Have you heard the buzz about the DevOps Engineer role? LinkedIn says it's one of the most in-demand positions out there right now. But, here's the thing, people are still figuring out what this job actually entails. Can you believe it didn't even exist a few years back? That means the duties and pay can vary from company to company.
So, if you're interested in becoming a DevOps Engineer, stick around. We're gonna break it all down for you in this post - from what the role involves to what kind of salary you can expect.
What Is DevOps? What Do DevOps Engineers Do?
“DevOps engineer” is a job title with different meanings and definitions from one company to the next. However, generally speaking, a DevOps engineer possesses coding and engineering skills and works with IT and operations teams.
They facilitate the collaboration between software developers, system operators, and other IT teams to increase the company’s productivity in releasing, adopting, and using new software code and products.
DevOps Engineer Responsibilities and Skills
As a DevOps engineer, you’ll have a breadth of responsibilities under your belt. They may include:
Analyzing current tech stack used in a particular company and developing processes and steps for improving it
Creating milestones and processes for other departments to facilitate collaboration
Deploying new modules and upgrade fixes within the production environment while making modules ready for production
Planning, managing, overseeing, and collaborating with other project managers to ensure that projects get executed in a timely fashion
Mentoring and training other engineers within the company
Collaborating with other IT engineers within the company to maintain the necessary hardware and software
Popular skills required for DevOps engineer positions.
As far as skills go, you’ll need a combination of the following soft and hard skills to work as a DevOps engineer:
Knowledge of the Linux environment
Relevant scripting languages like Python, Pearl, and Ruby
Knowledge of various DevOps tools such as Ansible; continuous integration tools such as Travis CI; continuous testing tools such as Docker; and continuous monitoring tools such as Splunk
An understanding of the Infrastructure As Code model and how it can be applied to solve deployment problems
Good communication and project management skills
The Average DevOps Engineer Salary
So now that we’ve covered what a DevOps engineer does, how you can become one, and you know what the demand is like for DevOps engineers, let’s discuss salary.
The average salary for DevOps engineers, according to Glassdoor.
According to Glassdoor, the average DevOps engineer salary is $103,253 per year. This statistic is based on 5492 salaries submitted anonymously to Glassdoor by DevOps Engineer roles. The lowest salary is around $75K per year, and the highest salary is $141K per year.
PayScale reports the average DevOps engineer salary as $96,637 per year, with a low of $65K and a high of $140K. The number is based on 3,081 salary profiles submitted to PayScale.
ZipRecruiter lists the average DevOps engineer salary at $114,359 per year, with a low of $42K and a high of $163K.
Lastly, BuiltIn reports the average salary as $125,577, with an average additional cash compensation of $15,244. Interestingly, BuiltIn also reports the highest salary at $325K and the lowest at $45K.
Based on these figures, the average DevOps engineer salary comes out to $109,956 per year. Given the nature of the position and the fact that it encompasses not only coding and development skills but also operational and management skills, it’s not surprising that we see six figures here.
DevOps Engineer Salary by Location
Lastly, let’s look at how different locations could influence your salary as a DevOps engineer.
DevOps salary differences as it relates to location, according to PayScale.
According to PayScale, DevOps engineers located in San Francisco, California, earn an average of 33.2% more than the national average. You’ll also make more in New York, New York (16.9% more) and Seattle, Washington (16.4% more). The lowest salaries are in Chicago, Illinois (10.8% less).
Zippia similarly reports that the highest DevOps engineer salaries can be found in California, Washington, New York, Delaware, and Virginia.
If you’re looking for international data, Simplilearn has the following salaries for DevOps engineers in various countries:
India: ₹700K+
Germany: €60K+
France: €45K+
Canada: CA$85K+
UK: £44K+
It’s also interesting to note that the salary for a DevOps engineer differs depending on which industry you’re working in. For example, Zippia reports that you can expect the highest salary as a DevOps engineer if you work in the retail sector, averaging $115,953 per year.
On the other side, the healthcare industry offers the lowest DevOps annual salary, averaging $96,453 per year.
Summary
Thinking about a career as a DevOps Engineer? You'll need a strong blend of coding, engineering, and communication skills, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects from start to finish. The good news? The average salary of $109,956 reflects the level of responsibility required.
Keep in mind that location and experience can affect your earnings. If you enjoy collaboration and hands-on project involvement, DevOps Engineering could be a great fit.
Find your next career move in web development. Check out our web developer salary library here: https://kinsta.com/topic/web-developer-salary/
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