Get a personalised salary estimate based on your experience level, location, cloud platform expertise, specialisation, certifications, and target company size. This calculator combines data from multiple industry sources and 50,000+ DevOps job postings to produce an estimate that reflects current market conditions.
The calculator outputs a base salary estimate with a confidence range, total compensation projection, comparison to the national average, and your estimated percentile in the DevOps salary distribution. Use these numbers as a starting point for salary benchmarking, negotiation preparation, or career planning.
* Market-comp model, not BLS. Level bases, location multipliers, company-size multipliers and certification premiums come from Levels.fyi, Glassdoor, Built In and Blind self-reports as of 27 April 2026. For the government wage survey, the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) median for SOC 15-1252 Software Developers is $135,980; "DevOps engineer" is not an OEWS occupation. The derived state table is at /by-state.
Use the estimate as one of several data points in negotiation. Cross-reference with Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, and peer conversations. The range is more useful than the point estimate. See our negotiation guide for scripts and strategies.
Experiment with different inputs to see how changing specialisation, adding certifications, or relocating affects your market value. The delta between your current profile and an upgraded profile quantifies the ROI of career investments.
If your current salary falls below the calculator estimate by more than 15%, you are likely underpaid relative to market. This is a signal to either negotiate a raise with your current employer or explore the market.
The calculator uses a multi-factor model that combines base salary data with adjustment multipliers for each input dimension:
Base salary is determined by experience level, sourced from median compensation data across Glassdoor, Salary.com, and Built In for DevOps-titled roles. This serves as the foundation for all calculations.
Location multiplier adjusts the base salary by geographic cost of labour, not cost of living. Bay Area roles pay 35% above national average, while Midwest roles pay 12% below. These multipliers are derived from job posting salary ranges segmented by metro area.
Cloud platform premium reflects the salary differential between single-cloud and multi-cloud engineers, and the GCP scarcity premium. Based on job posting salary ranges filtered by cloud platform requirements.
Specialisation premium captures the salary uplift for focusing on high-demand areas (MLOps, DevSecOps, SRE) versus general DevOps. Derived from role-specific compensation surveys and job posting analysis.
Certification premium adds the demonstrated salary uplift for validated credentials. Capped at 25% of base to reflect diminishing returns. Based on before/after salary analysis in industry surveys.
Company size multiplier adjusts for the well-documented correlation between company size and compensation, with FAANG companies paying 25% above market and startups paying 8% below in base salary.
The confidence range (85%-118% of estimate) reflects the inherent uncertainty in salary prediction. Individual outcomes vary based on negotiation skill, specific employer, team budget, and timing.
The calculator provides estimates based on aggregated data from job postings, industry surveys, and public compensation databases. For most profiles, the estimate falls within 10-15% of actual market rates. Accuracy is highest for mid-level roles in major metros and lowest for niche specialisations or unusual combinations of factors. Use the range, not the point estimate, for decision-making.
Two layers, kept apart. The state anchor on the /by-state table and the compensation calculator on the home page is the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics May 2025 annual median for SOC 15-1252 Software Developers, read from the published state files; DevOps engineer is not itself an OEWS occupation, so SOC 15-1244 Network and Computer Systems Administrators is carried alongside it as the operations-side bracket. Everything layered on top, level bases, location multipliers, company-size multipliers, cloud and specialisation premiums and certification uplifts, is market comp from Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, Built In, Blind and job-posting analysis. BLS does not publish cost-of-living indices, so no location multiplier here is BLS-sourced.
The calculator result is a useful starting point for benchmarking, but should be combined with other data sources (Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, peer conversations) for a complete picture. In negotiations, reference multiple data points rather than a single calculator result. The range output is more useful than the point estimate because it accounts for the inherent uncertainty in salary predictions.
Certification premiums have diminishing returns. The first certification provides the largest uplift, while the fifth adds marginal value. The calculator caps total certification premium at 25% of the base salary to reflect this diminishing return reality. In practice, 2-3 well-chosen certifications provide the optimal salary signal.
The BLS OEWS layer follows the annual release cycle; the current snapshot was taken on 6 September 2026 from the May 2025 release, and the May 2026 estimates are due in spring 2027. The market-comp layer is reviewed quarterly, most recently 27 April 2026. Market rates can shift between updates, particularly during periods of rapid hiring or layoffs. The calculator reflects median market conditions and may lag sudden market changes by 1-2 months.