Most negotiation advice is generic. This evaluator drops your base, bonus, equity, and signing onto a modelled band built from the BLS OEWS May 2025 state median for SOC 15-1252, then market-comp level, cloud and specialisation multipliers. You get a verdict, and a counter-target, in one screen.
Base lands inside the band. Solid offer. Focus your negotiation on equity, signing bonus, or on-call rather than base.
The band starts from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) annual median for SOC 15-1252 Software Developers in the state you pick (snapshot 6 September 2026), then applies experience-level, cloud-platform and specialisation multipliers with cert and on-call layered on top. Those multipliers are market-comp (Levels.fyi, Glassdoor, Built In and Blind self-reports), not BLS, and "DevOps engineer" is not an OEWS occupation. This is a planning tool; verify against current Levels.fyi and offer letters before negotiating.
Every state has a different DevOps median. California sits ~17% above the national mean; Mississippi sits ~29% below. The band starts there, not at a one-size US number.
Senior DevOps lands at 1.04x-1.32x of the state median. MLOps and DevSecOps carry 20-27% premiums over General DevOps. Multi-cloud adds 12% over single-cloud.
Below 90% of band low triggers BELOW MARKET. Top 5% triggers ABOVE MARKET, usually meaning you should verify the level title. Everything in between is broken into low/mid/top of band.
The verdict is a signal, not an answer. Here is the move that usually fits each band.
Counter hard with the modelled mid as your anchor. Cite state median + level multiplier + cloud + specialisation. If they will not move materially, walk. Recruiters lowball candidates who do not push back.
Most candidates with your profile land higher. Push base first because every component above (bonus, equity, retirement match) is pegged to base. Counter at mid or 5-7% above.
Solid offer. Negotiate the perimeter rather than the centre: signing bonus, equity refresh schedule, on-call stipend, certification budget, remote flexibility. These come from different budget lines and are usually more flexible than base.
Strong offer. Accept it without a counter, or counter once gently (signing bonus, equity refresh). Pushing for above-band on base risks the offer being withdrawn or signalling poor judgement.
Verify the level title against the company's published ladder. You may be slotting into a higher band than you entered into the evaluator. If the level is right, this is a genuinely strong offer, accept and focus on equity vesting cliffs and refresh schedule.
The evaluator starts from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics May 2025 annual median for SOC 15-1252 Software Developers in the state you pick, snapshot taken 6 September 2026. That SOC is the closest published occupation to a DevOps engineer, which is not itself an OEWS occupation; SOC 15-1244 Network and Computer Systems Administrators is the operations-side bracket. The median is then multiplied by an experience-level range, a cloud-platform multiplier and a specialisation multiplier, all of which are market-comp judgement rather than BLS. Certifications and on-call stack on as additive amounts. Alaska has no published median in the May 2025 file, so the evaluator abstains there rather than substituting a national or neighbouring figure.
The band is a planning instrument, not a Levels.fyi replacement. Use it to anchor your counter, then verify against named-company data points (Levels.fyi for FAANG/big-tech, Glassdoor for mid-market, recruiter screens for everything else). The band tells you whether the offer is in the right neighbourhood; the named-company data tells you what specific companies are paying.