business in publishing, implementing, and utilizing new software code and products, they allow communication between software developers, system administrators, and other IT teams. Certification courses on DevOps helps when it comes to master these skills.
A DevOps engineer's primary tasks include the following:
- Analyzing the current system and developing plans for improvements
- writing the server-side feature documentation
- monitoring, evaluating, and recommending performance improvements
- Management and deployment of CI/CD
- installation and administration of clouds
- continuous testing throughout the development cycle
- Infrastructure administration
- helping to establish a DevOps culture
Why are DevOps Engineers so Popular?
As more companies attempt to utilize DevOps techniques, there is an increasing demand for qualified software developers. According to industry-led market assessments conducted over the past few years that have repeatedly reached the same result, DevOps engineer is the most sought-after IT role at companies with digital capabilities. Every day, there are more and more practical applications of DevOps.
DevOps engineering also offers fantastic chances for job seekers with the necessary technical qualifications. An IT specialist with a wide understanding of operations and development, including network management, infrastructure, coding, and DevOps toolchains, is referred to as a DevOps engineer. If you are interested in both social and technological difficulties, DevOps engineering is a vital discipline in enterprises, and you can make a huge difference. If you have been pursuing project management, operations, or networking, it might be a wise move to shift careers.
As a phenomenon in culture, DevOps has grown. Recently, companies have created specialized DevOps job categories to support and foster their culture. Every organization's IT department has a variety of technologies and expertise; thus, supporting DevOps is a full-time job. While DevOps has altered how software is created, its primary impact has been on how it is deployed. All of this is made possible by the availability and decreased cost of cloud infrastructure, containerized environments, and the advancement of automation-enabled tools.
Average DevOps Engineer Salary in the USA
Now that we have discussed what a DevOps engineer is and why they have become so popular, let us talk about the average salary of a DevOps engineer in USA.
A study shows that the average DevOps salary in the USA is $103,253/year. This figure is based on around 5500 salaries submitted by DevOps Engineers on a public website. The lowest DevOps salary is about $75k/year, and the highest-paying DevOps engineer salary in USA is $141k/year. If you wish to get a job as a DevOps engineer, you need to acquire the skills listed below that help you in most cases when applying for an interview.
DevOps Engineer Salary Based on Experience Level in the USA
One of the most important determinants of how much money you can earn is experience. You typically start with the lowest income early in your career, and as you gain more experience, your pay will rise to reflect that. Let us examine the difference between the DevOps wage for a junior post and a senior position.
Entry-Level
DevOps engineers at the entry level make $88,512 a year (the lowest is $68K, and the highest is $115K). Most entry-level employees in this field keep training on DevOps in this period to gain more skills and experience.
Another website shows that the average salary of a DevOps engineer in USA (entry-level) is $74k/per year. At the same time, the other one shows $86,468/year.
Mid-Level
A mid-level DevOps engineer makes $90,858/year. The salary for DevOps engineer in USA (Mid-level) is much sufficient for a mid-level experienced DevOps.
Senior Level
The median salary for a senior-level DevOps engineer with over 15 years of experience is $140,605, with a range of $105K to $188K.
If you have more than 20 years of experience, you can expect to earn an average of $130K a year as a senior-level DevOps engineer.
Top 5 Highest-paying cities for DevOps Engineers in the USA
1. Sunnyvale, CA
In Sunnyvale, California, the median DevOps engineer earns $131,153 per year. DevOps engineers make, on average, $63.05 per hour. The average DevOps engineer income in the country is $104,019.
2. Santa Rosa, CA
In California, a DevOps engineer receives an average salary of $132,069 per year. DevOps engineers make, on average, $63 per hour. The average DevOps engineer income in the country is $104,019.
3. Cambridge, MA
With an average yearly salary of $107,136, the anticipated total pays for a DevOps Engineer in the Cambridge, Massachusetts region is $135,771. These figures indicate the median or midpoint of the ranges according to our in-house Total Pay Approximate methodology, which is based on salary data provided by users.
The extra pay is estimated to be worth $28,636 per year. Additional pay may take the form of cash bonuses, commissions, tips, and profit sharing.
4. New York City, NY
DevOps engineers typically make $109,527 per year, or $52.66 per hour, in the US. DevOps engineers, who make up the bottom 10% of that spectrum, earn roughly $84,000 annually, while the top 10% earn about $141,000.
5. Lake Marcel-Stillwater, WA
In the US, DevOps engineers typically earn $114,426 a year, or $55.01 per hour. The bottom 10% of that range, or DevOps engineers, make about $85,000 annually, while the top 10% make about $152,000.
Salary based on DevOps Certifications
It is critical to convince prospective employers of the worth of your skill set when looking for a new job. But if you have no prior professional experience, it can be difficult to demonstrate your skills. Professional Certificates in pertinent areas of competence will help you improve your resume and get the pay you deserve.
A perfectly certified DevOps engineer's salary in the USA is $133,089.
There are many DevOps certifications available that positively impact your salary. The top 5 certifications for DevOps are listed below:
- AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
- Kubernetes administrator certified (CKA)
- Certified Associate for Docker (DCA)
- Certified Puppet Professional
- Certified by Microsoft as a DevOps Engineer
Top Paying Industries for DevOps in the USA
1. Healthcare
The pay for DevOps in the US healthcare sector varies depending on the function. However, the industry average salary for DevOps is $142,000. It differs between the cities. As an illustration, the average wage in the USA is $119,000, but in California, it is $165,000 per year.
2. Retail
DevOps Engineers in this industry make less than those in other industries, even though the software has expanded its applications to retail. DevOps engineer salary in US for freshers is around $65k in the retail industry.
3. Technology-related terms
Except for its scope being restricted to communication and cybersecurity, the IT sector is not that different from the core software business. An annual salary for a corporate software DevOps is around $124,000. However, independent hackers earn more money. However, it depends on their capacity to use their contacts to locate clients.
4. Investigation and creation
The projects, as well as the DevOps engineer salary, are confidential, and this industry is more heavily regulated by the government. There are no figures on the wage scale of persons working in RnD.
5. Entertainment and the Media
The software boom has expanded its use in media and entertainment, along with pre-existing social media platforms, with the introduction of OTT platforms. However, in this industry, the average salary for a DevOps engineer in USA is $142,000.
| Industry | Average Price Range |
|---|
Health Care | $142,000 |
Retail | $123,780 |
Technology Related | $124,000 |
Investigation & Creation | $98,657 |
Entertainment & Media | $141,678 |
Top Paying Companies for DevOps in USA
There are many companies available that pay the most salary for DevOps engineers in the USA. According to some job sites, DevOps Engineer is the most searched job because of its high paid salary range. Some of the high-paid company names and provided salary listed below:
| Company Name | Provided Salary |
|---|
Google | $202,921 |
NVIDIA | $192,738 |
Apple | $192,435 |
Adobe | $187,415 |
Formac | $153,369 |
IBM | $153,420 |
SunPower | $147,585 |
Amazon | $183,406 |
Unigo | $134,908 |
Cisco Systems | $180,604 |
SAP | $171,634 |
DevOps Salary Comparison by Gender in the USA
Age, the number of hours worked, the existence of children and education are just a few of the many variables that may affect the disparity in earnings between men and women. Gaps in overall earnings are also influenced by the different jobs that women and men have, as well as the salaries of these jobs.
Each year's 15 March is celebrated as Equal Pay Day, which shows how much work a woman should do to get the same pay as men. That is the earliest it has been since the program's commencement on March 24, 1996.
Women made 83 cents for every dollar made by males in 2020. Furthermore, it serves as a crucial reminder that the gender pay gap is closing in conjunction with Women's History Month.
DevOps Engineer Bonus and Incentive Rates in the USA
DevOps Engineers in the US make an average pay of $129,540 annually. In the United States, a DevOps Engineer receives an average increased cash salary of $15,963. DevOps Engineer salary USA averages an annual salary of $145,503. Based on anonymous DevOps Engineer employee replies, Built In has calculated the DevOps average salary US for this position.
How to Obtain a Competitive DevOps Engineer Salary in the USA?
Obtaining a competitive DevOps engineer salary is not a tough nut to crack. Look into cutting-edge technology that will improve performance and efficiency of applications developed for you. Always put in a lot of effort and aim to develop highly scalable applications. Integrate the processes used for application deployment with infrastructure builds. Analyse, create, and assess automation systems and scripts. All these skills, along with continuous upskilling, will make your way into a lucrative DevOps engineer role.
Enhance Your Career with KnowledgeHut's DevOps Courses
KnowledgeHut is a global EdTech company that uses immersive, outcome-based learning to give the world's workforce the talents of the future. Our goal is to close the skills gap and provide programmers and other experts with high-quality, mass-produced opportunities for hands-on learning.
KnowledgeHut is your go-to learning partner whether you want to advance your skills in software development, IT service management, cyber security, cloud computing, machine learning/artificial intelligence, or data science. Explore DevOps courses at KnowledgeHut.
Conclusion
DevOps engineers can pursue any professional path of their choosing. You might begin as a backend developer and subsequently develop a passion for project management and product deployment, which could drive you to work as a DevOps engineer. Alternatively, you can begin as a software developer and choose to depart from the conventional position, advancing testing and deployment.
In either case, in addition to having the capacity to manage other teams and projects, you will also need to be a strong communicator and team player
As a result, becoming a DevOps engineer is a challenging but rewarding job that pays an average six-figure salary of $109,956. Certainly enough to provide a respectable standard of living. This, combined with the increased need for DevOps engineers, makes it clear that this particular position has a promising future. KnowledgeHut's DevOps training courses are the best ones to get the idea and perfect training for your next job application to build up your career.
