
Ask HN: Quick and Dirty DevOps/SRE Salary? - just-juan-post
There is a lot of data when it comes to SWE&#x2F;software dev but not as much when it comes to DevOps&#x2F;SRE.<p>This HN user is getting compensated so well that he doesn&#x27;t look at jobs that pay under $350k. [1]  This Reddit user is currently making $340k with 5 years of experience.[2]<p>$180k+ DevOps jobs are easy to find.  What about things beyond that?<p>- Annual total TC
 - Location including work from home or travel<p>My current comp is $190k in Portland.<p>Is anyone else breaking $250k without living in NYC or SF?  What&#x27;s your experience with high-end DevOps&#x2F;SRE jobs?<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20848770<p>[2] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;ITCareerQuestions&#x2F;comments&#x2F;cxiprc&#x2F;experienced_200k_technical_jobs_nonmanagement_low&#x2F;ez0hug9&#x2F;
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Tehchops
My total comp is ~250k, in DevOps.

My HQ is in a tech hub, but I work remotely from the Midwest.

They are out there, you just have to find them. Truly talented DevOps
engineers have a niche mix of skills, and are in high enough demand they can
ask for(and get) these types of salaries and work arrangements.

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peterloron
If you are not in NYC, SF, SEA, etc you will have a much harder time getting
those numbers. There are some remote roles at that level, but not too many. As
above, the jobs are out there, but you need to be in the right location and
have the right mix of skills and experience. Levels.fyi and Blind are useful
resources for uncovering information on what companies are paying.

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cj
Question: are people really making $200k+ with 5 years experience?

Or is it simply that high-earner outliers are more vocal online about their
salary than average earners, creating a false appearance that $200k+ salaries
are more common than they actually are in real life?

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beisner
At FAANG companies, it's not unheard of for new SWE grads to command $200k+
starting compensation. For someone with 5 years experience at the company it
would actually be unusual for them to make less than $200k, in the US at
least.

This resource is pretty accurate for the lower levels, in my experience:
[https://www.levels.fyi/](https://www.levels.fyi/)

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mason55
I wish levels.fyi did a better job with locations. You can filter individual
salaries by location but it doesn't seem like you can do anything else by
location (e.g. filtering the charts or the ranges or anything else). Even with
the big tech companies location has a big impact. Google is not paying SF
salaries to people in Pittsburgh.

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Zaheer
I'm from Levels.fyi. This is in the works right now. It's been our number 1
request so far. Stay tuned :)

P.S. We announce new features on our Twitter handle fairly often:
[https://twitter.com/Levelsfyi](https://twitter.com/Levelsfyi)

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mason55
Cool, thanks for being responsive!

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VeryHacker
Cries with €30K in South Italy

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alt_f4
yeah, the EU sucks for tech salaries

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msh
I think it's wrong to say that in general for EU. There is a huge difference
on salaries depending on where in the EU you are.

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akvadrako
There is almost nowhere in the EU that $200K is normal. Maybe Zurich - I don't
know.

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msh
200k might be normal but 30k would be below a entry level graduate many
places.

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alt_f4
where exactly?

I did some googling and the results suggest the average IT grad salary in
London (which is very expensive and features some of the highest salaries) is
around 30k.

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msh
scandinavia at least (the markets I have most experience with)

But [https://www.cwjobs.co.uk/salary-checker/average-computer-
sci...](https://www.cwjobs.co.uk/salary-checker/average-computer-science-
salary) shows much higher salaries than 30k in london and germany too
([https://www.statista.com/statistics/584759/average-gross-
sta...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/584759/average-gross-starting-
salary-university-graduates-germany/))

~~~
alt_f4
the first source does not show grad salaries and the average is 57.5k, which
is still a lot lower. the second source is paywalled and I can't open it at
all.

~~~
msh
May comment was not directed at the 200k but the 30 and 35k quoted.

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gremlinsinc
How hard would it be for a fullstack dev to transition to devops? 8+ years
experience laravel, 3 years with vue/react, 4 with angular.

I've been using linux since 2012 as my dev machine. I can configure nginx by
hand or build bash scripts to do it for me.

I can build cli applications using js, laravel-zero, and/or bash. I also know
how to use docker, jenkins, etc...

I haven't really worked much on apps in scale, but I'm feeling a bit burned
out in crud-development. Thinking of maybe giving devops a try. That or
product manager or something.

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JacKTrocinskI
How do you guys transition into newer technologies and gain enough experience
to land a position in that new area?

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Zaheer
We have some DevOps salary data at:
[https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html?track=Software%20Engineer&s...](https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html?track=Software%20Engineer&search=DevOps)

Lmk if you have any questions or feedback!

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dijit
Similar lamentation about EU salaries, since those are not often aggregated.

FWIW I was offered $200k in NYC in 2012 (with 5yrs XP at that point and they
offered visa sponsorship) if it helps.

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zekethefreak
Wow, i need to start charging more :(

